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Mad Cow - Tony Gradwell
Paris: In the square of Place Vendôme there was an exhibition of photographs of cows. The pictures themselves were enormous and dwarfed the people around them. The strange shadows at the top of the frame were from the floods used for nightime illumination.
| Camera: | Contax G2 |
| Lens: | Carl Zeiss Sonnar 90mm f/2.8 |
| Film: | Ilford Delta 100 |
| Exposure: | Not recorded |
| Flash: | |
| Support: | |
| Filter: | None |
| Adjustment: | Hard cropped at enlarger stage |
| Posted: | 11-Sep-2004 |
Rating: 8.38 (16 ratings)
Comments
Tremendous !
The girls are positioned just right for a really surreal image.
Pete 11-Sep-2004 at 09:43The original picture of the cow accounts for at leats 50% of the result, so even if this image deserves an 8 (to me) how should I rate the "second" photographer ? Old debate...
Jean-Christian 12-Sep-2004 at 13:40Apportionment of credit
In reply to your comment, my view is that any critical assessment must be on the construction of the image that is presented - technical and artistic. I would argue that if there is any merit in my photo it is the juxtaposition of the two components. That one of them is a photo is not relevant. If the cow was a real animal would the farmer get the credit ? If it was an advertising billboard should the marketing company get the credit ? etc etc. In any case, your comment raises an interesting point of attribution. Tony Gradwell
Tony Gradwell 13-Sep-2004 at 05:00-
Of course the original photographer must receive the credit for catching the cow with such an expression. However, what I really like in this image is a) the mismatch of scale between the girls and the cow, b) the contrast between the cow's manic expression and the nonchalance of the girls (they are not even looking at the cow), c) the way that the girls are partly framed by the poster. All of these points come from this particular shot, although they need the cow image as well.
Pete 13-Sep-2004 at 05:29Added value
This image is technically excellent and you depressed the shutter at the decisive second... the result IS enjoyable. There is definitely added value in such shots, but to me their flavour is not the same. Actually I took a similar picture at the Luxembourg Gardens once, with a jogger passing by a giant picture of Churchill. Though the result was quite alright, strangely enough I just could not get to be satisfied with it. I have to work that out with my psy.
Jean-Christian 13-Sep-2004 at 08:31hmm...
"In reply to your comment, my view is that any critical assessment must be on the construction of the image that is presented - technical and artistic. I would argue that if there is any merit in my photo it is the juxtaposition of the two components." I agree with you here, though you may not agree with my conclusion that the two women are just incidental IMO. You could just as well had a child passing by or a man smoking a pipe, etc. Virtually anyone in that building could have sufficed for the "juxtaposition". "That one of them is a photo is not relevant." Here's where I disagree with you. It is just what is relevant. It's someone else's artwork. And after all, it is what's interesting about this photo. "If the cow was a real animal would the farmer get the credit ? If it was an advertising billboard should the marketing company get the credit ? etc etc." This analogy doesn't work for me either. It is clear that someone else's vision is what brought this to life. We all have seen cows countless times but I haven't seen them like this. This issue rears up now and then on this site and I've been critical of other people's artwork of artwork. Cows in a field don't qualify as art until you make it so.
Kevin Conville 13-Sep-2004 at 19:58There are photos of images and photos that simply use an image as an element
This clearly is not a reproduction of an image but a photo that uses one as a key element. The photographer of the cow deserves no more credit than the designer of a dress or auto used as part of a photo. I find the actual contents of the "cow photo" is much less significant than the two figures or even the shadow of the overhead lights. I must give Tony credit for the artistic concept of framing / cropping the final image so that the original cow photo seems to be an image with the other elements barely protruding or placed in the mat area. Creative of him IMO.
Bob Michaels 14-Sep-2004 at 16:41