Is it how they are portrayed?

ShinySideUp

ShinySideUp

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Martin
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Powerful Pictures

The above links to the BBC website containing pictures of current events where the sub-header announces 'powerful news photographs'; and indeed some of them are. Some of them are snaps taken at random times in random countries and may or may not be considered noteworthy. What I'm thinking out loud about is not whether a picture itself has note but whether or not it is of note because of where it is posted and how it is portrayed. Is it possible that some of the worst pictures ever taken (a lot of mine perhaps) could be considered to be of more worth because someone had placed them in a prominent position on a notable website? I do find that sometimes, when looking at photographs on this esteemed forum, I am impressed, but then I think, I have photographs that may be that impressive, but because they are sitting in a folder on my computer they don't seem to be so. How relatively important to the value of an image is the way it is shown over the actual image itself? Just wondering.
 
I found something wrong with them all, I don't really see any of them as powerful pictures. Maybe it's just me :D

I suppose powerful will be different things to us all. I suppose what strikes us as powerful depends upon our connections and views and lived experiences. I suppose a technically awful picture could indeed be powerful depending on how we connect to it and how it makes us feel. I think content and how we relate to the picture is what matters. Technicalities and presentation may detract a little or even a lot if they're awful but I don't think they can make a powerful picture in themselves.

Those on the BBC site though, none of them do anything for me.
 
Don't take it literally. It's just an adjective used on the internet to grab attention. Photographs on websites are usually billed as 'stunning'.
 
I was just trying to think of any recent (for me) powerful pictures and what came to me was that picture of Kellie-Jay-Keen looking defiant after being mobbed and assaulted. I'm not either supporting or criticising her standpoint but her defiance in the face of the baying mob did IMO make for a striking powerful image.
 
ShinySideUp said:
Powerful Pictures

The above links to the BBC website containing pictures of current events where the sub-header announces 'powerful news photographs'; and indeed some of them are. Some of them are snaps taken at random times in random countries and may or may not be considered noteworthy. What I'm thinking out loud about is not whether a picture itself has note but whether or not it is of note because of where it is posted and how it is portrayed. Is it possible that some of the worst pictures ever taken (a lot of mine perhaps) could be considered to be of more worth because someone had placed them in a prominent position on a notable website? I do find that sometimes, when looking at photographs on this esteemed forum, I am impressed, but then I think, I have photographs that may be that impressive, but because they are sitting in a folder on my computer they don't seem to be so. How relatively important to the value of an image is the way it is shown over the actual image itself? Just wondering.
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It’s a misuse of the word I think. None of those photos have “power” and they should have used “amazing” or some other meaningless newsy word.

I think there have been photos with power though most of the ones I think of are wartime or demonstrations eg “tank man”. What I’m thinking of are photos that have changed events or history by affecting public opinion. The “tank man” photp hasn’t produced any change in history but has been useful in keeping the memory of the massacre alive outside China at least.

Another sort of photo that has had might be an all those photos of Stalin that had other revolutionaries airbrushed out. Photos that were used to create the myth of ‘Lawrence of Arabia” by seeming to show him with more importance than he had.

What about that photo of Che Guevara that figured on so many posters (and for which I fancy the photographer never got credit or cash)?


Many (most?) of these photos have little technical or artistic value they are more “right place, right time” luck or some other process.
 
They don't seem powerful to me. The most interesting thing to me is that the Chinese solar workers don't have a motor on their boat.

The second one looks a bit like someone has photoshopped Macron's head in it. It looks odd.
 
sphexx said:
Many (most?) of these photos have little technical or artistic value they are more “right place, right time” luck or some other process.
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Indeed, I was in the wrong place but at the right time in 1981.

I was doing a computer training course at, what was then, The Control Data Institute in Wells Street London, when the windows shook and there was a loud 'crump' sound. Rushing into the canteen, which was on the second floor, over-looking Oxford Street, and leaning out of the window showed this:


film686.jpg

film683.jpg

The IRA had planted a bomb in the Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street and it was being attended to by a bomb disposal man from Bracknell when it went off; unfortunately the man died in the blast, although I didn't know that at the time. This picture was taken just a couple of minutes after the explosion as, by chance, I had brought my camera into work but had to get it from my desk.

The reason I say it was the right time but the wrong place is because a picture was published in the Daily Mail and the Daily Express that had been taken from an office on the other side of the road, thus showing the whole shop-front; I expect the photographer was paid a lot of money as it was big news at the time.
 
Erty said:
They don't seem powerful to me. The most interesting thing to me is that the Chinese solar workers don't have a motor on their boat.

The second one looks a bit like someone has photoshopped Macron's head in it. It looks odd.
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You are right, that DOES look odd.

I think in the Chinese boat they are punting, one of them has a pole.
 
All the photos on the BBC site are general news photos from various agencies. The digital equivalent of tomorrow's chip wrappers.

If you're looking for a powerful photo try this one. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/tomoko-her-bath-minamata-japan-22604

I was 14 and knew nothing about photography or photographers when it appeared in the Sunday Times Magazine. It's been etched in my brain ever since.

As for 'right place, right time'. Don't knock it. "I'd rather be lucky than good." ;)
 
ShinySideUp said:
Indeed, I was in the wrong place but at the right time in 1981.

