7 portraits

Antonio,

You've given us a generous treat! I haven't seen such clean portraits from your work where the person was not surrounded by a working world. This provides us with a very rewarding experience visiting the real people you share with us.

Would it be possible to hear about the people and the circumstances of the pictures.

Asher

I do not have any story behind the images but about the first one.
It goes like this

The story behind the image
We were visiting Man Mandir Palace in Gwalior, India when a young boy came to us speaking English and asking us if we wanted a guide for the tour inside.
As we were at that moment with a Polish and a Spanish and speaking in English we were surprised to listen to the young boy addressing some words to us.
I asked if he could also speak Portuguese when he told me he could speak English, French, Spanish, Italian and even a bit of German, all learned on the street. Amazing. In fact I adressed him in French and it was true, and the same happened when my wife spoke to him in German.
He said he was some 8 years old - we think he should be about 10 - and he had never been in school as he couldn’t even read.
We are not sure if all the story is true or not but during the tour and as other young and older boys came along following us, he sent them away in a very strong manner.
To us it was astonishing how a young boy at that age could be so bold and clever and talk languages like that.
When a school passed with some 40 children see how the teacher was looking at him.

Later we read in the Times of India about the "India's invisible children: Swallowed by the streets". It worth the reading.
Incredible India.

Antonio, the portraits are intense and engaging.

Very well Done indeed.

The narrative of the boy is even more engrossing and enthralling. Opportunities are their only barrier.

Not their intellect.

Thank you for the marvelous treat you have given us.

fahim mohammed said:

Antonio, the portraits are intense and engaging.

Very well Done indeed.

The narrative of the boy is even more engrossing and enthralling. Opportunities are their only barrier.

Not their intellect.

Thank you for the marvelous treat you have given us.

Click to expand...

I thank you for your kind words

This time a landscape portrait LOL. No story behind it however...

Antonio Correia said:

I thank you for your kind words

This time a landscape portrait LOL. No story behind it however...

Click to expand...

Antonio,

I like this picture especially in the selected landscape mode. This allows extra creative space on the left. That distinct advantage encourages one to use one's own knowledge and pretenses to fantasize. I consider this as providing a playground for the mind.

Reading the photograph, this, he reminds me of Nehru, one of the worlds great leaders and head of a family dynasty with drama and tragedy. He looks from right to left, which in Western language, is an examination of the past.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Antonio,

I like this picture especially in the selected landscape mode. This allows extra creative space on the left. That distinct advantage encourages one to use one's own knowledge and pretenses to fantasize. I consider this as providing a playground for the mind.

Reading the photograph, this, he reminds me of Nehru, one of the worlds great leaders and head of a family dynasty with drama and tragedy. He looks from right to left, which in Western language, is an examination of the past.

Asher

Click to expand...

Thank you Asher for your kind comment

Hi, Antonio,

These are all extraordinary, on various fronts.

In the first set particularly, we are reminded of the extraordinary power of black and white images. These somehow evoke in me the joy of really exceptional B/W cinematography.

What is amazing is that these all suggest a slightly-unnatural processing, yet the B/W mode is forgiving of that - we get the pluses but not the minuses. (After all, B/W is by definition not "realistic".)

Of course that is in the main the result of the skill of the artisan, not a free gift of the modality!

Still, I think I had not realized until just now how the B/W modality gives us leave to "legitimately" use the tools of tonal remapping.

Thanks for letting us see this great work.

Best regards,

Doug

Antonio,

for me the portrait is the most difficult burn to make...

to get rid of the idea that the person must be in the centre - push in on the face - the context is unimportant in these works

the quality of light is on the whole well worked - and with a little tighter arrangement and lifting of the edge (burnt in to heavily) will work...

ask what it means to be looked up to / down to / equal to - do you want the subject to be looked down upon - if so push this view point further..

images like these are not how people look (or pose) but how you want these read..
When you say no story behind a work you are doing an injustice to the reader - they make the story...

for me these are 90% there - i enjoyed the tour... now take me there...

cheers

Hello Antonio,

These photos make an enjoyable set, the work feels consistent, from the personality these persons project to the post processing. Beautiful photos and they all blend very well with each other. I'd love to see more of this.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Ruben

A super set of photos. I think my two favourites though, nr 2 and the landscape portrait.

Sampling Society?

Mark Hampton said:

images like these are not how people look (or pose) but how you want these read..
When you say no story behind a work you are doing an injustice to the reader - they make the story...

