Day Two: Elliott Erwitt

photographer: Elliot Erwitt

Waiters and Chef, Hotel Ritz

I am drawn to images that capture and incite my imagination.  And this is one of my favorite from one of the truly great photographers of the 20th Century.  What are these men looking at?  What is behind the screen?  There is so much joy (and not just in the men's smiles) in this image.  And, above all, it captures a romantic time and place.  It's perfect.

My instinct would have been to crop the upper portion of the image and yet the ceiling draws the eyes to the back of the room, behind the screen.  And so the eye wanders to the back of the room, to the lamp in the upper right, to the man on the right and down the line, wandering to the table.

Day One: Mickey Smith

photographer: Mickey Smith

I have tasked myself with uploading one photo each day (though more likely in waves) and discussing why I like (or don't like) that image.  Why does the image work?  Or not?  For me.

This photograph, by Irish artist Mickey Smith, is stunning.  Human; and yet not.  Natural; and yet not.  This is a work that can only be a photograph.  It might even be a "mistake" (that is, was Mickey, in fact, attempting to focus on the surfer in the bg?).  Perhaps not.  It does not matter.  The result is powerful and mysterious.