I was doing a computer training course at, what was then, The Control Data Institute in Wells Street London, when the windows shook and there was a loud 'crump' sound. Rushing into the canteen, which was on the second floor, over-looking Oxford Street, and leaning out of the window showed this:


View attachment 395470

View attachment 395471

The IRA had planted a bomb in the Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street and it was being attended to by a bomb disposal man from Bracknell when it went off; unfortunately the man died in the blast, although I didn't know that at the time. This picture was taken just a couple of minutes after the explosion as, by chance, I had brought my camera into work but had to get it from my desk.

The reason I say it was the right time but the wrong place is because a picture was published in the Daily Mail and the Daily Express that had been taken from an office on the other side of the road, thus showing the whole shop-front; I expect the photographer was paid a lot of money as it was big news at the time.
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I was a bit further away than you, n Riding House Street.
 
ShinySideUp said:
At the same time? Small world.
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I don’t know about that. Given how many people stream in and out of Oxford Street and nearby tube stations morning & evening plus all the shoppers, at least in those days, that must be lot nearby. Wouldn’t surprise me if there were other TP members nearby at the time, given the age profile here.
 
I'd say a couple of them are good photos, but if you consider the context - a week's photos from the news - then it's not surprising they are underwhelming.I'll bet there are some amazing war photos coming out of Ukraine every week, but not going to the BBC; on the other hand there was a story on BBC online today about the few remaining "comfort women" in the Philippines, with some accompanying images of these amazingly resilient women who were so wronged by the Japanese military in WW2 and have been unable to gain any compensation ever since. Philippine Comfort Women
 
ShinySideUp said:
Indeed, I was in the wrong place but at the right time in 1981.

I was doing a computer training course at, what was then, The Control Data Institute in Wells Street London, when the windows shook and there was a loud 'crump' sound. Rushing into the canteen, which was on the second floor, over-looking Oxford Street, and leaning out of the window showed this:
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I did one in Leeds in what must have been 1981 or 1982 and on the back of that I went on to work for Systime Computers before going into field service with DPCE/Granada. A career in computers funded my early retirement (at 49) and that's the only good thing I can say for it now :D although I must have sort of enjoyed it at the time.
 
After my course I got a job as a hardware engineer with an American automatic test equipment company but beginning in the 90's, the board swappers took over and I became a bit of a dinosaur, no one chip-chases these days. I tried to move into software but I didn't like it, so after being promoted, from the service department, into a job I couldn't do (finance and contracts), we mutually agreed that I should leave. Stuck for something to do, I drove 7.5 tonners for an agency before taking my Class 1 artic licence before eventually retiring early (thanks to a decent pension from the computer industry) at age 62. I liked computer servicing but I really liked lorry driving. And now I spend my retirement money on photographic equipment...and commenting on BBC photographs (see how I brought it back on topic there :p ).
 
lindsay said:
I'd say a couple of them are good photos, but if you consider the context - a week's photos from the news - then it's not surprising they are underwhelming.I'll bet there are some amazing war photos coming out of Ukraine every week, but not going to the BBC; on the other hand there was a story on BBC online today about the few remaining "comfort women" in the Philippines, with some accompanying images of these amazingly resilient women who were so wronged by the Japanese military in WW2 and have been unable to gain any compensation ever since. Philippine Comfort Women
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Eventually, they will come out for the rest of us to see, I expect to be shocked and saddened when they do :(.
 
ShinySideUp said:
Eventually, they will come out for the rest of us to see, I expect to be shocked and saddened when they do :(.
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That’s another thing. In the past photographs, like Smithks Miniamata mercury story referenced by @Ed Sutton, could rely on being published as a photo essay in one of several mainstream picture oriented periodicals which largely don’t exist now.

New York Times publishes quite a lot of photo illustrated articles on the war in Ukraine.
 
ShinySideUp said:
After my course I got a job as a hardware engineer with an American automatic test equipment company but beginning in the 90's, the board swappers took over and I became a bit of a dinosaur, no one chip-chases these days. I tried to move into software but I didn't like it, so after being promoted, from the service department, into a job I couldn't do (finance and contracts), we mutually agreed that I should leave. Stuck for something to do, I drove 7.5 tonners for an agency before taking my Class 1 artic licence before eventually retiring early (thanks to a decent pension from the computer industry) at age 62. I liked computer servicing but I really liked lorry driving. And now I spend my retirement money on photographic equipment...and commenting on BBC photographs (see how I brought it back on topic there :p ).
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Nice to find a fellow CDI graduate. I haven't come across one for a long time :D
 
None of those are powerful images imo, just a clickbait headline. I didn't particularly like any of the photos either except the kids at play in Mexico, thought that was a great shot.
 
lindsay said:
I'd say a couple of them are good photos, but if you consider the context - a week's photos from the news - then it's not surprising they are underwhelming.I'll bet there are some amazing war photos coming out of Ukraine every week, but not going to the BBC; on the other hand there was a story on BBC online today about the few remaining "comfort women" in the Philippines, with some accompanying images of these amazingly resilient women who were so wronged by the Japanese military in WW2 and have been unable to gain any compensation ever since. Philippine Comfort Women
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Here's another photo essay on the same subject (comfort women - what a euphemism) by one of my favourite phootgraphers working today:

hannah.ph

Roots from Ashes — Hannah Reyes Morales

hannah.ph hannah.ph
 
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