I am a fan of Peter Turnley

[photoguy99]

Well, the photo of Sal is a different beast yes. I might or might not have been able to shoot that one.

The key there is to see that there is a photo to be made. Turnley did a couple of things there.

- he recognized the look from his war experience. It's not a thing you really expect to see on a fireman.

- he reached beyond the enormity of the scene. He saw a photo about a man, not about the disaster. He was able to get beyond the pile, beyond the destruction, and make a much a photo of much more universal scope.

Seeing that there is a photo to be made is the hard part, almost always. A lot of what turnley does requires the ability to recognize that there's a photo, and recognize it very very fast. That is a skill I lack.

Would I have seen that there was a photo to be made of Sal? I have no idea. My money is on 'no' though. I think I would have missed it in the chaos.

 

[Gary A.]

PS- I had to do a Google to find that image of the Marine. If you want to see some dramatic, story tellings images, just from one newspaper (which is considered a writer's newspaper), go here:

War in Iraq — a look back 10 years later - Framework - Photos and Video - Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times

Yes, this stuff is situational, but even then the photog has to see the story and then capture it.

 

[Gary A.]

Well, the photo of Sal is a different beast yes. I might or might not have been able to shoot that one.

The key there is to see that there is a photo to be made. Turnley did a couple of things there.

- he recognized the look from his war experience. It's not a thing you really expect to see on a fireman.

- he reached beyond the enormity of the scene. He saw a photo about a man, not about the disaster. He was able to get beyond the pile, beyond the destruction, and make a much a photo of much more universal scope.

Seeing that there is a photo to be made is the hard part, almost always. A lot of what turnley does requires the ability to recognize that there's a photo, and recognize it very very fast. That is a skill I lack.

Would I have seen that there was a photo to be made of Sal? I have no idea. My money is on 'no' though. I think I would have missed it in the chaos.

As a former news photo I probably would have passed on the Sal shot ... knowing that the real story was in the ruins.

After seeing the second shot of Sal ... the Turnley image loses what little magic it may have had. In the 2011 shot of Sal, he look the freakin' same ... just tired.

 

[bribrius]

PS- I had to do a Google to find that image of the Marine. If you want to see some dramatic, story tellings images, just from one newspaper (which is considered a writer's newspaper), go here:

War in Iraq — a look back 10 years later - Framework - Photos and Video - Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times

Yes, this stuff is situational, but even then the photog has to see the story and then capture it.

that link brings it home............

 

[Gary A.]

Personally, I think the Thousand Yard Stare was Turnley trying to make lemonade.

 

[bribrius]

Personally, I think the Thousand Yard Stare was Turnley trying to make lemonade.

agree. Try not to be too judgmental though because seriously, no famous photographer here wth do I know...

 

[photoguy99]

If you think Sal looks the same in the two photos it strikes me that you're missing what makes the first one good. Which doesn't make you a bad person, or unobservant.

Faces in particular are something our brain had an astonishing amount of machinery to process. Everyone had a different face-processing machine and maybe yours just doesn't see in Sal what I see.

Maybe Sal is thinking about ice cream and it's all an illusion anyways. It's an illusion that works for some of us, if so.

 

[Gary A.]

If you think Sal looks the same in the two photos it strikes me that you're missing what makes the first one good. Which doesn't make you a bad person, or unobservant.

Faces in particular are something our brain had an astonishing amount of machinery to process. Everyone had a different face-processing machine and maybe yours just doesn't see in Sal what I see.

Maybe Sal is thinking about ice cream and it's all an illusion anyways. It's an illusion that works for some of us, if so.

We all see and feel differently. ... But ... when I am anointed with global dictatorial powers ... that will all change.

 

[sashbar]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

Reminds me of this image captured by an LA times photog.

Interestingly, that Russian guy Loiko also works for LA Times.

 

[Gary A.]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

Reminds me of this image captured by an LA times photog.

Interestingly, that Russian guy Loiko also works for LA Times.

Really, I thought it said BBC in the corner. (I used to work for the Times also. lol)

 

[sashbar]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

Reminds me of this image captured by an LA times photog.

Interestingly, that Russian guy Loiko also works for LA Times.

Really, I thought it said BBC in the corner. (I used to work for the Times also. lol)

He is an LA Times photog. His Donetsk airport photos got viral in Eastern Europe and BBC also published it. One Russian radio station got into serious problems simply for having an interview with him.

 

[gsgary]

Speaking about great portraits - this is the best I saw this year. Here is the soldier defending the Ukrainian airport in Donetsk. 4,300 dead since March. This is going on right now in Europe. Photo by Ivan Loiko. Other photos by this guy in this series are amazing as well and put our street photography into some perspective.

Фото: будни украинских военных в аэропорту Донецка - BBC Russian

great photos. I think you guys are twisting this up a bit. If you were at ground zero there is a good chance you would come out with a similar photo. If you were with a platoon in war you would probably come out with similar photos. I am not sure this is so much all the photographers prowness but rather the setting they find themselves in. I do like the set you just posted though sashbar. Nice photos, again, partly attributed to the setting and content.
The thousand yard stare one above, really wasn't all that impressed with it actually I have seen better stuff from ground zero. Not really sure if I would be comparing this to street photography either as it seems something else to me. Especially if you are spending time with guys in uniform in a gun battle. I could be wrong.

These are better joel meyerowitz ground zero - Google Search

 

[The_Traveler]

In a sort of odd coincidence I have an oblique history with Ground Zero and was almost there for the recovery effort.
I had developed a set of codes (and a computer system) that was used in identification during mass disasters. Several of my colleagues went there to aid in the disaster recovery but because I had left the service and wasn't actively involved in any forensic organization, I couldn't go.
If you are interested in reading first hand accounts of the ID process, just do an Internet search for 'ground zero' and 'capmi' (that's the name of the code system and software; it stands for Computer Assisted Post Mortem Identification.)
(An additional search for 'CAPMI' and 'Lorton' will bring up some of the other situations it was used - Oklahoma City bombing, Green River murders,etc.)

 

[gsgary]

My partner worked on it also with the UK police sorting all the UK casualties

 

[photoguy99]

Perhaps worth noting, Peter's brother David is also having a print sale. Quite different photographs but to my taste even better.

See The Online Photographer or, probably, google David Turnley.