“The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.”
― René Magritte
On the last day of this challenge I went to the Art Institute, and it happened to be the second to the last day of an exhibit of the surrealist René Magritte. I was happy to get a chance to see the Magritte exhibit before it moved on. I was keeping my eye out for something for the Obscured theme. When I saw this banner with an interesting photograph of Magritte I camped out for a while hoping for a good moment to pair it with. Patience is something I struggle with in my photography. Too often I get fidgety and want to move on rather than waiting for an image to develop. I need to remember that sometimes patience is rewarded.
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Place: 4 out of 63 Avg (all users): 6.6081 Avg (commenters): 8.5000 Avg (participants): 6.3939 Avg (non-participants): 6.7805 Views since voting: 2193 Views during voting: 181 Votes: 74 Comments: 28 Favorites: 5 (view)
Patience is the best quality to possess when in the street and you certainly did a top notch job here. This couldn't be better. AND it was considered to be taken with a Leica! Quite the compliment. Congrats Mark!
I never got around to specifying just what it is about this photograph that so impressed me. It's this: The most visually prominent player is the Magritte poster, next most prominent is the wee girl, and third is the Monty Python Lady. So you'd think that that would be the order of their respective contributions to the effectiveness of the photograph. But I reckon it's actually the reverse; the lady is the real star of this show (she's the destination), the thumb-sucking kid is the link and the Magritte poster is the start point ... the establishing shot, in cinematic terms. Together they're a triangle, but the lady agog is the apex. The other triangle is the three minor players, all facing away from us and positioned with a studied randomness; just another layer of wit & whimsy.
And the whole picture is the perfect illustration of the Magritte quotation in your Comments section. The promise of meaning ricochets around the frame in these overlapping triangles, and never does get settled. Meaning is tantalisingly close to our grasp – teases us – but escapes.
You didn't get enough 10's--can't I vote again?
"D
I came back looking for this, wondering who you are. I too struggle with patience. Keep on leading the way.
Wonderful moment here. So much going on, and perfectly laid out in front of you - kudos on seeing and capturing this, it's art in three dimensions brought into two. Not only that, but it illustrates 'obscured' in so many different ways.
This is such a preposterously good street photograph that I hardly know what to say. It's good enough to be anybody's, there'd be no street photographer no matter how celebrated who wouldn't love to lay claim to it.
I'm near certain it's British, and I'd have called it Ed Clarke's except he's long gone. It's got that Leica look to it though, and one thing I'm sure of, it was no accident ... this photograph reached out and chose you, rather than the other way around. By that I mean that you can't realistically go looking for a moment like this, but if you're good enough it will look for you, and give you no choice in the matter.
And you are quite obviously good enough, so thank you for that; have a 10, and this Order of the Thumb as a handy doorstop.
ETA: A little googlebird tells me you and René must be in Chicago and not Britain, so I can't think who you are. But the lady in the glasses simply has to be a British visitor to the Windy City. She's right out of Monty Python. Anyway, I'm glad I guessed the location wrong, because it gave me another session of appreciating your photograph. Still fabulous, thanks.
This really is an interesting shot with all that is going on. On second thought just about every possible subject in this image is brilliantly, and candidly obscured... Well done! 9.
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