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Terrence Kent
{K:7023} 5/23/2002
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This is a snapshot. Not in the offensive sense i suppose, but all the same this doesn't strike me as any kind of deep message from you to me. I see two nondescript faces seperated by a wedge of brick, maybe this means something to you but i dont see anything going on here.
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Greg Pauline
{K:27} 5/23/2002
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Whats a snapshot?
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Terrence Kent
{K:7023} 5/19/2002
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Looks like a snapshot to me, the smoking issue beyond that isn't very important
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Tony Blei
{K:575} 5/19/2002
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Whaddayall talkin' about?
Smokin' really is cool. As a matter of fact, takin' up smoking is my New Year's Resolution (I've already bought the lighter and am lookin' for a good deal on an ash tray). As soon as I figure out the whole menthol vs. regular; shorts vs. 100's thing, I'm headin' down to the nearest convenience store to buy a carton (there are just so many decisions until then).
To say that you don't like the picture because the kids are smoking is about as shallow as saying you don't like a picture because a model is ugly.
I suppose you could always pick a prettier or more handsome model. I guess you could also do a portrait of someone who doesn't smoke. But the truth remains that the world is full of less than pretty people and teens who smoke.
Maybe we should all turn our eyes away from "Tomako in her bath" by W. Eugene Smith. That was the image of a mother giving her daughter a bath in Minamata, Japan. Not only did the image contain full-frontal nudity of a pre-teen girl but the girl was deformed. I believe Smith won the Pulitzer Prize for his work and because of increased pressure, the factories in the area stopped polluting Minamata Bay (which was the cause of the birth defects). Sometimes it is important to show those things we don't like or don't want to see!
Teen smoking may be one of those things.
Now, to actually comment on the image: I really don't see this as a portrait but possibly an excerpt from a photojournalism picture story on teen smoking. My idea of a portrait is where the photographer obviously poses the models to accent a feature or trait. Now that I've said that I would like to add there are times when that GUIDLINE needs to be thrown out the window because the photographer has captureed someone who is doing something (to illustrate your point) on their own and spontaneously.
The other thing that bothers me in this image is the girls are framing the picture. Girl No. 1 on the right is so close to the edge of the picture that my eye has to look around for her (because my eye goes to the big empty area in the center of the picture first). Girl No. 2 is almost hidden because her hair is blocking her eye and she is on the far left side of the picture. She is the one that I see first. When I first look at the picture, my eye goes to the center and finds the brightest object there (the back of her hand), it travels up and sees the cigarettes and her face and then has to jump across to the other girl.
Where possible, as photographers, we need to make viewing the images we create as easy for the viewer as possible. -- Tony
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Greg Pauline
{K:27} 5/19/2002
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Jake,
smoking is bad and this picture doesn't promote it in any way. It is a picture of an event. They smoked, I took the picture.
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Jake Sieg
{K:673} 5/19/2002
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ah yes, smoking, its so cool. cigarettes are prolly the coolest thing in this world...sorry, i dont really like this because of the fact young kids are smoking
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Debbie Groff
{K:9569} 9/13/2001
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Teenagers...They are teenage aren't they?
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