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Saturday, November 28, 2009
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Owen's Photos Now For Sale on ImageKind
A Small Show in Paris
Do Drop By : December 2011, Jan 2012, Click photo for info
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Only Lynne ! ! !
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About Me
- Owen
- Why ? Answer : Why not ? Originally from a foreign country, now French and living in France for the past 20 years. Am still adapting to culture shock. Frequently go out scouring the countryside, camera in hand, looking for my dream house, for my dreamtime, for my dreams. Feel free to leave comments ! Comments are the icing on blogcake... Comments are the UFO in the twilight sky bearing news from other planets... Comments are rasberry vinegar in salad dressing... Comments are the cool balm of after-sun moisturizing lotion... Comments are the moment the band comes back out onstage to play an encore... Comments are the gleam in the eye across the room in a smoky bar... Comments are the rainbow after the rainstorm...
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Awards . . .
Thanks Steve !
Thanks Laurie !
Thanks English Rider !
Thanks Lille Diane & Jessie L. !
Thanks James !
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24 comments:
Stunning and for some reason ... heart breaking as well...
Bravo! I have tremendously enjoyed this play in 3 acts. It strikes me as being very like a short animated film. Maybe if I scroll down very quickly I can get the same effect.
The last photo, in particular, seems like a classic. It will certainly stand out in your retrospective show.
I agree with Louciao - ripe for a film or animation. The woman has such character and personality in her stature and movement...
Aye, I understand where you are coming from with this selection. The starkness of the black and white matched perfectly with the weather, and choice of dog.
The leafless trees, almost barren landscape, the contrast of colors, but also the lack of contrast between the subject and her environment. She is so alone and alone and alone in this emptiness. And I hope her dog is the comfort he appears to be. Sometimes... oh, I don't know. Owen, these photos are beautiful and intense and very very human. Thank you for sharing them, and for sharing your beautiful artistic and humanistic sense.
Nevine
But you've deleted the part where she whacks you with her cane!...
Lovely photos! Did you follow that old lady all the way home?
Owen,
I absolutely LOVE this series of black and white photos. Endearing and bleak at the same time. I love the story they tell of life as a journey, of companionship, and the approach of the life cycle's eventual winter... Beautiful.
Great shots, closer, closer, almost like flipping pictures for a hand held moving picture. This was fun.
Hi Liz, yeah, I had a sense of heartbreak and melancholy about this too, wondering if this was a daily ritual year round this walking of the poodle in the park, come rain come shine, sleet and snow...
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Hey Big Sis Lynne, maybe you could print copies of it on successive pages, then flip them real fast to get the animation effect ? I've sometimes wondered whether she ever actually even noticed that she was being photographed. I was using a telephoto and was quite some distance from her. So, are you going to come over here for the retrospective show ??? Can't wait, will book you a room in one of my dream houses...
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Hi Steve, indeed, alot of character, I like the one distant shot where she and the dog seem to be having a tug of war on the leash she just put on it, then she whacked it with her cane and off they went again...
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Jimmy, yeah, it was a very stark scene, and the cold just made it starker; but then I'm sure up there in Glasgow you know all about gray stark days in the dead of Winter... it's a pleasure to have you drop by, next time I'll get the good whiskey out, or maybe a spot of rum for a cold night ? A grog perhaps ?
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Dear Nevine, you have a marvellous sense for pulling the essence out of things, going straight to the heart of the matter... it was exactly her aloneness that drew me to her, alone with her dog... even the few other human forms that pass are clearly intent on ignoring her and pursuing there paths, just as she ignored me when she finally got abreast of where I was standing... like the Beatles' song, "Ahh, look at all the lonely people"... and thank you, from the bottom of the inkwell which is my heart, thank you...
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Jill ! You underestimate me ! I was far too fast for her; all she could hit me with were a few good Parisian slang swear words which I can't repeat here among all this polished company ! And a good solid cane for whacking she has too...
PS did chippy come back ?
Dedene... no, after that last shot, I gave up the chase, didn't want her to think I was stalking her or anything like that ! And as Jill observed, she was carrying a heavy cane, obviously a proponent of the old expression, "Walk softly and carry a big stick" !
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Dear StickUp Artist, love your moniker by the way, every time it has me chuckling over a lady with a bandana on her face holding up a bank... can you send me some cash after the next heist ??? Could use some ! But hey, a hundred thousand thank you's, your praise is deeply appreciated...
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TechnoB, yeah, as I said to Louciao, we may have to print this and do a flip-book, glad you had fun, I really was worried that people might find this one a little long and tedious... and there are fewer comments than for some... but that's ok, I was amused while uploading all those images one after another... I just wish sometimes that the actual production of a blog post was as fast as the imagination of the concept...
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I loved the idea of her enjoying her solitary walk, and was surprised to see her emerging into a busy city street. Great photo story here.
Ciao amigo !
