Stab Boy. Not for the Squeamish.

richpips

richpips

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Rich
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Something a bit different.

C+C welcome.

Advise on small children and sharp knives not needed. :)

 
I wouldn't saw squeamish, more macabre, if your intention was to shock you've certainly achieved it, horrible
 
WTF?

A bit distasteful perhaps......
Or maybe I'm being a bit over sensative :shrug:
 
Cannot see the point of such a pic.
 
wack61 said:
I wouldn't saw squeamish, more macabre, if your intention was to shock you've certainly achieved it, horrible
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I agree completely.
I dont understand why anybody would or want to take this type of picture
 
Whatever else, the background drop needs a seriously good iron!
 
Ignoring whether I think this is an appropriate shot, compositionally it looks a bit soft to me.
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Thankyou, I forgot to sharpen before resizing.

As to all the comments of "why ?"

Why not. :)
 
If you're gonna shock, do it well.

I don't think this works because he doesn't look in control of the knife (his hand's wrong)- so there's no menace. The shadow is strong but the contrast on his face and the overall pose is neither vulnerable nor striking - it's sort of someone just standing there.
 
I don't think this works because he doesn't look in control of the knife (his hand's wrong)- so there's no menace. The shadow is strong but the contrast on his face and the overall pose is neither vulnerable nor striking - it's sort of someone just standing there.
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He doesn't do menacing very well does he. Though that's what amused me about the idea.
 
Hmmm in the current climate of so much knife crime the subject matter is a hard one to like :(

However, as per Sara's approach with personal opinions aside, theres a bit too much space above him in my view. And I would have had him gripping the handle, not touching the blade.

Perhaps if we saw this on an anti-knife crime campaign we'd applaud it as a strong piece of work - I guess its all about context!
 
gingerjon said:
If you're gonna shock, do it well.

I don't think this works because he doesn't look in control of the knife (his hand's wrong)- so there's no menace. The shadow is strong but the contrast on his face and the overall pose is neither vulnerable nor striking - it's sort of someone just standing there.
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I agree the kid just doesn't look a, evil enough or b, like he knows what to do with the knife.
 
Grant said:
I love that this has upset 99% of the people that chose to comment.
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I'm not sure it has, most of the comments are critiques of the image itself really :) Only 4 have shown upset - 6 have offered critique :)
 
What really distracts me are the eyes. I think it would be more menacing if the child just looked normal, rather than having a pseudo-comical glowing thing going on. Shots of flowers and birds are nice, but it would be sad if no-one experimented with new ideas, regardless of how 'out there' they might seem!

Chris
 
I think the shot has potential but would have been better if he was holding the knife properly and the background was ironed/smooth. His left arm looks a bit awkward too - maybe have both hands on the knife, or maybe a clenched fist like he was really going for it?
 
Although I get the point of trying to shock and doing something like this, I don't think this works sorry.
if your going to give a kid a knife please get him to hold it so his thumb is not on the cutting edge, even if it's fake.
 
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What really distracts me are the eyes. I think it would be more menacing if the child just looked normal
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I'll try that. His eye was half in shadow so I tried to salvage it. OTT though.

I think the shot has potential but would have been better if he was holding the knife properly and the background was ironed/smooth. His left arm looks a bit awkward too - maybe have both hands on the knife, or maybe a clenched fist like he was really going for it?
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Yeah I reckon two hands on the knife would be better too. He would only pose for a minute so I worked with what I had.

Give a kid a knife and get him to hold his thumb on the cutting edge
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His thumb isn't on the edge. But as it said in the OP "Advise on small children and sharp knives not needed." :)
 
This is clearly a setup, possibly a fake knife, I don't really see what the problem is?
Before I'm told it's obvious, we don't know what advice was given to the boy before and after the shot, maybe some people should credit the child with a certain amount of intelligence.
Children have played with fake knives and guns for years, longer than I've been alive!

As for the shot, he could be a bit sharper and there is too much space above him for my liking. I quite like the shadow and the creased BG somehow works for me.
 
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To me, by the way the child is standing, his expression and most of all by the way he is holding the knife it looks as though he has found the knife, picked it up and is shocked by it. I can almost hear the concerned parent's voice shouting for him to put it back down on the floor.

The background is odd, was it shot in/by a tent?

For macabre, I'd have gone for a derelict urban scene, had the little-chap holding the knife properly and perhaps had him adopt a more menacing/agressive pose. Although to be honest I don't think it's a subject/effect I'd personally go for, but each to their own!
 
The background is odd, was it shot in/by a tent?
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Background was a crumpled sheet that had just come out of the dryer.

Edit with less space at top, and normal eyes.

 
For added effect why not have the missus lying on the floor in a pool of tom-sauce, with the little chap stood over her, knife et al. Hec, if you've got a well trained dog, give him the tom-sauce treatment too! That would be creepy.
 
Really doesn't work for me. Its like its a nice sunny day and you said "Here son, hold this knife." and he's gone "Um, k." There's nothing macarbe about it. Nothing gothic or dark or sinister. Its completely devoid of all those things.
 
If it's an image designed to provoke thought and comment, it clearly works. Not a bad way of raising the profile of a current issue. Carry on!
 
Frankly it is a terrible photo. Period.

Unsharp, poorly processed, the knife is held incorrectly, the light is rubbish, the blood looks awful - Shocked that you bothered to list the picture here.

One thing that could have saved it is the shadow mirrors the point of the knife, but it cant. It really is that bad.

Sorry about that. Context wise, thats all I want to talk about as it i talk photography, not a social discussion site.....
 
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Maybe a shot of just the shadow of the boy and knife against a more normal background could convey the message.
 
Diego Garcia said:
Frankly it is a terrible photo. Period.

Unsharp, poorly processed, the knife is held incorrectly, the light is rubbish, the blood looks awful - Shocked that you bothered to list the picture here.

One thing that could have saved it is the shadow mirrors the point of the knife, but it cant. It really is that bad.

Sorry about that. Context wise, thats all I want to talk about as it i talk photography, not a social discussion site.....
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Somebody had to say it.....
 
People need to lighten up.
It's the whole 'Natural Born Killers' argument. Stone (despite being a self-righteous ****) said "I'm not promoting violence, or trying to make it 'hip'. I'm showing the irony of the media that take these things, such as serial killers, rapes or kidnappings, simply to sensationalise them and make a profit".

The thing I get from this is that kids nowadays that are the murderers, who carry knives with intent of stabbing someone, some of them are barely into double digits.

I think it's got potential to be a very, very good picture, however as Pete said, it comes across extremely set up, as if you were like "here, hold this", "uhh, okay?", and as Mr Not Spanish said, it really isn't executed very well.
I can see that it was probably quite a difficult shot to enact, simply with the rush you had to do with trying to get him to stand still, get the light correct, etc.

I think, I'd probably shoot it against a brick wall. Dying light, heavy off-camera flash, shot from a 45 degree angle so the flash's shadow is powerful against the brickwork. Leaned up against the brick wall, one foot up, the other down, knife hanging down, more natural (or even give him a toy or something and photoshop the knife in later so as to look more natural), and do away with the blood. The blood just doesn't fit and it implies he's killed someone.

I think the message might be better received had the blood not been put in.

I think this shot has potential. Ignore the naysayers. No one had a problem in 'City of God' with kids not even 5 years old running around killing each other, nor does anyone have a problem with Diane Arbus' 'Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park'.
 
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The second one with the eyes worked on looks better.
The blood however, is just wrong . Can tell it's not real.
 
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