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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
2/6/2008 1:33:08 AM
love the expressive nature of this image. not everything needs to be perfectly exposed, absolutely sharp and utterly linear. thanks for reminding me of that.
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Photo By: Roger Skinner
(K:81846)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
2/6/2008 1:27:51 AM
the old way is always the best way. love the sepia and of course the careful composition with the road leading the eye through the frame. beautiful work sir.
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| Photo By: Roger Skinner
(K:81846)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
2/6/2008 12:29:58 AM
Rog! Struth mate, good to hear from you. Yep, my make-up artist had this vision, we kicked it around and then went for it. This is one of the results, some of the others are way darker. Anyway, glad you like it. Hooroo!
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| Photo By: Russ Hewitt
(K:1831)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
9/17/2007 5:50:55 AM
the textures and deep, rich browns that plunge into shadow are so completely involving that these alone would be enough for this image. add the title and this becomes a powerful political statement that takes it to another, much more meaningful level. there is also something visceral here that makes me want to reach out and run my fingers over the surface of the globe and it's chains as if in so doing i am trying to take away some of the pain of betrayal. outstanding paul.
regards
Russ
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| Photo By: Paul Lara
(K:88111)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
9/10/2007 6:02:35 AM
great shot paul but i must admit i find this image just a little disturbing. there's something in the wide-eyed, fixed stare that makes me want to know what she's looking at. or not want to know...
cheers
russ
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| Photo By: Paul Lara
(K:88111)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
9/9/2007 11:47:04 PM
personally i like the mostly monochrome but just a hint of colour execution here. the eye has nowhere to go and thus must look everywhere. then there's this ever so slight hint of colour that it can focus on.
cheers
russ
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| Photo By: Paul Lara
(K:88111)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
7/18/2007 3:24:40 AM
beautiful work, truly what photography should be --- the interplay of light, shadow, texture and colour.
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| Photo By: Gustavo Scheverin
(K:164501)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/27/2007 5:30:12 AM
dammit you are a genius jay. haven't been here in a long time and when i come back i see this. so evocative of man ray and all the early photographic practitioners. here you take eggplant and make it's flesh seem human thus transforming the image from a still-life study into an erotic one. beautiful work.
regards
Russ
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| Photo By: Jay Gumm
(K:3084)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/26/2007 10:34:17 PM
love the layer upon layer effect as well as the basically monochromatic nature of the image not to mention the sheer beauty of the the place.
regards
Russ
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| Photo By: Shirley D. Cross-Taylor
(K:174199)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/26/2007 10:29:38 PM
love the rich monochromatic nature of this image combined with the texture and shapes to make this a beautiful piece of work.
regards
Russ
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| Photo By: Ranjay Mitra
(K:733)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/26/2007 7:38:04 PM
i've always loved colour monochromes and this one is no different. beautiful lines and subtle textures as well only interrupted by the curve of the spout. great work mate. and thanks for dropping by to say g'day.
regards
Russ
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| Photo By: Roger Skinner
(K:81846)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/26/2007 7:29:51 PM
this is an amazing picture. not only have you captured a perfect moment in time but there is an endlessly fascinating series of possible stories that go with it.
regards
Russ
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| Photo By: Branimir Fagarazzi
(K:38367)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
2/12/2007 5:56:20 AM
brilliant beyond words
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| Photo By: Wojtek Kwiatkowski
(K:-27)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
1/9/2006 9:06:35 PM
Oh man, this is not good. One of the stalwarts leaves and what happens to the rest of us, where do we get our C.B. fix? Yeah I know there's the website but honestly where can we see those beautifully gritty urbanscapes filtered through your unique vision? I miss you already man.
This image is full of such energy and joy that it is utterly ironic that it may well be the last one of yours ever posted. As always the deep shadow threatens to but never quite engulfs the players and pushes them where they belong... front and centre. The angle adds the extra dynamism I've come to expect from your stage work. As usual the shot rocks. All the best my friend, please keep in touch.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: Carlheinz Bayer
(K:14220)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
11/20/2005 6:59:40 AM
a profoundly sad, moving picture made even darker by your words. even so this is an image obviously taken by someone with a great empathy and decency. where it could have been exploitive i think you have managed to retain this man's dignity despite his obvious pain. my compliments on both counts.
i have just stumbled on your work and must say that it is impressive in the extreme. sad to say there is nothing after 2004. hope all is well in your world and perhaps some day you will grace us again with more of your fine imagery.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: P.J. D.
