Mini Challenge #215 – Distressing Places and Spaces
Alans Grin
Registered Users Posts: 346 Major grins
Mini Challenge #215 – Distressing Places and Spaces
In all forms of art, many works, or parts of works, aim to create an emotional response in the audience. Quite often this is based on positive emotions, but often in Film, Opera, Dance, Music, Literature, Painting etc the opposite is also used to seek an emotional response – and they are often a rollercoaster ride between positive and negative emotions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra...on_of_emotions#
In my experience this “Dark Side” of sought negative emotional response seems underrepresented in Photography – we all like “nice” things. So as an experiment I want this mini to explore if anyone does deliberately take photos on a darker or less pleasant emotional nature.
To explore this concept I would like to see photographs of places or spaces where the photo is intended to create at least a little negative feeling, or some revulsion or distress in the viewer at the thought of being there.
Examples (for me) would include – Landscapes, seascapes or natural settings which have been damaged, ruined or the environment threatened by industry, rubbish pollution, general ugliness, disrupted natural beauty etc. In an urban setting it could be spaces or building interiors which are seriously distressed, abandoned or feel haunted and would probably be unpleasant to be in or perhaps cause unease or even feel threatening.
I would have liked to be broader in scope on this mini and include human nature, but I felt this was a step too far for this experiment which may already fall on its feet. So I’m not looking for people or animals doing negative things and only include people if they add to the distressful environment or just happen to be there. It is about negative environments.
For the avoidance of doubt, like most, I generally do not seek out to take photos like this but have met and respect some that do, and I’m not on some environmental crusade here.
I appreciate emotional reactions are a very personal thing, and I’ve no idea how I will judge this assuming more than one submission is made!
The competition will close 10 days from now 10pm Monday 26th October GMT.
UPDATE - No Close-ups of dead animals, no blood, dismembered animals or internals - and this applies to humans too.
Please show some self restraint and assume that your image might be part of the "News at 6" on the TV, might be viewed by minors and keep in mind that the shock of "gore" does not always trump emotional response created by laying out the framework of imagination in the viewers mind - for example Hitchcock.
Although I'm not necessarily expecting entries quite as edgy as some of these, here are a couple of mine...
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OUR UN-OFFICIAL GENERAL RULES
1. Have fun sharing and seeing what others share!
2. The host supplies a topic and YOU POST 1-3 IMAGES. The host judges the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and is not eligible to enter. The 1st place winner becomes the next host, chooses the next topic and becomes the next judge.
3. Any photo you’ve taken is eligible, regardless of when taken or camera used.
4. Any amount of post-processing is allowed. However, it is helpful if you list your camera and lens along with your photo.
5. You may comment on other contestant's images. If you want someone to leave you some critique or criticism, just ask within your post.
6. The winner has up to three days (72 hours) to begin a new mini-challenge, or the honor goes to the #2 finisher and so forth.
Guidelines:
1. Enter 1-3 photos and put them in a single post.
2. Either embed your image in the thread or, if you must, supply a link to it. Keep in mind, however, most people don't want to click to open photos hosted elsewhere (i.e. on your website).
3. Also try and resize your photos prior to posting so they're sized appropriately for viewing without having to scroll (~800 pixels on the longest side works best.)
4. Give each image you enter a title.
5. Enjoy discussion with members about their images, don't let this just be an entry thread!
6. When quoting a post, change the IMG urls to a 200x200 size picture so it is clear your post is feedback and not another entry. (See here for help).
7. Don't be hesitant; share 'em and enter!
Mini-Challenge pointers:
1. Upon winning a mini-challenge round, your first step is coming up with a new theme and starting a new thread using the same format as others have used.
2. Make sure to notify the admin of this thread to update the main thread links with your entry thread.
3. Feel free to watch the thread as it grows or wait to the end time and look at all the entries all at once.
4. After the time/date has passed, then officially close the thread with a single post notifying everyone of the fact.
5. After you're finished judging, start a new thread (again using the prior formats) and post your Winner and runners-up. It is important to have runners up in case the winner does not show within the 72-hour window.
6. PM the winner with this info above and let them know they have 72 hours to set up the next mini-challenge.
7. If the winner does not show/start the next mini-challenge after 72 hours, notify the next runner-up and post a message on the Winner thread of the fact.
