Saramago is one of my favorite authors. I read many of his books and Blindness is by far the one I love the most.
It's been a fantastic week of comments. I appreciated all of them (mmm... most of them) and the way they have analyzed my shot.
What I have been searching for, was a blind and confused gaze, not a horror image. It's funny that someone found it too scary and others not scary enough - that's cool :)
As for the eyes, they are of course white lenses, nothing has been done during the editing stage, as you can see in the original. Of course I couldn't create a white blindness, because it could be ground for a DQ.
The rain is not real. We had a can full of hot water we had to pour on the girl (my niece) before the shot. We had a hose we plugged into a town fountain, we were in a crowded street, and one of us was on a garbage bin pouring the water from above her.
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Place: 8 out of 86 Avg (all users): 6.5833 Avg (commenters): 7.0000 Avg (participants): 6.5122 Avg (non-participants): 6.6269 Views since voting: 1389 Views during voting: 258 Votes: 108 Comments: 25 Favorites: 1 (view)
I like this falsified yet visceral expression of wildness. I like how that resonates with the title. The blindness is due to the falsity. We are blind because we think those are her eyes. It's very difficult for us to stop thinking about it. This gives us a lot to think about, which redeems the low-energy composition. After all, why should we be distracted from this meditation by composition?
I mean, those are false eyes, aren't they? Aren't they? Now you're giving me nightmares. 7
definitely freaky contact lenses
i like the shallow DoF for this and the location is great with the trees creating a tunnel to empahsize the growing darkness
a 7 from me
As to the inspiration, it seems to work very well as a representation of the book which is where the majority of images in this challenge fail. And I was enjoying this image very much at first glance until I realized the eyes were manipulated in post processing. Now all I see is this defect in an otherwise very well executed shot. I think her blankly staring eyes could have been a wonderfully natural effect. Regretably, my vote is only a 4 in this form.
6...Its freaky, and kind of cool. But the eyes remind me of the whole werewolf/vampire thing that is so popular now. It would have been interesting to portray the "white blindness" of the afflicted. The B&W conversion has nice pop, and the rain is quite lovely.
Lovely shot, and the tie to the story is strong. The model walking in the rain seemingly blind fits well. The tones are nice and I'm glad it's black and white. Not sure I'm ready to call it a classic, but I didn't mark it down for that. 7
I an one of a few that have taken on the” Comment on every vote challenge”. I will post the score I gave you then try to explain my reasons for said vote. Hopefully nothing below will be taken personally, and maybe we can both learn from it..
Not knowing the book I did a wiki on it. Between your image and what I read on Wikipedia I feel the need to search out my next adventure. Thank you. BTW a score of 9.
A well produced work, good choice with mono and the rain. I like the symbolism of distress/despair. I have a dislike for those eye prop things from overexposure to the zombie zombies, but they reinforce the story. Composition is good with good bokeh. Nice work.8.
Just as the title says. A good image. I am trying to understand why it does not touch me though, which is of lesser importance but I am one of the viewer of this photo. Must be the directness of the message.
I particularly like the rain, like pointy arrows of the sky.
6
I love the composition and processing. The rain, the lighting, the wet hair, all of it great. Not so sure about the pose with her hand though? Seems somewhat awkward.
Creepy photograph, but very well done!
Her eyes are so interesting, and the expression on her face makes the photograph that much more interesting.
Great B&W conversion. Lovely DOF.
And the bokeh in the back is wonderful. 7
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