(K:515)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
11/2/2005 10:59:03 PM
Graham,
Thanks so much for the kind comments. It's a real compliment to have Bob Carlos Clarke's name invoked in relation to my work. Theme? Me? Yeah not so much. I get a bunch of random ideas kicking around in my brain and go out to shoot them. They end up here on UF without rhyme or reason for all to enjoy.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: Russ Hewitt
(K:1831)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
10/26/2005 4:26:19 AM
Everything everyone else has said about the SX-70 colour palette is true. There's a delicate, washed-out quality to it that makes it feel dated, left out on a ledge in the sun and forgotten. Love the angling of the image in the centre and as I look at that particular one I find it fascinating that the cab seems super-saturated while the van on the right is almost completely washed out. That's SX-70 for you. So sad that they're pulling the plug on it but I guess the writing has been on the wall for awhile (especially when Kodak has decided to flush their B&W paper division ). Beautiful triptych my friend, love to see you continuing to post this kind of work.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: Carlheinz Bayer
(K:14220)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
10/26/2005 4:11:36 AM
Carlheinz,
You know, I feel pretty sheepish that I haven't replied to this sooner. Well, I guess better late than never. This shot is taken in a totally dark storage area in my friend's condo in New Westminster in B.C. when I was visiting in June. The only light was a flashlight she had that I used to 'paint' the entire scene. The total exposure was about a minute, maybe a little longer. I think the reason for the extremely red colour-cast is twofold. First it appears that unfiltered Fuji film (Sensia at least) when cross-processed yields this red tone. I think it's accentuated by the digital scanning and printing process because when I've had Fuji processed by the rapidly shrinking number of analog (optical) printers, this colour-cast is not as prominent. The brassy red seems to come directly from the combination of Fuji film and the digital minilab. That's fine when it's what I want but when I'm looking for a more delicate (usually blue-green) tone this is not the outcome I'm happy with. When I want that outcome I usually shoot with Kodak Ektachrome and try to find an optical lab to process and print it. That's getting harder and harder to find in this rampantly digital age. Hope this is helpful my friend. All the best.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: Russ Hewitt
(K:1831)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
10/3/2005 4:58:37 AM
actually i'm glad you didn't have a real camera. there's a beautiful, delicate, dreamlike quality which this has that a much sharper 'real' camera couldn't possibly give; it would have been too sharp with too much detail. the low megapixel quality means colours merge into each other and sharpness is soft at best. that's the way it should be.
as far as the image itself, you captured the perfect moment when sleep was deep and awareness was long gone. beautiful.
cheers
russ
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| Photo By: Amber and Renee
(K:111)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
8/20/2005 6:55:38 AM
I haven't been here for awhile and that's my loss for while I've been away you have been busy. This was the first image I saw when I clicked on your page and I thought "Wow, Jay's doing lovely female portraits". Then I started looking around and there was more... much more. I'll save my comments on those for another day but tonight I just want to say how you never cease to amaze and delight me. Just when I thought I had you 'pegged' you come up with this new series and this lovely, unexpected portrait. It's fairly straightforward, simply lit and altogether elegant and direct. It is what portraiture should be; an artistic rendering of a human being by a sensitive and gifted artist. Thanks Jay, keep surprising me.
all my best
Russ
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| Photo By: Jay Gumm
(K:3084)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
7/29/2005 3:58:57 AM
Thanks Irma, I finally took your advice.
cheers
R
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| Photo By: Russ Hewitt
(K:1831)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
7/11/2005 4:59:55 AM
interesting...
guns are a great prop, partially because they're dramatic and also because we can use them as a kind of visual shorthand to convey a message or a feeling. i have mixed feelings about using them, almost the same way i have mixed feelings about photographing someone smoking because of my own personal anti-smoking stance. still there's no denying we as photographers often slide toward the symbols which we can use to create the impact we want because it's easy. i've done it (at four examples in my usefilm portfolio), i know many others have as well. makes me wonder how much harder it would be for us if we didn't have these visually charged cultural symbols at our disposal.
for me the power in this piece is in the eyes and it is almost impossible for me to tear myself away from them. the 'blood spatters' add a layer of texture and disturbance as well. this is a fine piece of work shelby. i've just come to your images through jay gumm whose comments i've read and had to come see what attracted him. so glad i did.
regards
russ
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| Photo By: shelby koning
(K:5450)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
6/2/2005 5:26:38 AM
y'know, there's something about that rock in the lower left that i actually like. maybe it's the counterpoint between it's smooth greyness that contrasts with the colours and textures of the rest of the picture. maybe it's that it leads my eye (or forces it to leapfrog over it) into the rest of the frame. not sure why but for me it works. thanks for this striking image pat.
