Critique Desired: "Whatever would she see in him?"

[Michael_Stones]

An older image but one I still like. A scan of a very old image of a young woman - a relative of our neighbour - merged with a 35mm film scan of a guy in Victoria, British Columbia, who seemed intent on striking up temporarily meaningful relationships with passing tourists. Imagine what might have transpired if these two people, from eras separated by at least 50 years, met after enjoying cucumber sandwiches and the sound of tinkling teacups at the still traditional Hotel Victoria.

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Michael,

Originally Posted by Michael_Stones

An older image but one I still like. A scan of a very old image of a young woman - a relative of our neighbour - merged with a 35mm film scan of a guy in Victoria, British Columbia, who seemed intent on striking up temporarily meaningful relationships with passing tourists. Imagine what might have transpired if these two people, from eras separated by at least 50 years, met after enjoying cucumber sandwiches and the sound of tinkling teacups at the still traditional Hotel Victoria.

A very clever, and effective, work, well-executed.

It should provide good fodder for the doomed debate that rages here from time to time as to whether "art should stand on its own without need for explication".

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

[Cem_Usakligil]

Hi Mike,

It is an intriguing piece of art, thanks for sharing it. Do you have other works similar to this one? It would be a stronger theme if you'd care to make a project out of it.

Queen - The Invisible Man
....
I'm the invisible man I'm the invisible man
Incredible how you can see right through me
I'm the invisible man I'm the invisible man
It's criminal how I can see right through you
...

Cheers,

[John Angulat]

Hi Mike,
In a word - Splendid!
I very much would like to see more!

[Jim Galli]

The girl is timeless. Alfred Steiglitz could have photographed her. The man and the story don't add anything for me I'm afraid.

[Michael_Stones]

Thanks for the kind comments Doug, John, Cem, Jim. The old photo of the girl is indeed timeless, as Jim points out. The name of the photographer is lost in history but he/she most likely had a studio in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The photograph was pretty battered and needed quite a bit of Photoshop restoration.

The image is part of a series, Cem and John, some of which are on earlier OPF links: http://www.openphotographyforums.com...0939#post20939 and http://www.openphotographyforums.com...ead.php?t=3804.

Those images are as follows.

All the images in the series have a psychological theme: What is the person thinking and feeling behind the mask of a fairly neutral facial expression? They all coalesce technically because of B/W presentation and the inclusion of scanned objects (the young woman by the cars is a scan of a plaster-of-Paris statuette).

Although I adhere loosely to the doctrine that "art should stand on its own", Doug, that doesn't mean a photograph is not art if it benefits from text - the 'art object' then becomes the image plus text. There's lots of precedents for that view. Is multimedia not art because it combines different components? I agree with you that such debate is doomed. My take is that what we call art provides an interpretive context that the image maker may hint at, but in the end it's the viewers discretion.
Thanks again
Mike