First off, I think you're a good enough photographer to know what you want and that you strive to get it. However, in this case, the "time warp" didn't work for me ... perhaps the subjects are too removed from their environment. I suppose the real question is whether or not it works for you. I feel strongly that a little more information in the scene would have been helpful.
The more I look at the photo the more I'm reminded of the movie "The Man Who Wasn't There." Much of it was filmed in an "old tyme tonsorial parlor" and the somewhat wider shots really enhanced the feeling of place while at the same time strengthening the sense of being in another time. Of course, it comes down to the best way to tell the story. Your way is one, of course, but the sense I get from your comments is that you put a lot of your emotion into this picture, saw it from an emotional standpoint. Now, there's nothing wrong with that ... if ... if you can convey that emotion to the viewer. What you were attempting did not reach me past a certain superficiality. Sometimes the best way to convey your emotion, or the emotion of a scene, is objectively, photographing purely what you see, purely what's there (by that I mean shape, form, light, shadows, eye contact, catching a certain movement) rather than capturing a moment that gives you, the photographer, the on site observer, the rush. There is no eye contact here, not between you and the subjects and not between the subjects themselves. And not between either of the subjects and the viewer. The barber and his customer are in their own little world, and they are not inviting us in. Eye contact alone does not make a photo work, but photographs that have it work better. As for the scissors, had they been visible they'd have lent the photo some dynamic, and made the image a bit more vibrant, alive. They'd have been the visible connection between the barber and his customer. Yeah, the guy's getting a haircut, and the barber is giving it to him, but I don't think it's enough for this photograph. The scissors may have given the photo just that little edge it needs to give it some life while not removing the situation from that "other worldly place." Maybe you should have tried a shot with the type of scissors you described. I'd be most interested in seeing the other shots you took. This one just doesn't cut it for me. You seem to be satisfied with it, though ... What's interesting for me is that I sensed what you were trying to do, I even got a feel for it on some level, but overall, it is not a strong photograph and, imo opinion, does not work well for what you were trying to capture. shel graywolf wrote: > And.. what makes you think that is not pretty much the effect I was seeking? > > I was also trying for kind of a feeling of a timewarp type of experience. > > The shop is kind of like, "... it feels like the guy and the barber are > suspended in their own world, apart from anything around them ...." (to quote > you). Except when it if full of college students seeking cheap haircuts, then it > is just a run down old barber shop. > > Unfortunately Mark uses those little scissors like a lot of modern stylists do, > maybe I should take in my old style ones for him to hold, and replace those > containers with some old time glass hair tonic bottles of colored oils? Nah... > Too contrived. > > BTW, taking your advice about being unobtrusive, I snuck this shot with the 4x5 > Speed Graphic and a #5 flashbulb <grin>. --Actually, that is part of the > ambivalence that you are getting from the photo, they are posing at not posing. > It is an effect of the huge camera and big flash bulbs. Your subjects just don't > feel you are doing something trivial when taking their picture with it. It is > not an effect you tend to see in modern photographs. So this is just a snapshot > that the people in it did not feel was just a snapshot while it was being taken. >
