I do intend to do a whole series of photos of these run down businesses as they will be gone before too long. Last year they completed a 4 lane divided highway, replacing the old 2 lane, down to I-77 , and now Boone for the first time has a modern route into it. Growth is already starting as a result. It is no longer a semi-isolated mountain college and tourist town. When I moved here a year and a half ago the only major access was by an hour or more drive up twisting mountain two lane roads from the east (421 from I-77), south (321 from I-40), and west (321 from I-81). The natives do not seem to have realized what is going to happen yet.
Maybe I shall take some 35mm shots to show the lay out of the place, and to show Shel he really did not want to see more of the interior after all. Of course a lot of the selection of the angle is constricted by the need not to have a reflection of the flashbulb in the window or the mirror. That and the fact there is a window wall just in front of the customer (he is looking into a mirror propped up on that window sill) made moving to the right counter productive. Even if the wall was not there, moving where you seem to be suggesting would turn it into a self-portrait as the photographer would be visible in the mirror.
It is somewhat amusing to ponder how folks make suggestions without knowing the physical lay out involved, and therefore the available possibilities of the thing. Doubly so, because I have made the same kind of comments in the past. Most of use are not setting up these shots in a studio.
I do believe that if I were to reshoot the picture, and I probably will with another friend playing the customer. I would have the barber holding up a pair of scissors in his left hand and looking at the camera like he had paused to make a comment to the viewer, both derived from suggestions by Shel.
I was aware of the repeating lines in the window and the mirror that you mention and feel they are an important graphic feature of the photo.
Thanks for your comments, Bill.
--
William Robb wrote:
To me, the photo is unbalanced. I think it would be better if the camera was rotated somewhat to the right, so as to put the man getting his hair cut closer to the left side of the frame. I don't like the sink and dreck on the shelf at all, and this would get rid of the worst of it. I wonder if what is outside the window might be interesting, and perhaps could add a dynamic to the image that is lacking.
I like how the way the barber is standing mirrors the shape of the wall and stairway behind him, and how the line of his vest flowing into the lap sheet is matched by the line of the window frame flowing into the wall.
I am undecided if I think the window to the left of the picture is in fact a window or a mirror.
The true genius of the photo is the line of the stair railing reflected in the mirror (or is it, in fact a stairway on the other side of that wall being seen through a window?), so it appears that they flow together through the wall.
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
