# Rinse and repeat



## Braineack (Dec 30, 2017)

This photographer captured shots of New Yorkers on their way to work for 10 years — and it shows how repetitive a commute can be

Sad how bad the photos are. A monkey could and has done better


----------



## JustJazzie (Dec 30, 2017)

I think I made it though about 6 sets before I realized what I was wasting my time on! Though Ive never understood street photography enough to have an opinion on if they are good of bad. :giggle:


----------



## Derrel (Dec 30, 2017)

Braineack said:


> This photographer captured shots of New Yorkers on their way to work for 10 years — and it shows how repetitive a commute can be
> 
> Sad how bad the photos are. A monkey could and has done better



Huh...this fellow's pictures do have a certain unstyled nature about them. Poor framing, people way too low in the frame,drecky lighting. Must be weird to sit and take potshots of the same people for days on end. Kind of odd, in a way...I imagine he made some people feel uncomfortable. The woman wearing the same blouse two different days...I bet she's thrilled to have been selected. NOT!

I dunno...this project is most likely not about the photographic skills on display, but more about the way people drag themselves to work every day in a big,modern city environment. The ONE, single happy-appearing person was the lovely young woman...all the others looked like they'd be Bah Humbug! types. Again, I get the feeling that this isn't about photographic skill, but more of just *using photography to make a point* about society; the quality of the pictures, of the photographic technique, is not really very high by modern standards, but the countenance of the people shown seems (at first glance I guess) to make some type of statement. Right? I dunno....it's an underwhelming web-based story. Maybe the exhibit in-person has more weight to it. I'm always willing to give the benefit of the doubt to "projects" of this type,ones that people undertake with some type of end-goal in mind.


----------



## tirediron (Dec 30, 2017)

Okay....


----------



## cgw (Dec 31, 2017)

Have logged a whole lotta miles on Toronto's subways and concluded way back that shooting passengers on the trains and around the stations wasn't that rewarding. Maybe I just  didn't get in touch with my inner Winogrand often enough.


----------



## terri (Dec 31, 2017)

Derrel said:


> The woman wearing the same blouse two different days...I bet she's thrilled to have been selected. NOT!



She wasn't the only one, either.   There were men wearing the same shirt with the same suit, as well as several just wearing the same shirts, hats, etc.  

They are collectively wearing similar expressions, too.  The exhibit could be called "Same Sh!t, Different Day" to make that point.  

The photos are technically uninspired, as is the apparent theme of the subjects.   Could be intentional, but that's likely a stretch. 

Overall it's perhaps worthy of a look, but I agree with Derrel that it might be more compelling to see in person.   Better lighting and careful arrangements could give them more punch than this Web lineup.   I'm betting it causes a bit of discomfort to viewers who can readily see themselves in there, right?   So the project is successful in that regard, eliciting an emotional reaction, however muted.


----------



## Derrel (Dec 31, 2017)

Solid analysis from terri, above. Stay tuned for my series on county transfer station customers hauling in loads of yard debris to the dump...


----------



## tirediron (Dec 31, 2017)

Derrel said:


> ...Stay tuned for my series on county transfer station customers hauling in loads of yard debris to the dump...


I assume the first images in the series will be self-portraits?


----------



## Derrel (Dec 31, 2017)

tirediron said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> > ...Stay tuned for my series on county transfer station customers hauling in loads of yard debris to the dump...
> ...



"_Nnnnnnnyezzzzzz, as you command, My Master_."

Oh wait...that's a Star Wars line...


----------



## Braineack (Dec 31, 2017)

There's some gorgeous light in July at 9am...


----------



## jcdeboever (Dec 31, 2017)

That guy is gonna make people want to punch me more than they already want to


----------



## limr (Dec 31, 2017)

These people aren't "bah humbug types" just because they aren't smiling. These are very typical NYC street faces. The one woman just randomly smiling? That's not the face of a commuter on her way to work. Maybe she was greeting someone that she regularly meets to walk into work with or something. No one just walks down the street with a smile on their face like that for no good reason. If they do, that's actually a sign of something wrong.

Knowing the sheer volume of people that would be walking by that photog in that intersection every day, especially at rush hour, I'm actually kind of impressed at how consistently he can get shots of the same people and isolate them in the frame. I quite frankly don't give a rat's ass that they aren't as technically proficient as staged photos, or as good as armchair quarterbacks think they should be. Taken individually, the images are nothing to write home about, but taken as a series, they are quite an interesting commentary.


----------



## Derrel (Jan 1, 2018)

limr said:


> These people aren't "bah humbug types" just because they aren't smiling. These are very typical NYC street faces. The one woman just randomly smiling? That's not the face of a commuter on her way to work. Maybe she was greeting someone that she regularly meets to walk into work with or something. No one just walks down the street with a smile on their face like that for no good reason. If they do, that's actually a sign of something wrong.
> 
> Knowing the sheer volume of people that would be walking by that photog in that intersection every day, especially at rush hour, I'm actually kind of impressed at how consistently he can get shots of the same people and isolate them in the frame. I quite frankly don't give a rat's ass that they aren't as technically proficient as staged photos, or as good as armchair quarterbacks think they should be. Taken individually, the images are nothing to write home about, but taken as a series, they are quite an interesting commentary.



Yes...taken as a series...there's some weight to the idea of using photography as a means to make a point about modern urban society. Curating a bunch of images elevates the mediocre to the level of better-than-mediocre.

And no matter what motives one ascribes to the expressions in the series of pictures shown, my comment is still  totally accurate and on-point: there is only ONE happy-appearing person in the web story, the lovely young woman. The remainder of the people project neutral to downright negative expressions.

Apparently, having a happy expression is a sign of something wrong. Mental illness I guess, right?

The use of the derisive term "*armchair quarterbacks*" is deliberately insulting, and beneath you using it here. Seriously. Uncalled for, totally. I've spent 45 years shooting photos, and this guy shoots like shi+.

But we get it...a life in which the daily norm is walking to work in New York City every day can be kinda' shi++*. For most of the people who live that life.


----------



## cgw (Jan 1, 2018)

Suffice it to say the shots are all...pedestrian. Happy 2018!


----------



## Fred von den Berg (Jan 4, 2018)

Interesting project, and, considering it's a record of a very busy place at a very busy time, not bad at all.


----------



## vintagesnaps (Jan 5, 2018)

For one thing we're looking at lousy copies on a click bait site (seems like anyway). As already mentioned, if you look at the exhibits they seem more interesting viewed as collections (on his website). They do seem more significant as observations recorded over time than as great quality photographs. Could be kind of fascinating I suppose seeing them on display.

If these people were all smiling I'd have to wonder...


----------



## StevenALee (Mar 12, 2018)

I saw it somwhere, but I can't remember where exactly


----------

