Face of Hope, a photo from District of Columbia, South

Photographer's Note

A man looks onward during the immigration protest this past Monday. Tens of thousands of immigrants marched onto the nation's capitol this past Monday in a consolidated effort to bring attention to immigration reform and amnesty. The protesters are against a new bill named HR 4437, if passed, would mean a crack down and deportation of all illegal immigrants in the United States.

RPoole5552, Cuba-Junky, eleparc, ndb1958, dmitriy55 heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

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RPoole5552 (1822) 2006-04-12 22:38 [Comment]

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Cuba-Junky (2817) 2006-04-13 2:15

You captured a beautiful expression of this man with dreams ...
Great picture!
An

MiguelP (14470) 2006-04-13 2:30

This is a photo that explain by it self and need just a little help from the note. Great expression of hope and dignity. The flags give us the context of the photo. Very interestinp moment Mark (I wish them good luck)

nygus (8178) 2006-04-13 4:24

very american iconography, with this man looking up , and the flag. obviously i cant blame you for following cultural pattern you probably see everywhere around, but here in Europe many people think of such poses as very naive...it is definitely too tight though, blue on the left spoils everything, it looks like 20% cropped from bigger picture of a crowd. of course looking up where there is no space is a common error, to break this rule you need some graphical justification to make it work, here it doesnt have any. Or maybe it is supposed to see peoples minds trapped with narrow ideals and patriotic symbols ...no space to breathe

[2] +

eleparc (24063) 2006-04-13 8:39

Hi mark, this one is bar far the best in your series about this march IMHO. The eyes looking up, this blue piece of clothe on the left corner, the flag on the top right as a symbol of what they long for... I think it might shock you but it has everything of the communist iconography that one could find in the soviet union when the soviets came to power.. the worker looking up, the hammer, the flag... interesting similarity!

Great compo and a very impacting shot! congrats!
Eric

markoci (3933) 2006-04-13 12:12

read with interest swiatek and eric's discussion on the symbolism here. i agree, the white & blue is somewhat disturbing, unless off course the colors are relevant to the protest(?) overall i think it's a great patriotic photo but i just can't seem to make the connection with the cause.. (to explain, i guess in my mind patriotism is something i'd associate more with homophobia... maybe just lived too long in europe...)

edit: just wanted to come back to this shot after seeing the other photos from this event. as part of a series it makes perfect sense, puts it into context. i retract on my thought not making the connection.

Darren (6823) 2006-04-13 12:30

Hey Mark. Interesting shot here and to be honest I am having some difficulties interpreting it exactly.

I will go with the technicals first, they are easy. The skin tones look odd to me; I think a combination of bad light when the shot was taken and some kind of heavy handed post processing. My guess is that you have either done some work with the shadows/highlight filter, perhaps coupled with some sharpening to emphasize contrasts. Anyways, the result to me is just not quite right. Secondly; this is too tight for my tastes. The flags do give context, but the flag on the left is emphasized too much for my tastes because of the tight cropping. I also don't really like that his gaze is cut off by the edge of the frame, which is just too close to his eyes. Technically, I think the whole thing is overexposed by a stop or so. I see on the EXIF that you were using spot metering. I guess you metered off his face without comensation. This guy is pretty dark and I think some negative exposure compensation was needed.

Now, the emotional thing. Part of this is certainly affected by my status as a non American, but too often I view using the stars and stripes in a photo as being either a crutch, a cliche or a tug at the heartstrings. In this case, I find the second to be the case, with the first playing into it too. Certainly I wouldn't say this shot is a tug at the heartstrings though. The bottom line for me is that because so many demonstration shots include the stars and stripes, any shot including them has less impact. I know it is difficult but finding a shot with some other symbol would have more impact. I guess it is sort of guilt by inclusion. BTW, I view photos of a flag burning in Iran with exactly the same emotion; it is not because this shot is taken in the US that I feel this way. I hope I am making myself understood.

Anyways, for my second critique in a row, I have confused myself and written a fair bit. I guess that does speak well for this image causing a reaction, which a documentary/journalistic image is supposed to do.

[3]

Homerhomer (4080) 2006-04-15 0:49

I find both of your last shots to be quite remarkable Mark, the first one a typical americana, the always so present problem of immigration in the country built by immigrants, in additional twist the first image is very melancholic, in a way it remainds me of many paintings from the war of independence.

This one on the other hand I find to fit the communist revolution of 1917, perhaps with a cuban twist because of his face. The utopic glaze in his eyes is priceless. Both pics very well done.

But Mark, you have to fix the blue in both images, it is awefull, looks so fake it's not funny ;-)
Peter

ndb1958 (9289) 2006-04-16 5:52

Interesting note about the situation of "illegal" immigrants in USA. The guy's expression is very strong and I like the perspective you have chosen.
I think in this case the flag makes sense.
Great capture,
Nino

klennon79 (0) 2006-04-17 1:43