The Shadow of Mystery

Another shadow/overlay portrait- I especially am loving the idea of the old portraits
which I have a small collection started many many years ago with the original frame
the coloring is very much the same
I have "I Love 'M Both by MB Parkinson 1890 NY

here is my new version-

Charlotte, you presented your picture thus:



Another shadow/overlay portrait- I especially am loving the idea of the old portraits
which I have a small collection started many many years ago with the original frame
the coloring is very much the same
I have "I Love 'M Both by MB Parkinson 1890 NY

here is my new version-







So Charlotte, what do you think? Do you really want to offer your work crouched in a corner?

I have thought that it can be better presented centrally and I've altered your initital post to this with your given title:





Charlotte,

Your title has "Shadows" and "Mystery" promised. Now I hold that images that are subtle need to be protected! Allow space around it. In this way, your picture is at least given the best chance of getting across the gap from you to us. Still you don't get a free pass. None of us do! So let's start.

Yes, the photograph gets my attention and interest for me to pay attention. The title was a help. I now ask, "What do I feel and what's coming to me?" Yes, I like the subject, goal and the idea of embedded mystery. But what about its design and execution?

The element of shadow is not completely delivered. The strongest feature is the sharp collar in the bottom right corner. Shadow has character. Is it soft and continuously fading or is it harsh and abrupt? Is there light from multiple source or is it just from a lone source, near or far? Because of your choice in software manipulation of the image, "churning" the pixels (seemingly without distinction), all over the work, you might very well have degraded the very features that should define the character of the photograph, given its title!

I do believe in the craft of photography and the need to channel our internal ideas to the world in an impressive image.

As such, I feel short-changed in this picture. Still, it could be my own lack of preparedness, but I don't think so.

I don't expect you to change this one iota, as I know by now, from your responses I've seen to date, that you almost never do. Also I have no right to expect any changes. It's, after all your oevre. Either I "get it" or not, but that's just "to bad" as they say. But at the very least I want to express my feelings on how this image has come to me. I must admit, I want to enjoy this but either you are not putting in the effort to transmit the promise what your title implies or else I'm failing to do justice to your idea.

It could be the latter.

Asher

Asher
Thank you for coming by and your thoughts on this piece of mine
I don't understand how to center a work like you did or I would have
I like that centering much better!

I use the title perhaphs it is my poetic nature to do so-

shadow I use as an adjective as in:
darker, indistinct and not plainly preceived-
as the same for mystery-sort of "an air of mystery"

I see the photo and its expression to be these things
always I think in every piece of work one always has the individual idea of his/her own feelings of that work as they look at that piece of work-
my poetics seem to play along with what I try to show-
I hope that helps in understanding what I was going for-

Charlotte-

charlotte thompson said:

Asher
Thank you for coming by and your thoughts on this piece of mine
I don't understand how to center a work like you did or I would have
I like that centering much better!

Click to expand...

Select the text and picture and then click on the center symbol in the dialog box. It's the 5th symbol across from the left!

Have a few line "return"s or "enter"s to get some line space above and below the picture, bur you need at least one word before that and at the end of the page. For example,

charlotte thompson said:

I use the title perhaphs it is my poetic nature to do so-

shadow I use as an adjective as in:
darker, indistinct and not plainly preceived-
as the same for mystery-sort of "an air of mystery"

Click to expand...

Then, perhaps, add your 4 lines of poetry to put the piece in context.

Charlotte,

I still feel that the execution might be improved if we sat down together, but that's just my wish for clarity. I want that even in presenting obscurity and mystery as opposed to a mélange of components of picture that degrade the relevance of things to me. Mystery is what one gets in the crack of things, but we must define the things!

Asher