homeless guy

I sometimes miss threads when I'm scanning posts. I missed this one. Then I just happened to notice it had 48 replies, so I knew I needed to have a look!

I'm on the side of, I don't get the uproar about it?! Everyone that is so concerned about the passed-out drunk, why aren't you down there helping him out?! I'm sure in real life, he's an upstanding, fine man! The concern for his "esteem" seems a little bogus to me. But then, I grew up with drunks, alcoholics, idiots and just all-around scumbags. I never had the chance to simply just casually "observe" them from my ivory tower. So maybe I don't understand the feigned concern for him. It looks to me that the op saw him, snapped it, and that was that! It's an "okay" street shot. IMHO, of course.


yeah i didnt think it was such a great photo either, it was just something i saw and snapped a few. People on facebook love it tho. One person wrote "Okay. So the subject being what it is..this is a ****ing outstanding photographProbe. Wonderful composition, reminiscent of Diane Arbus or Mapplethorpe."


 
Your opinion is perfectly OK, it is not a pleasant picture. Yet, you didn't ignore the thread, :thumbup:. Maybe "conversation" similar to others with pictures of the same kind, yet those are the best discussions where we talk not only about pixel count, but about function of photography in our society. We just can't leave it to others (politicians, philosophers or just men with guns) to make that decision. However they would like to and they try. :D
I'm not ignoring these kind of threads because I'm interested in the story in front of and behind the lens.

Does this make you feel better? Nice safe distance.Would you walk around him if you needed to get on the train?

I actually really like this picture... again, simple as that. It's just my opinion. I think this photograph is much better than the first one regarding composition, pp, the photographer way of presenting the scene...
And I would probably walk around him. Would I be calm and relaxed, probably not.
 
It's completely ridiculous that we have the same conversation whenever someone post "this kind" of photo.

I don't like the picture, I've already said that. That's my opinion and it's simple as that. I do question ethics here because I think the subject could be presented in a much better way. I don't see that the photographer was thinking about all the troubles of the society while taking this picture, he just simply approached the guy, and pressed the shutter.

Do I care that much to try to raise the moral question? No. OP is not the first and certainly not the last person who will snap a picture of a homeless person "right in the face" kind of way.

If the subject was perfectly happy man lying on the stairs and shot the same way, I would still say "I don't like it, because I don't like the way how he shot the subject"

Does this make you feel better? Nice safe distance.Would you walk around him if you needed to get on the train?


View attachment 80689

Actually, I do like that picture a lot better than the first one. Not because of the 'safe distance' but because of the story it tells that the first one doesn't. The first one was tightly cropped around the man and it said, "Check out this dude passed out. Isn't he pathetic?" This one, though, has many more layers. He's at the bottom of the stairs with a light at the top, symbolizing some ideal or "Heaven" or "Civilized Society" that he's unable to get to. That's where you take the train home or to work - two things he doesn't have. His posture and position is one of despair. He's on the bottom steps, so he's tried to make it up but just couldn't for whatever reason and has collapsed from the effort.

And right next to him is an H&R Block sign, though we can only see "H&R B-" before it gets cut off - money, power, opportunity, comfort, respectability...all cut off from him, all out of his reach.

This one makes a much more powerful statement whereas the first one...well, the first one is uncomfortable but we don't know why. Sure, sometimes there's a value in making people uncomfortable, but that shouldn't be the end of the story. There should still be some purpose to it. "Hey, you made people feel and that's all you have to do!" Well, I don't think it's that simple. Shock for its own sake is a one-note. Shock to send a message has continuing value.
 
Actually, I do like that picture a lot better than the first one. Not because of the 'safe distance' but because of the story it tells that the first one doesn't. The first one was tightly cropped around the man and it said, "Check out this dude passed out. Isn't he pathetic?" This one, though, has many more layers. He's at the bottom of the stairs with a light at the top, symbolizing some ideal or "Heaven" or "Civilized Society" that he's unable to get to. That's where you take the train home or to work - two things he doesn't have. His posture and position is one of despair. He's on the bottom steps, so he's tried to make it up but just couldn't for whatever reason and has collapsed from the effort.

Just finished reading this thread, and I agree. Couldn't have put it better myself, actually. I like this new submission FAR better than the original, not that the original was bad, but it just doesn't tell the whole story like this one does.

RE: the social taboo associated with this type of photography. This forum has a well-known reputation for nastiness and backbiting, but it's a mistake to moderate this discussion. It needs to happen. You don't have to take photos like this, and you don't have to like them. But they need to exist. The world is a much bigger and meaner place than your own personal comfort zone.
 
This forum has a well-known reputation for nastiness and backbiting
What!? TPF has that kind of reputation? No. I simply don't believe it


but I do I agree with the rest of your post
 
at the end of the day, it's just a photo. I take thousands of them every month.
 
Does this make you feel better? Nice safe distance.Would you walk around him if you needed to get on the train?


View attachment 80689

This is an excellent street image; I think it does need a little fine-tuning (leveling/perspective, shadow detail), and it might make a strong monocrhome, but this has everything that the original image lacked.
 
^^^ TBH, that ^^^ looks staged. It is not, I know. Good photographic work. Perfect theatrical choreography and composition.
"To be, or not to be" sounds in my ears. Wow, it fits ! :cheer: The light, the mood, pure Rembrandt. It is not homeless guy anymore, just tired guy "waiting" for the next train.:D

( Looks it took me way to long to write my post :confused: I am referring to image from post #60)
 
Full circle again. It's like the beauty of photography is also it's curse; some general rules of thumb, and everything after that is subjective.
 
Very powerful picture that conveys everything to the viewer. That's a success in my book.
 
This is an example of one of those photos that is both beautiful, slightly disturbing, and equally sad.
Regardless how it makes you feel, it makes you feel and that is art :)
 

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