Flickr Group Photo of the Day: April 9, 2012

[ManuelTDV]

(Catch me if you can ... and we will dance tango) by Bernardo Ricci Armani (www.RicciArmani.com)

Source page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricci-armani/5928213976/in/pool-1794447@N23/

Copyright: All rights reserved by Bernardo Ricci Armani

[Rob]

It's eye-catching! I love the swish in the woman's dress and the highlight on her heels, very sexy.

But... It also reminds me of the photos that come with picture frames to show them off in-store. I see the attempt to tell a story, but I dunno. I just doesn't feel anything when I look at it, really. Like it's an experiment with motion blur, or maybe a detail shot pickup at a wedding.

A dance studio would probably like it on the wall, and if that's the target market, awesome. But generally, it feels like it's more at the snapshot end of the spectrum than the photo end to me.

[ARyan]

It's eye-catching! I love the swish in the woman's dress and the highlight on her heels, very sexy.

But... It also reminds me of the photos that come with picture frames to show them off in-store. I see the attempt to tell a story, but I dunno. I just doesn't feel anything when I look at it, really. Like it's an experiment with motion blur, or maybe a detail shot pickup at a wedding.

A dance studio would probably like it on the wall, and if that's the target market, awesome. But generally, it feels like it's more at the snapshot end of the spectrum than the photo end to me.

The photograph definitely is eye-catching, Rob… it’s not the typical kind of photograph that captures a mere moment in time, but it’s a photo that captures the subjects in motion which has the great potential of telling a story. Isn’t that a facet that the art form entails?  They say photographs are worth a thousand words, this is worth more than a thousand.

To me, it looks like the snapshot is from a film that has been paused. It makes me wonder what happened beforehand and where the subjects are going... there's fluidity and movement and typical photographs of scenes and objects don't usually pick that up. There's a certain energy that exists with the image which makes it come alive to me.

[Rob]

I said that I could feel the attempt to create a story, but it's just not there for me. One could maybe make up a story based on it, but that's not photography, that's novelisation.

The strength of this image is in the triangle between the man's central white foot, the woman's red dress and right (trailing) foot, which are both near the outer edge of the frame. It's compositional and to a certain degree, colour contrast based. Which makes for a strong, energetic visual, but I don't get any more from it than that. Hence why for me, it falls closer to the snapshot end of the spectrum (not the same as calling it a snapshot).

If the intention was to create a slightly abstract detail vignette that could be sold to dance studios, though... Then it's spot-on.

YMMV