The Guard - West Wing, the National Gallery Washington, DC

Also, are you some type of engineer, by trade? Just curious.
no worries
I edited my post, taking out my offensive remarks about your ignorance. I see that I did not do it fast enough. I apologize for my bluntness.
no. die cutter, printer, worked on machines, made parts for machines, run machines, setup machines, carpenter and construction worker, bridge worker, forklift driver, truck driver, loan officer, landlord, supervisor, wholesale import export hardwoods and metal buildings, lots of skilled and unskilled trades and some useless years in college economics..The biggest highpoint of my lack of career was being in the mortgage loan industry selling loans off right before the bubble popped from all those 80/20's, arm and no doc loans when we could sail people through in the low 600's on stated income. :mrgreen:
Family had a construction company and tractor trailer leasing company growing up too.. so my art emotion side could very well be lacking. no engineer. But give a blueprint pretty good chance i could build it or make it. Really just a nobody. just another blue collar joe.

i like the photo, i just don't understand the "great" photo part or that it is amazing in some way or any emotional aspect.. i even put it on my desktop so i had to look at it for the last couple days. Honestly, i give up.



I happen to see beauty in this image along with something kind of eerie. The Shining comes to mind.


Oh....and I have already gone back for 3rd, 4th and 5th takes. If this was printed large I am sure I would stare for quite some time.

Can't explain it, but I just would.
"the shining" . That made me laugh. okay, there could be a certain " the shining" appeal thinking back about how they filmed that movie. LOL
 
Wow, great shot Lew.

I'll expand a bit about what I see in this photo. The first thing that strikes me is the security guard, and how he's walking out of the frame. Then I see the second focal point which is the painting. So now I can put the two elements together and give it some context, obviously someone considers it important enough to have a guard. Then I see the space around the guard and the space around the painting, which to me looks like it is framed centrally and prominantly in a room of its own, with what may be it's own personal protection. It may be very valuable or important or both. It makes me wonder who it's done by or why it deserves that amount of fuss. Then I see the position of the guard and his posture, it strikes me again that he is walking away from the painting. His head is down, almost looking at his shoes and he does not appear to be moving fast so I summarise that he is bored. Maybe he is coming towards the end of his shift, maybe half way through it. His position and posture in the frame implies he's been there long enough for the painting not to hold his main interest, maybe he's walked by it too many times it's just become another thing on the wall. Then I see the opulent well polished floor, his reflection in it and I can see he is well dressed. This is not a security guard with a hat and a torch on his belt. Then I think more about the space, no one is there looking at this painting giving asolitary feel and echoes of lonelyness and again boredom. Then I look at the surroundings, which are detailed but not so much to detract from the main focus of the room which interests me because it's clearly ment to be the painting however the main subject of this is the guard. Then I see the muted tones on the walls, notice the leading lines on the floor and then look at the doorway and see the frames within frames which bring my eye back in to notice the reflection on the floor, the guards black suit and the blacks in the painting form a nice little off centre triangle.

The I wonder wither my initial thoughts were right and return to thinking about the guard, maybe he is on his rounds, maybe this is not the only painting in the room, the smell of old wood and polish and wandering through an empty gallery myself. I wonder if there are crowds round the corner or if when his back is turned the painting might be stolen or any number of possibilities like does seeing a "great" work of art every day diminish it's appeal?

At the very least it's well framed, the tones really suit the image and it conveys the emotions of boredom, empyness, space and significance we put on stuff pretty well.

That's what I see and what goes through my head when I look at this.
 
when I saw this, I noticed the several concentric layers framing the still portrait and then the guard walked through, completely shattering the symmetry. and the portrait sort of looked his way.

this was a one shot deal, he never returned and then tourists filled the room
 
Wonderful photo to look at, just outstanding.
 