Lorsque j'ai vu ces photos hier, j'ai d'abord pensé... ça y est... il perdu la boule ! Ce qui n'est pas complètement faux ! ! !...:-)))
Non, plus sérieusement, il m'a semblé regardé un bon numéro de Jacques Tati, un véritable sketch où se met en scène cette femme et son chien ! Bien vu la perspective des arbres et ce noir et blanc qui donne un caractère presque dramatique et cocasse à la fois à cette mini-scène ! J'ai crû que tu avais posté plusieurs fois la même photo au début, mais ensuite la subtilité de ton histoire opère ! Je trouve que tu devrais creuser dans ce sens car tu proposes un thème que tu n'abordes pas de cette façon habituellement ! Ici, tu nous a concocté une véritable histoire et c'est vraiment très convaincant ! Chapeau l'ami ! C'est une sorte de minimalisme pour moi qui apporte tant à la dimension créatrice de chacun... on peut s'en faire son propre récit ! Merde ! Il me semble parler d'un coup comme Salvador Dali ! ! !...:-)))
Je retourne à mes champignons halogènes... hallucinogènes... je ne sais plus maintenant !...;-)
Ciao Owen du Nord !
Pose-toi bien en ce jour !
A bientôt...;-)
A perfect illustration of what life often becomes when we get a bit older. Sad? Possibly or probably, but maybe she (and the poodle) are quite happy with this not so exiting life after all?
I will try to arrange my painting exhibit to coincide with your retrospective show. Looking forward to staying in one of your dream houses. Will bring a tarp. (actually I typed "tart" first but I'm not sure if the Saj can make it or not!)
Owen,
Trés magnifique series!!!! J'adore. Cartier-Bresson is smiling down on you for certain. These are award winners in my opinion. Each and every one.
V
As a stand-alone photo, I really love the second one from the top.
And I congratulate you on trying something new. A melancholy story but also undeniably real.
Nice post and great photos!
This is a far cry from visual drivel!
I have enjoyed watching this story unfold on a beautiful, stark landscape.
Hi Amy, thank you then, if some enjoyment was garnered, then I am indeed content... I wasn't sure at all what sort of reactions this little series my provoke, I felt like I was going fairly far out on a limb posting these...
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Hey John, thanks for dropping in, and I appreciate your compliment tremendously...
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K, this is about as real as it gets, many thanks...
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Virginia, now I am really blushing, if you think these might have drawn a smile from Cartier-Bresson; that is very high praise indeed. I will continue to draw a smile from members of the Pantheon of photographic gods...
:-)
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Dear Lynne, it would be so wonderful to put on a joint show with you one day in Paris or wherever... what a thought !
Now, as for the Saj, you are wicked, wicked, wicked, and where is that lady anyway, she's been right quiet of late... probably sleeping off the excesses of the last Tuesday Tipple, thought it's soon time for another...
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Peter, certainly, although the photos themselves may harbor a somewhat forlorn, cold, dark, lonely mood, there is nothing to suggest that she herself was sad or unhappy in any way, she probably on the contrary loves her daily poodle walk...
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Jeff,
Toujours un grand plaisir de lire les divagations de ton esprit en pleine percolation, même quand tu te prends pour Salvador Dali lui-même... je pense Dali n'aurait pas eu d'avance dans un débat entre toi et lui, le dialog aurait été scintillant ! Et sans doute il aurait bien aimé L.I.B.
Si cette petite histoire d'une promenade de caniche t'a apporté un moment de détente et réflexion, ch'suis plus que content, et surtout ravi de respirer la boule d'oxygene que tu apportes chaque fois avec toutes les surprises linguistiques et philosophiques que tu sors sans faille de ton chapeau de magicien...
A bientôt....
Et à tes leçons d'anglais ! Allez, un peti effort... mais bon, heureusement le langage de caniche qui se promene est universel...
:-D
Bonne semaine, j'essaierai de tenir le coup même si j'ai perdu la boule... tu n'as pas une boussole pour gens ayant perdu leur boule à me preter ???
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Hey Diane ! Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend... glad you enjoyed this little piece of low level drama, and yes, me too, I like the way it ends, after crossing the vast desert of the winter parkland, she is heading for home, a hot cup of tea, the poodle will curl up by a heater, and she will open a book and later drift off into an afternoon nap...
owen, owen, owen !!!!
il y a ici tout ce que j'aime, le noir et blanc, une histoire comme une bande-dessinée et une petite vielle très en forme avec LE compagnon de sa fin de vie !
c'est magnifique d'avoir photographié cela ! et je comprends qu'il t'aies faluu de la petience !
merci owen pour le partage émouvant et drôle !
je connais st germain en laye, très jolie petite ville :-)
plein de kisses
Oh I am happy enough to be a tart under a tarp! Anyway, great pix...even tho' I've never liked Poodles since my godmother had one named Simon who used to growl and nip! Right nasty he was.
Looks like a cold grey day too, hope you were wrapped up warm with a hat (and not a crowbar) protecting your bonce!
wow, what can i say.... i dont know im kind of speechless, i mean its georgeus, love it!
Owen,
i saw this the day you posted it, i think, and i was so stunned i couldn't leave any comment. this is one of your finest posts - there is such subtlety and depth and visual challenge in this seemingly same scene shot all over again, in which a story takes shape through the most insignificant details that one would normally overlook or not remember the next day - but not you, you read right into that old woman's life - and into the heart of winter.
thank you...
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