On 3/5/06, Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Frank ... > > The pic doesn't do much for me either, although I believe it would be > stronger if the framing were a little tighter (as said, I believe, by David > Savage - eliminating the fourth soda machine) and if the photo wasn't > tilted so much. There doesn't seem to be a horizontal or a vertical line > in it. > > My only thought is that you intentionally wanted the image tilted and > skewed, but for what reason I cannot understand. But then, I don't > understand the relationship between the pop machines and the memorial > either. I guess I'm just slow and a bit foggy ... happens more and more > these days. > > Shel
Shel, I don't see that the photo is tilted, but maybe I'm slow and foggy, too <g>. I agree that there are no horizontal or vertical lines, but to my mind (both at the time of shooting, and now), the result of all those lines is "not tilted". Whatever the situation, I don't see the orientation (whether tilted or not) as anything I tried to do intentionally; rather I felt (and still do) that I shot the scene as presented to me. As far as the Pepsi machines, two thoughts come to mind. First of all, placing the row of vending machines in the sight-line of the memorial was rather unfortunate, and in my mind trivializes the monument. In fact, I think its sanctity and "sacredness" (for lack of a better term) is severely compromized. Secondly, to me, it spoke to the corperatization of war. I couldn't help but wonder if that's what war's about these days: corporate interests. There's a movie playing in one or two theatres here in Toronto called "What We Fought For", and I was thinking of making that the (ironic) title of this photo. I guess that I'm reading way to much into it, but that's what I thought. In any event, I think that the poor positioning of the monument is an insult to the soldiers that it was intended to honour. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
