Category: Japan – Photography

Omiya (Saitama), east side of JR East Omiya station. August 2, 2003. Fuji Acros 100.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment on my previous post, wherein I proffered up two versions of the same photograph — my father-in-law holding my son Kaika — and solicited opinions as to which one was better. The replies were well-considered, and helpful for me in clarifying my own thoughts about them.

Nearly 24 hours later, my own personal feelings are leaning towards the top picture, which is against the prevailing (and overwhelming) trend in the comments that says that the closely-cropped version is the better photo.

Here’s why: There’s just something a bit too “arty” and pretentious for me in the second pic, for starters. The closely cropped second photo reminds me uncomfortably of those postcards and posters one can see for sale at trendy “art” shops, with the beefy ultra-masculine male model holding a baby. Sort of a Calvin Klein aesthetic if you will.

I suppose part of my problem too is knowing that I Photoshop’ed out that fence behind my father-in-law visible in the larger picture. It’s not a terribly awful Photoshop job, and without the original pic you probably wouldn’t be able to catch it, but I know I did it and for some reason that bugs me. Mind you, I often remove various “unwanted” things from my pictures, bright highlights, assorted oddities that detract from the photos, but for some reason I view this removal as different. Again, I think it has something to do with trying to create a separation or silhouette of the two figures, isolating them in space, which in the end just strikes me as contrived and not genuine. I have this feeling that 10 years from now the bottom pic would embarrass me, in the same way that my old “art school” work often embarrasses me.

On the positive side, re: the top photo, I like the sense that these two people are part of a larger happening, a happening that in its own right is mysterious and vague, with shadowy figures in the background, themselves engaged in their own happening. There is also, as was alluded to in the one comment that voted for this photo, an interesting thing happening in the photo for me with what filmmakers sometimes refer to as “off-screen” space. Both sets of people in the background are looking towards areas beyond the frame, and as such I think that highlights the fact that both my father-in-law and Kaika are also looking into their own “space.” Their lines of sight play in a nice way with the lines of my father-in-law’s arm and his tank-top, and that receding fence that I went to so much trouble to remove in the second photo.

Peter, in voting for the bottom photo, wrote that

The focus, simplicity and tones of the bottom picture seperates this picture from place, transcending time, leaving us with a feeling of connection rather than exhaustion….

On the surface I would agree, but now I see that the cropped photo was creating a false sense of itimacy, or connection. The larger full-frame photo shows that in a way, they are not connected so much to each other, but rather to the scene around them, and that they’re not necessarily comfortable in that scene. Though I didn’t really know it at the time I took the picture, nor last night when I posted both photos, I think that is closer to what I was after, and wanted to capture. The feedback helped me to see that. Thanks everyone.

Just so I can get all my “meta” writing about my photographs out of the way in one post….

I finally dug out my medium format camera last week, after about two years on non-use. A test roll was in order, and inevitably the subject matter turned once again to family. I was quite pleased with how some of them turned out, and working with the bigger negative size is truly a pleasure, so I suspect you might be seeing more images from this camera in the future.