Archive for the ‘130109’ Category
130109 – Picture of the day
Editor’s Comments: The theme given is “100m away from home” and I was a little bit disappointed that everyone (including myself) interpreted it at a literal level. As expected, everyone took a picture of either an activity or a location 100m away from home. In terms of clarity, everyone struck home, although I had trouble understanding Rachel’s take. The table pattern came out fine, indicating a void deck, but the huge focus on the lighter threw me off. The only reason I could think of is some hinting of smoking activities at the void deck – perhaps a regular group of friends who hang out in the area. But that was after some effort on my part. (ed: But when I read the captions after posting this, I realise Rachel’s interpretation has the most depth. She sees “home” on two levels, that of hers and that of the groups who frequent the void decks to find comfort)
There are two ways of showing the “What(s)” of 100m away from home. One could either explore a sense of location or explore a sense of activities. Adeline’s picture is nicely composed. I could sense that she is trying to adopt a very minimalist approach in which the viewer is invited to fill up the gaps in the picture. The sense of location is strongly presented given the amount of visual cues she provided. Similarly, Kevin also limited his visual cues, though his technique is not so much on selective composition, but rather, by use of lights and shadows. Instead of showing human faces, he showed silhouette. By taking advantage of the lighting angles, he managed to selectively reveal what is essential to show a construction site: the orange plastic nets, the white barricade and the danger sign. However, I feel that while his picture showed me what is 100m away from home, he has not shown me what is something so special 100m away from home. Hence, his picture was a bit of style over substance.
Weiyang’s picture was most literal and clear. But that is also why it did not came out fantastic. I appreciate the fact that he tries to combine everything in his frame, to make his picture busy and also to provide a very telling overall view about an area 100m away from home. But it ends up being a save-your-ass shot, and looked like a community pamphlet picture. On the other hand, Kang Li also dealt with sports in his neighbourhood. His treatment of sports is by far more intriguing even without showing as much details as Weiyang did. There is peak moment, human expression and dramatic lighting all in one shot. However, Kang Li’s photo lacked heavily in the sense of location. It might have pipped the rest in a theme-less day. But not today.
Alex’s picture is the picture of the day. There is a sense of location, conveyed by the size of the airplane which indicates it is about to land (thus near Changi). There is a sense of activities, conveyed by the fishermen in the foreground. There is deliberate treatment to the scene, conveyed by the purposeful alignment of subjects to create a compositionally strong frame. There is a sense of attachment to the place 100m away from home. The pictures conveyed his intimacy with his surrounding. He knows when the fishermen are out at work and where the planes would pass. And he applied the knowledge to locate a vantage point that will help him get this particular shot. Most importantly, he has gone beyond showing what is 100m away from home to showing what is so special 100m away from home, something which many other entries lack.
This doesn’t mean that one has to interpret the theme “100m away from home” to be something warm, heartfelt, homely or special. But that is what Alex seemed to want to evoke, and his execution managed to carry it through.
