Willingly Untitled

[Benjo255]

 

[Derrel]

Sad, and good.

 

[Benjo255]

It is a good photo, however the big butt in the center is a distraction.

Are you serious?

 

[Bryston3bsst]

It is a good photo, however the big butt in the center is a distraction.

Are you serious?

Yes. You sound surprised.

 

[The_Traveler]

It is well done but a cheap shot, borrowing someone the ubiquitous sorrow of the poor for your photo.

 

[Benjo255]

Yes. You sound surprised.

Yes, 'cause it was quite part of the photo.

 

[Benjo255]

It is well done but a cheap shot, borrowing someone the ubiquitous sorrow of the poor for your photo.

The photo may be enjoyable or not, but I don't agree with your statement.
We can discuss for days and days about this issue, but basically...for me photography (like all artistic media) is out of every moral judgement.
This photo just tells a story.
We can discuss for days if it's good or not, ethical or not, to portrait such sad situation.

IMHO I just told a (sad) story through an image. A fat bottom walking through other people, while a skinny old woman struggle for a living. That's sad? yes, it is. But as I said I just told this story.
Also if this image wasn't mine, I wouldn't tell it's "cheap", nor I borrowed anything.
I just tried to tell a story.
I think it could be said I managed to do it or I didn't manage to do it.
But I'm quite puzzled in front of moral critiques.
This is just my point of view, of couse, I don't want to flame a debate.

 

[Benjo255]

Well of course it is part of the photo. That's why I said it was distracting.

You see, if it were not part of the photo then it would not be distracting. See how that works?

It's a photo of a poor old skinny woman opposed to the fat bottom. You see, if it were not part of the photo then it would be just a poor old skinny woman sitting in a desert town begging to nobody. See how that works?

 

[kdthomas]

The fat well-fed-bottom thing didn't come through for me. What DID come through was the contrast of her attire with the rest of the folks and that she is a lonely sad old woman in a sea of indifferent people who probably find it more comfortable to just hurry on past and think of something else.

I would be curious to see maybe vertical framing without the dark clothing on the left part of the frame ... Or maybe a square crop?

It is well done but a cheap shot, borrowing someone the ubiquitous sorrow of the poor for your photo.

Lew, I'm having a tough time agreeing with you here. I'm a newb of course, but my own reaction is that this is a legit street shot ... It's a moment, it tells a story, it's even sympathetic to the subject. I don't think I would have felt bad about taking this.

But Lew's comment raises a good question for me. And forgive me for probably going O/T here but, for the street genre, where do we draw the line for art vs exploitation?

 

[Benjo255]

where do we draw the line for art vs exploitation?

Does that line exist? Or...better...does it make sense to draw a line between such different things?
IMHO exploitation starts when your action makes the subject's situation worse then how it was before your action.