Re: Photo of the Week April 1st

&gt;>>You have approached this, as you said yourself, as a "representative of a body of work" which is "documenting the life of a drug addicted New York street walker.&quot; from this I take it that you want it to be a piece of photojournalism, (essentially a document of the people and places in a subjective manner) but I can see a contradiction in this that I will come to later.<<<<;

Dave, you've done a good job in putting your feelings about John's photograph into words- but I'm left wondering if you've missed the point of the series because you've misinterpreted it as being photojournalism (which I believe you meant to say was an objective manner of recording a scene- as a subjective manner is usually where the artist inserts their own belief, emotions, or opinion rather than just recording what happened).

To me, the series is a full of symbolism and I would characterize the photograph that John offered to be Expressionistic art, not photojournalism. ;  In fact, John's photograph reminded me of The Scream by Munch, which is used on the Wikipedia page to explain the art form. ;

I appreciate this type of art but have struggled to understand it, let alone even like most of it.  I think any art work that uses expressionism requires that you really LOOK at the art work and think about it.  To me, they are often disturbing and I don't usually like them at all.  But I often never forget them. ; The first photograph that I saw in this style was about 20 years ago in a camera club competition.  It was a self portrait where the photographer shot himself in a pose up against an old smokestack of an abandoned factory, done in a crucification style.&nbsp; It was disturbing then and I've never forgotten about it, although I came to realize that it was symbolism to show how he felt in his life and profession.

Is this the best style to capture and portray the plight of this woman?&nbsp; I don't know, but I do know that true photojournalism style would just be another attempt in a sea of millions who have done the same.

So, I can't say that I like John's photograph at all but I doubt that this was his intention.  I won't forget it, though, which I think probably was.

Mark
http://www.4x6photo.com