8. Remember, if you're the Winner, you run the next mini challenge!
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In all forms of art, many works, or parts of works, aim to create an emotional response in the audience. Quite often this is based on positive emotions, but often in Film, Opera, Dance, Music, Literature, Painting etc the opposite is also used to seek an emotional response – and they are often a rollercoaster ride between positive and negative emotions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra...on_of_emotions#
In my experience this “Dark Side” of sought negative emotional response seems underrepresented in Photography – we all like “nice” things. So as an experiment I want this mini to explore if anyone does deliberately take photos on a darker or less pleasant emotional nature.
To explore this concept I would like to see photographs of places or spaces where the photo is intended to create at least a little negative feeling, or some revulsion or distress in the viewer at the thought of being there.
Examples (for me) would include – Landscapes, seascapes or natural settings which have been damaged, ruined or the environment threatened by industry, rubbish pollution, general ugliness, disrupted natural beauty etc. In an urban setting it could be spaces or building interiors which are seriously distressed, abandoned or feel haunted and would probably be unpleasant to be in or perhaps cause unease or even feel threatening.
I would have liked to be broader in scope on this mini and include human nature, but I felt this was a step too far for this experiment which may already fall on its feet. So I’m not looking for people or animals doing negative things and only include people if they add to the distressful environment or just happen to be there. It is about negative environments.
For the avoidance of doubt, like most, I generally do not seek out to take photos like this but have met and respect some that do, and I’m not on some environmental crusade here.
I appreciate emotional reactions are a very personal thing, and I’ve no idea how I will judge this assuming more than one submission is made!
The competition will close 10 days from now 10pm Monday 26th October GMT.
UPDATE - No Close-ups of dead animals, no blood, dismembered animals or internals - and this applies to humans too.
Please show some self restraint and assume that your image might be part of the "News at 6" on the TV, might be viewed by minors and keep in mind that the shock of "gore" does not always trump emotional response created by laying out the framework of imagination in the viewers mind - for example Hitchcock.
Although I'm not necessarily expecting entries quite as edgy as some of these, here are a couple of mine...
##################################################
##########################
OUR UN-OFFICIAL GENERAL RULES
1. Have fun sharing and seeing what others share!
2. The host supplies a topic and YOU POST 1-3 IMAGES. The host judges the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and is not eligible to enter. The 1st place winner becomes the next host, chooses the next topic and becomes the next judge.
3. Any photo you’ve taken is eligible, regardless of when taken or camera used.
4. Any amount of post-processing is allowed. However, it is helpful if you list your camera and lens along with your photo.
5. You may comment on other contestant's images. If you want someone to leave you some critique or criticism, just ask within your post.
6. The winner has up to three days (72 hours) to begin a new mini-challenge, or the honor goes to the #2 finisher and so forth.
Guidelines:
1. Enter 1-3 photos and put them in a single post.
2. Either embed your image in the thread or, if you must, supply a link to it. Keep in mind, however, most people don't want to click to open photos hosted elsewhere (i.e. on your website).
3. Also try and resize your photos prior to posting so they're sized appropriately for viewing without having to scroll (~800 pixels on the longest side works best.)
4. Give each image you enter a title.
5. Enjoy discussion with members about their images, don't let this just be an entry thread!
6. When quoting a post, change the IMG urls to a 200x200 size picture so it is clear your post is feedback and not another entry. (See here for help).
7. Don't be hesitant; share 'em and enter!
Mini-Challenge pointers:
1. Upon winning a mini-challenge round, your first step is coming up with a new theme and starting a new thread using the same format as others have used.
2. Make sure to notify the admin of this thread to update the main thread links with your entry thread.
3. Feel free to watch the thread as it grows or wait to the end time and look at all the entries all at once.
4. After the time/date has passed, then officially close the thread with a single post notifying everyone of the fact.
5. After you're finished judging, start a new thread (again using the prior formats) and post your Winner and runners-up. It is important to have runners up in case the winner does not show within the 72-hour window.
6. PM the winner with this info above and let them know they have 72 hours to set up the next mini-challenge.
7. If the winner does not show/start the next mini-challenge after 72 hours, notify the next runner-up and post a message on the Winner thread of the fact.
8. Remember, if you're the Winner, you run the next mini challenge!
################################################## ########################
0
Comments
“PHOTOGRAPHY IS THE ‘JAZZ’ FOR THE EYES…”
http://jwear.smugmug.com/
This was my second thought. It is the original Jewish cemetery in Curacao. A refinery has been built next to it and the emissions have deteriorated some of the flat stones so that they are unreadable. This one has been protected by the little house built around it, so it is in somewhat better shape.