An excellent photo, Lew. There are so many frames within frames within frames......each getting smaller as we proceed towards the main subject. It has emotional appeal and an interesting subject that is composed just about perfectly. Great stuff.

bribrius, you keep mentioning that you feel as though the impact of this photo was created using multiple photoshop tools. I just do not see it. What I see is a well executed photograph that was processed normally using Lew's standard PP applications. Nothing fancy here, just good photographic skills. All you see is a door casing. Others see a door casing and also see so much more. Let me ask you, don't you get tired of other people constantly pointing out your ignorance?[/QUOTE]

no. Been around the block a few times, could care less. it allows me to pick and choose what i want or need to know and the direction i choose to follow. The more they point out, the more i second guess and reflect to see if i am missing something. I do dismiss many things and regard them as b.s., but not all without reason. And before dismissing something i have to be sure im not missing something that i need to know or that i am dismissing it prematurely without giving it due consideration. which is what im doing here, seeing if im missing something i need to know. It is all about sorting through the b.s. for what is tangible. IM generally not a very artsy type of person either. so i am still looking for this emotional appeal but it isn't reasoning at all. just a doorway. sorry. It is a well done door casing, if that is what you are looking for. My wife would probably like this photo more than i. But then again she is into drawing, painting, better at both than myself but cant seem to balance a checkbook to save her life. She would find emotion in this i bet but she probably could in a bag of cheese curls.

Not trying to get you started again but after reading your posts on this picture I thought of some advice my father in law who is a teaching professional for the PGA who played on the nation wide tour (nike at the time) in the 90's, used to tell me during golf lessons "try hard, not to try hard". You're looking too much into this its art, and art is subjective. I saw a piece of American history when I looked at this. That's all I needed, what do you need from it?
 
Bribrius, the first thing I see within this image is obviously the nice building, but also the old hunched over "guard" not seeming to have a care in the world about his job the way he's going about his job. Perhaps he's been there too long walking the same hall guarding the same painting..his life needs color, just as his captured emotion is black and white....


Just my thought on what was thought provoking to me about this image..through my little iphone screen :)
 
Nice photo. Not so nice neoclassical architecture of JR Pope, aka "style that is safely dead" ;).
So I guess we have to blame the guy for an excessively heavy forefront here.
But the slight darkening of the front wall helps to bring up the perspective nicely.
The guy was (kind of) a pioneer photographer btw.
 
An excellent photo, Lew. There are so many frames within frames within frames......each getting smaller as we proceed towards the main subject. It has emotional appeal and an interesting subject that is composed just about perfectly. Great stuff.

bribrius, you keep mentioning that you feel as though the impact of this photo was created using multiple photoshop tools. I just do not see it. What I see is a well executed photograph that was processed normally using Lew's standard PP applications. Nothing fancy here, just good photographic skills. All you see is a door casing. Others see a door casing and also see so much more. Let me ask you, don't you get tired of other people constantly pointing out your ignorance?[/QUOTE]

no. Been around the block a few times, could care less. it allows me to pick and choose what i want or need to know and the direction i choose to follow. The more they point out, the more i second guess and reflect to see if i am missing something. I do dismiss many things and regard them as b.s., but not all without reason. And before dismissing something i have to be sure im not missing something that i need to know or that i am dismissing it prematurely without giving it due consideration. which is what im doing here, seeing if im missing something i need to know. It is all about sorting through the b.s. for what is tangible. IM generally not a very artsy type of person either. so i am still looking for this emotional appeal but it isn't reasoning at all. just a doorway. sorry. It is a well done door casing, if that is what you are looking for. My wife would probably like this photo more than i. But then again she is into drawing, painting, better at both than myself but cant seem to balance a checkbook to save her life. She would find emotion in this i bet but she probably could in a bag of cheese curls.

Not trying to get you started again but after reading your posts on this picture I thought of some advice my father in law who is a teaching professional for the PGA who played on the nation wide tour (nike at the time) in the 90's, used to tell me during golf lessons "try hard, not to try hard". You're looking too much into this its art, and art is subjective. I saw a piece of American history when I looked at this. That's all I needed, what do you need from it?

Thanks for the golf tip.
 
Lew... I have never been there, and never thought about going, that is, until I saw your picture. Now I "have" to go.

Well done, you've created inspiration!!
 
when I saw this, I noticed the several concentric layers framing the still portrait and then the guard walked through, completely shattering the symmetry. and the portrait sort of looked his way.

this was a one shot deal, he never returned and then tourists filled the room

Great capture - working with what suddenly appeared in front of you and seeing that "shattered symmetry" can be what makes the shot! :) It would not have the same impact without the guard walking through. Nice work!
 
This seems to be a good object lesson for street photography. One must always be prepared to shoot now.
 

Not sure why but something very inviting about this shot. Love it
 

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