Click to expand...

So, Mark,

So, what do you now think of the landscape portrait that I have Nehru-ized in post #7.


Antonio,

Now that I return, I see that the pictures sample one society across many levels and that appears to unite the collection. Reminds me of the World War II era German photographer, August Sandler, who catalogued everyone from local officials, dressed up for the picture, the coal carrier, to a Nazi in uniform. You however, are a traveler and cannot stay, devoting months or years as he did, with tragic results.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Antonio,

I like this picture especially in the selected landscape mode. This allows extra creative space on the left. That distinct advantage encourages one to use one's own knowledge and pretenses to fantasize. I consider this as providing a playground for the mind.

Reading the photograph, this, he reminds me of Nehru, one of the worlds great leaders and head of a family dynasty with drama and tragedy. He looks from right to left, which in Western language, is an examination of the past.

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher - you are correct for me to - the space (left) serves as move passive (surface) this allow our minds to rest as they gather data and convert it into information and then mythologies / compare /explore the picture internally..

the dislocation of time in this instance makes me feel there is something beyond the edges of our crop... the gesture can be felt ..... an imagined burn

as has been identified this is a strong image - we understand it well and reading is a comforting experience ... is this work of now or in the past?

sorry for the incoherence - waiting for some work to cook and listening to the fall...

cheers

Doug Kerr said:

Hi, Antonio,

These are all extraordinary, on various fronts.

In the first set particularly, we are reminded of the extraordinary power of black and white images. These somehow evoke in me the joy of really exceptional B/W cinematography.

What is amazing is that these all suggest a slightly-unnatural processing, yet the B/W mode is forgiving of that - we get the pluses but not the minuses. (After all, B/W is by definition not "realistic".)

Of course that is in the main the result of the skill of the artisan, not a free gift of the modality!

Still, I think I had not realized until just now how the B/W modality gives us leave to "legitimately" use the tools of tonal remapping.

Thanks for letting us see this great work.

Best regards,

Doug

Click to expand...

Thank you Doug
I am doing B&W recently and I am trying to improve it's quality.
I think I do not have the right standart or the standart I dream of

Mark Hampton said:

... When you say no story behind a work you are doing an injustice to the reader - they make the story...

Click to expand...

Not in stricto sensus I mean.
Behind an image there is always a story, even a small one.
But not as important as the one I told you about of the young lad
Thank you for commenting

Ruben Alfu said:

Hello Antonio,

These photos make an enjoyable set, the work feels consistent, from the personality these persons project to the post processing. Beautiful photos and they all blend very well with each other. I'd love to see more of this.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Ruben

Click to expand...

Thank you Ruben
I will keep doing this work as time goes on ...

Hélène Anderson said:

A super set of photos. I think my two favourites though, nr 2 and the landscape portrait.

Click to expand...

Thank you Hélène
I also like the second one. In fact I like most of them LOL

Asher Kelman said:

...Antonio, Now that I return, I see that the pictures sample one society across many levels and that appears to unite the collection. Reminds me of the World War II era German photographer, August Sandler, who catalogued everyone from local officials, dressed up for the picture, the coal carrier, to a Nazi in uniform. You however, are a traveler and cannot stay, devoting months or years as he did, with tragic results. Asher

Click to expand...

The work of August Sandler is a very consistent one.

Yesterday I was set in the evening and watching an old Swiss photographic magazine "camera" - which doesn't exist anymore, you are going to smile because the magazine is from October 1972 and I do have a collection of them of some 20 issues - which is dedicated to Sequences.
They ended just like that. Bang. I was sorry at the time.

I was stroken by the sequence by Olivero Toscani - I do not know if this is the man but here is the link to what could/can be his home page http://www.olivierotoscanistudio.com/ as he has studied in Switzerland and... read his curricula - which I reproduce here after scanning the page.

I would like to do something consistently similar

One of his images I got on the web is this delicious one.

I am almost sure it's the very same guy !

More images at Toscani

nice!

These black and white portraits are beautiful. The tact sharp focus, the extrodinary tonal range...Technically right on. They also truley connect the viewer to the subject with the direct eye contact. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

NickJames said:

These black and white portraits are beautiful. The tact sharp focus, the extrodinary tonal range...Technically right on. They also truley connect the viewer to the subject with the direct eye contact. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

Click to expand...

Too kind Nick

Thank you