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grand illusions
grand illusions
jagar


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: With the Philosophy of Ubique (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Sony Alpha a7R
Lens: Sony Sonnar FE 2.8 35mm ZA
Location: Rodez
Date: Apr 5, 2015
Date Uploaded: Apr 5, 2015

Had a great day out with Diuk shooting for this. It was taken outside the Pierre Soulages museam in Rodes southwest France, art can't get any colder than Pierre Soulages so Paul's wonderful comment is astonishingly accurate. If I could see through the eyes of one photographer here it would have to be those of Ubique's so it is with great honor that I'll be sucking his shiny new thumb. Thank you Paul for helping us see beyond that thin layer of shallow plastic perfection and guiding us to the more subtle and profound depths of the moment.

Statistics
Place: 4 out of 86
Avg (all users): 6.6795
Avg (commenters): 7.9200
Avg (participants): 6.8491
Avg (non-participants): 6.3200
Views since voting: 1752
Views during voting: 210
Votes: 78
Comments: 32
Favorites: 5 (view)


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AuthorThread
04/14/2015 11:24:43 AM
beautifully put together.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/13/2015 09:08:45 PM
Congratulations on the high, high honors you received for this fine, ineffable image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/13/2015 01:06:51 PM
I did give this an 8, but obviously I need to open my mind to the power of ugly vignettes! congratulations on getting the blue thumb for this, the ultimate achievement in this challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/13/2015 12:44:44 AM
Knew this would do well. Congrats on Paul's top honors
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/13/2015 12:07:06 AM
You know what I'm not surprised this got Pauls top pick, I could see him taking this, and almost thought he did, before I read that he didn't enter. WD on the HM!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
04/12/2015 11:50:58 PM
Great image! Looks like it belongs in a cool, artsy coffee table book.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/12/2015 10:16:22 PM
Even the men are monoliths. Excellent.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/12/2015 08:15:04 PM
Now why on earth would these guys sit in front of that unattractive building I don't know, but it does make for a pleasant looking image, that one cloud really makes it, bump.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/12/2015 06:48:53 PM
such an improbable and excellent natural diptych. One of my two favorites in this challenge
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/12/2015 04:52:57 AM
Classic Ubique, the subject contrasts here are brilliant.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/12/2015 04:46:43 AM
9 from me that vignette at the top is sublime, the tones are crisp and sweet and the middle jacket pattern against the dullness of the other three jackets boom. love the contrast of light and dark, the bright pavement and the dark looming brutalist concrete structure hope vs dismay and theyre the judging panel deciding on who wins.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/11/2015 11:12:02 PM
What in intriguing art gallery. I especially like the shadowed head, lower right. A great outing among friends, I'd say.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/11/2015 01:12:16 PM
monumental. with an audience
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/11/2015 09:45:53 AM
Beautifully wrong & ugly. Even instead of odd people/buildings. Skewed horison. Vignetting taking over too much. Harsh light. Backsides. And I do like it such a lot, for all of the combined things done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/11/2015 05:32:55 AM
This is my top pick; of all the many terrific pictures in this challenge, this is the one I'd most like to have taken myself.

On the superficial level, it employs most of my favourite things: B&W, deep contrast, mad vignette, grain. Plus some smaller sly pleasures ... the cloud poking in like the finger of God, and the shadowed profile at lower right, snooping on the conversation.

Scrape a layer deeper and the subtler delights include great blocks of shape and tone that introduce a nearly abstract motif. You could view it from far, far away and it'd still be interesting because of the purely graphic characteristics.

It's also something of an anti-photography photograph in the absence of any faces. We expect faces, expressions (think of selfies, and those pouty-face things). Instead we're left to draw those identities ourselves. We get to choose who the players are, and what's happening.

What I choose to see is two older couples sitting on a bench in an art gallery (apparently a cold art gallery), looking at a gigantic and brutal floor-to-ceiling modern artwork. And they are all glancing sideways at each other, hoping that someone will soon suggest moving to the gallery cafe for a cup of tea.

But I could be wrong of course. Maybe there is no gallery. No tea either. That's the great thing about good art; you imagine what it means, what it is, and you could be wrong. Imagine a world where all the art was so simple and unequivocal that the viewer could NOT be wrong. I wouldn't want to live there.

I offer you the first ever Order of the Blue Thumb, and my thanks for this thrilling photograph.

  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/10/2015 11:51:44 PM
For me, this is a surreal depiction of human reverence for superhuman accomplishment or godly representations. Reminds me of the movie "2001" when the photographers approach the monolith. Maybe not so ambiguous or cosmic as I find in Ubique's but a strong image nevertheless. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/10/2015 08:43:46 PM
The gathering hole plus one head, lol. They look like they are sitting in the middle of nowhere; why? A great conversation piece.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/10/2015 06:36:00 PM
rephrasing the opening scene of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
(e.g. https://sjmj91.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/2001space037.jpg)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/10/2015 09:55:35 AM
Four Eskimos on an ice floe staring at the Kaaba and neighboring Costco backed by a nuclear mushroom cloud. Need I say more?
Well, maybe. This seemingly normal moment is actually an unplumbable mystery. Have to move on to other matters. It's a wild and very enjoyable image. The composition is odd but sterling. The juxtaposition of sharp lines and soft curves is quite satisfying. The upper vignette works it's magic in a way I could never imagine.
Many happy returns.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2015 08:41:01 PM
raising the banal to the oppressive. nicely composed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2015 05:17:30 PM
Yep...I know this feeling so well...I think that's me in the plaid.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2015 11:14:20 AM
Very nicely framed, they against the light field of cement, some texture and lines, and impressive-in-their-unimpressiveness geometric structures. Buttery smooth.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2015 08:59:13 AM
let's all eat cake now, shall we? I LOVE this photograph too, btw.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/08/2015 05:32:58 PM
This is a great tribute. It is so enigmatic and authentic that it works. The processing is perfect.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/08/2015 01:40:08 PM
Contrasts. Starkly inanimate w/ warmly human. Dark w/ light. Linear w/ curves. I regret the very strong vignette at the top. Wonderful for both design elements and story suggestions.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/08/2015 11:23:58 AM
excellent title and, yes, the vignette might be too pronounced and you might have wanted to place it on all sides as well: in for a penny, in for a pound!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/07/2015 03:32:22 PM
in a perfect little package.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/07/2015 02:52:53 PM
Wow, that is cool.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/07/2015 02:10:54 PM
They sit transfixed sharing perspectives on the forms in front of them - separated by the moat of doom!

The arching partial vignette a sign of menace. They are at a safe distance here, but only just. If this had an audio track, it would be the sound of an apocalyptic siren.

Great tones and really well constructed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/06/2015 11:23:22 PM
the vignetting up top is heavy handed, but paul is a sucker for vignetting. the rest of the photo is great.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/06/2015 03:31:14 PM
fantastic shapes. well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/06/2015 09:28:55 AM
Not sure the heavy vignette was needed but I do like this image. That little cloud creeping in the right side holds everything together.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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