cheers
russ
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| Photo By: Patrick Ziegler
(K:21797)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/23/2005 4:27:53 AM
There's so many cool details to look at in this pic: his painted nails, the bracelet, the shimmery scarf --- all attached to a guy who looks like he's ready to keel over. Ah the toll life on the road has taken. I love this shot C.H., you have a way of catching the perfect moment in all it's glorious detail. One other thing, the fact that his eyes are obscured by the hair is the icing on the cake. If the eyes are mirror to the soul I expect if we saw them that we'd be wondering how he's still standing. Yet like you said, he gave a great show. Very cool.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: Carlheinz Bayer
(K:14220)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/19/2005 12:01:06 AM
sounds like you're getting lazy just like me. my warning to you about not keeping in shooting shape is that if you don't practice, it eventually shows up in your work. i know this from sad experience.
i chose this image because nobody has commented on it. i've had a chance to look through your entire portfolio and have been very impressed by some of your work and a little lukewarm on others. "arising from despair" is a brilliant piece that i was absolutely blown by. it is beautifully lit and sensitively executed. "gas mask" and "arabian myth" are creepy enough to give the faint-hearted the willies. there are a few others i quite like as well but i think i'll eventually comment on them individually. as far as this and some of your other heavily manipulated images go, i don't feel they have the same power as your other, 'straight' images. i think what you're trying to do with the manips is stretch yourself and expand your visual horizons by trying out new things. while some of them make for interesting images i'm not sure if they carry as much emotional resonance as your other work. this image for example just feels too 'worked on'. there's a whole lot going on in it but i'm not sure that the story or intent of the image comes through as clearly as it could or simply gets lost in the glitz of the manipulation. it's less a photograph and more an illustration with so many competing visuals that i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be looking at. now i can tell you that i'm still a die-hard film guy who is ever-so-slowly entering the digital age. i barely know anything about photoshop and thus any manipulation takes place in-camera using alternative processes and lighting effects. this may skew my perception of some of your manip work but i guess if i was to suggest anything to you at this stage of your photographic career, it would be to go a little easier on the flashy manipulation stuff and concentrate more on the heart of your work. look for the meaning or the core emotional power in your images and have that as your driving force. whether it's a fashion shot or something more artistic, try to find the truth in each frame you take. now i know that sometimes a picture is just a picture and that's fine. just remember that if trying to find the truth in each picture is the driving force behind what you do i think you and your work can only get better. you've got a lot of talent ethan, the world deserves to see more of it.
cheers
russ
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| Photo By: Ethan .
(K:881)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/9/2005 11:49:03 PM
very nice ethan. love the details like the gold leaf on the model, the contrast of the feathers texture against the smooth of her skin. your model is stunning and she is obviously the focal point of the image, however those finger extensions are quite dramatic and integrating them more into the composition may have added an additional element of excitement/danger/edge to the overall feel of the image. of course you probably weren't necessarily trying for that feel so i should just shut up. hey by the way, where DID you get those extensions, they rock!
cheer
russ
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| Photo By: Ethan .
(K:881)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/8/2005 5:12:14 PM
being a diehard B&W guy i prefer the toned version. the colour version is great but there's just something about a monochrome image that i think is more dramatic and focusses attention on the content of the image as opposed to dazzling them with the colour. so much of this image appeals to me, the model's pose, her expression, your use of the high, tilted angle; it all comes together to create a sense of time and place while adding an erotic element as well. good work.
cheers
russ
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| Photo By: Frank Beer
(K:10112)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
5/1/2005 9:49:00 PM
this picture combined with your comment about your sadness makes this a devastating combination. it is utterly beautiful and deeply moving in it's bleakness. i hope you are using your art to give form to your sadness and thus purge yourself of it. i too am in the midst of a situation that holds me deep in sadness and i know that i must either reach out with my art or else to my friends for their support. i have chosen the latter. if you have not may i strongly encourage you to reach out to those who love you and find comfort in their presence and their words. if you have no one to reach out to please email me.
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| Photo By: Rafael Ollero
(K:696)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
3/22/2005 6:29:39 AM
This is probably the lightest I've ever seen your work Jay. It's quite beautiful and very striking, especially the strong sidelight. Both of you look radiant in this captured moment. So real, so warm and so deeply human. Even here though, even taking this with the smile in your eye you still add a little edge... in the deepening shadow of which there is much, in that oh so slightly ambiguous expression, in the fact you've chosen to partially hide yourself. Just a tiny bit of darkness amidst all that light: for how empty would be the light without the dark. No wonder your work perpetually grips and will not let me go. Your art, your life, out here for us all to see, to feel, to love. Thank you Jay.
Russ
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| Photo By: Jay Gumm
(K:3084)
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Critique By:
Russ Hewitt (K:1831)
3/22/2005 6:09:42 AM
Beautiful repeating patterns and perspective that make this two-dimensional art of ours seem like 3-D. I've always loved images like this that have the abilty to invoke that feeling of vertigo even when I'm just sitting in my chair in front of the computer. Also love the rich copper colour cast to the whole image. Nice work.
cheers
Russ
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| Photo By: Sony Kusumo
(K:7190)
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