This is from a set of photos that I call "Then and Now". The one that is the most distressing to me isn't going to mean much to most people - it is that my college dorm where I lived for three years is now a parking lot. I understand why they did it, but still.
Not only is my dorm a parking lot, my science lab which was in an old church is now a modern music conservatory, the Carnegie library is now an office building and has been replaced by a monstrous new library.
This is probably more what you had in mind. I took this photo from a plane in 1958 - someplace around Pittsburgh (because in those days when you flew from Cleveland to D.C., you stopped in Pittsburgh on the way). It shows strip mining.
1) Me observing the Swan in squalor.
2) The woodland 'Still'? or Bong...
3) Wasted! Party On, Hobo Squat.
Don
'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
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Hardly a contender for various reasons, but appropriate, I thought?
Taken within my local venue after a period of severe flooding about 6.5 yrs ago... junk from the city got washed downstream and ended up like this when the 'Noah's Ark stuff' subsided.
pp
Flickr
2. Dumped instead of recycled
3. After the storm
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Alan.
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Title is term used to describe the destination of my photo trips to mrs pp.
Just a 'record' shot of a location we happened upon during a walk one evening. Were going across a cycle /pedestrian bridge over a stream on the boundary of a couple of local schools ...and saw activity.
I returned with gear and eventually got the (sort of) shot I was after ...as per pic in post 12 here
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=228609&highlight=rodent
pp
Flickr
1. Ghost houses in Newfoundland
2. Ecological disaster in Baja California, Mexico
3. Belize City - a dangerous place
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
This is a large paper mill located on the York River near where I live in Va. (No, the bird was not added in PP'ing.)
Closed furniture plant stacks from Smyth County Va.
... just another
pp
Flickr
After seeing Pauls latest image just before going to bed, I have just got up again to consider and type this (3 am here!).
Firstly, Paul - I do not feel your image over steps the mark within the brief, and I do think it has an emotional message to covey and have no issue with it, however it is a prompt ...
Whilst "Art" does not have boundaries to what is presented (eg Texas Chainsaw etc, Damiens Half Sheep or the culturally shocking unresolved discord in Tristan and Isolde by Wagner when first performed) minors are protected from being subjected to extreme imagery, and it is not inconceivable that there may be young photographers in Smugmug that could take part in this, and that possibility is playing on my conscience. Yes I know worse can (if sought) be seen all over the internet or in many movies today, but I feel some degree of additional restraint needs to be introduced here.
A new rule which I will add to the introduction ...
No Close-ups of dead animals, no blood, dismembered animals or internals - and this applies to humans too.
Please show some self restraint and assume that your image might be part of the "News at 6" on the TV, might be viewed by minors and keep in mind that the shock of "gore" does not always trump emotional response created by laying out the framework of imagination in the viewers mind - for example Hitchcock.
Paul - For the avoidance of doubt I am neither asking or suggesting you remove your image.
I sincerely apologise to everyone for this adjustment, it is not easy subject, but I still think it a subject worth exploring for those willing to take part.
Alan
I have views of course, but never claim that they are correct or even that there are "correct" views on such subjects.
Alan
Considering the nature of the previous day's festivities, it struck sufficient of a chord to warrant me stopping and taking pics.
pp
edit
Tables turned ...for the red one,anyway ... in this far better shot.
Comp has a young snapper section, and I suspect these entrants would be looking at /studying such pics for inspiration etc?
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/wpy/gallery/2015/images/mammals/4965/a-tale-of-two-foxes.html
Flickr
2.
3.
California in advanced Demo I think this shot would be something in the realm what you are looking for ? I drove by this awhile back and it drew my eyes off the road ,as much of this as you now see in So Cal this one got my attention ?? As I stood and took a couple shots, turned to walk away [maybe 1 second] a crash in the intersection ,one car running the red at hi speed and the other going for a speed thru yellow .I did not even want the shot of what I saw.If I had shot 2 more frames the wreck would have bin in frame
“PHOTOGRAPHY IS THE ‘JAZZ’ FOR THE EYES…”
http://jwear.smugmug.com/
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Many thanks to all who have taken part.
Alan
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=255761
Alan