Strong Hands

Ted Szukalski

On my daily walk yesterday I've noticed this man sitting on the stairs behind a crowd of people awaiting for their bus. There was no real way of photographing him due to the crowd until I saw him from the side. I almost gave it a miss as usually it is the face and eyes that make the portraits interesting.


Suddenly, I have noticed his hands and a quote from an old children movie "Neverending Story" came instantly to my mind:"They look like big, strong, good hands don’t they.” Once strong, now powerless. Once healthy, now unfit. The nothing had taken hold."

This triptych of digital photographs is dedicated to these once strong hands.

Strong Hands - Part i
Strong Hands - Part ii
Strong Hands - Part iii
Click the thumbnails or the links for full phtographs.
PS: I have increased the size of my thumbnails :

photofreak

Ted Szukalski wrote:

On my daily walk yesterday I've noticed this man sitting on the stairs behind a crowd of people awaiting for their bus. There was no real way of photographing him due to the crowd until I saw him from the side. I almost gave it a miss as usually it is the face and eyes that make the portraits interesting.


Suddenly, I have noticed his hands and a quote from an old children movie "Neverending Story" came instantly to my mind:"They look like big, strong, good hands don’t they.” Once strong, now powerless. Once healthy, now unfit. The nothing had taken hold."

This triptych of digital photographs is dedicated to these once strong hands.

Strong Hands - Part i
Strong Hands - Part ii
Strong Hands - Part iii
Click the thumbnails or the links for full phtographs.
PS: I have increased the size of my thumbnails :

Ted, Your images evoke so much emotion from me. Thank you for sharing...and, I feel honored you critiqued my photo.
Mandi

wxwax

Powerful B&W, Ted. Those hands really are remarkable.

saurora

Very powerful even without eye contact...maybe more so. I think the first shot really shows the hands well, it's unfortunate the finger-tip is cut off. I like the way he is holding his hands, and they appear to have once been very strong indeed. It almost appears as if he is contemplating what they once were capable of accomplishing.

rosselliot

very nice! shows a lot about the person in the image....those are the best kinds of images....that invoke passion and wonder and awe about the thing/stuff/person in the photograph.

great job,

- RE

SeeMoon

saurora wrote:

Very powerful even without eye contact...maybe more so. I think the first shot really shows the hands well, it's unfortunate the finger-tip is cut off. I like the way he is holding his hands, and they appear to have once been very strong indeed. It almost appears as if he is contemplating what they once were capable of accomplishing.

I agree! It's like he thinks about times that won't come back.. makes me sad a little. Isn't it great that the shot you actually thought would be second best -because you wanted to capture his face and couldn't- gives this extra emotion to the photo? Great BW also Ted!

Ted Szukalski

Mandi,
I'm trying to be a fair participant of this forum. To me this not only means showing my work but also to enjoy the work of others. Learn something from them and teach something if there is an opportunity.

photofreak wrote:

Ted, Your images evoke so much emotion from me. Thank you for sharing...and, I feel honored you critiqued my photo.
Mandi

Ted Szukalski

So many comments. I'm glad you are enjoying my photography. I must confess good feedback encourages me to take more and probably more

challenging

shots - like the ones in this post. Thanks all.

THE TOUCH

Ted Szukalski wrote:

"They look like big, strong, good hands don’t they.” Once strong, now powerless. Once healthy, now unfit. The nothing had taken hold."[/I]

Ted - Very powerful, emotional images. I was very impacted by them and the quote makes it much more! I'll always remember that part of the movie, and it fits so well.

Of the three, I feel that #2 is perfect - the position of his hands and with his head down, it adds so much more!

It reminds me of a shot I took in Mexico. We were doing ministry at a village that literally lived on a dump. They made they money by rummaging through the trash, day after day, and would build things with junk. Hope you don't mind the post, here's one of the "rummagers":

Ted Szukalski

Thanks for comments.
No, I don't mind at all. This forum is for sharing and exchanging experiences. We learn not only about photography but also about the world we living in through the photography of others.

System

I really like this series. There's great tension and emotion but it's left to the viewers interpretation more so than if you could see the mans face. THat's cool. I'm not super crazy about some of the filters applied but that's a style thing and totally subjective. For me they are a bit orange...but regardless, the captures are brilliant. I envy your diverse subjects, the aboriginal features (other post) you get to shoot are truly striking.

Ted Szukalski

The coversion was done using optikverve plugin, which I actually like - it is a subjective thing.

Australia is quite diverse when it comes to racial mix, I guess it is similar to USA to some extend. Apparently every 5th Australian, including me wasn't born here.

As for aboriginal tribes - I do not see many of them around. Mostly performers. I'd like to do a proper tour of inland Australia but that takes time and money. One day...

truth wrote:

I really like this series. There's great tension and emotion but it's left to the viewers interpretation more so than if you could see the mans face. THat's cool. I'm not super crazy about some of the filters applied but that's a style thing and totally subjective. For me they are a bit orange...but regardless, the captures are brilliant. I envy your diverse subjects, the aboriginal features (other post) you get to shoot are truly striking.

John Desjarlais

Really powerful shots, all three . I like them as a set. Also really like your processing job. Thanks for sharing.

Seefutlung

For moi, #2 is the strongest. #1, you cut off the pinky, #3 has a bit more going on ... #2 is very strong, the hand are held almost prayer like, the winkles of the hands are reflected in the wrinkles of the side of the face.

I would like to see a tighter crop. The white concrete stairway wall is distracting, I'd crop and burn that sucker to minimize its distracting brightness.

Ted Szukalski

Take a shot at the post process and show me what you mean.

Seefutlung wrote:

For moi, #2 is the strongest. #1, you cut off the pinky, #3 has a bit more going on ... #2 is very strong, the hand are held almost prayer like, the winkles of the hands are reflected in the wrinkles of the side of the face.

I would like to see a tighter crop. The white concrete stairway wall is distracting, I'd crop and burn that sucker to minimize its distracting brightness.

Seefutlung

Ted Szukalski wrote:

Take a shot at the post process and show me what you mean.

Sure ... no problem in right-clicking from your site?

Gary

Seefutlung

Ted Szukalski

I like that crop quite a lot. I'll see if I can rework the series over the weekend using something like that as a template.

Seefutlung

Thanks for allowing me to work with your pix. Notice that I darkened most everything except the hands and triangle of the face. Good luck.