AOOTB, a photo from Nottinghamshire, England

Photographer's Note

AOOTB = Art Out Of The Box and is a well used term in my area of work - originally used to describe moving visual art from white walled gallery spaces visited by a 'select' audience into any manner of other venues, the street, coalmines, hospitals, car boot sales etc -

The impact of this and my area of work , community or participatory arts in the UK context (it means different things in different places) has also led to all sorts of arts moving out of the box - symphony orchestras working on housing estates, opera in fish markets, poets on buses etc and for me it has led me into many forward thinking strategic planning groups to think about the future of our community.

Don't want to say too much directly about this picture - in the words of the great mathematician 'go figure' - just to say I stalked this location to catch the right moment. It's in one of the main pedestrianised shopping streets of Nottingham at closing time - it's dark, the crowds are thinning out and the shopfitters are getting down to another session of work...........

This one is for Fred (Dolin) whose work on creative compositions I admire very much.

bantonbuju, Fixfocus, hyasar, syd1946, designsoul, alekpet has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Furachan (0) 2006-02-20 3:51

One of the best shots I have ever seen on TE, Kev...I'm not trying to curry favor or anything (why would I need to?) That huge facial shadow on the left balanced by the pink square and the figure standing, beyond, all of it united by that neutral cream tone.
In my FAVs, enough talk!
Cheers,
Francis

bantonbuju (51815) 2006-02-20 3:51

hi kev,
this ia 100% kev ryan, even without looking at the author's nickname: really a decisive moment capturing the man and his shadowed copy (but without a cap);
and simple square just framing this story into the art-theme which you describe in the note;
very "grown up" work my friend;
bw, j.

Luko (14000) 2006-02-20 5:33

I agree this is an amazingly striking one... something about "things that are not what (or where) they're supposed to be", art (including your photo) as a questioning : lots of pending thoughts triggered regarding the whos, hows and whats.. I'd love to see a question mark tagged somewhere on the wall.

Technically, the direction the capped guy (but why the hell is he carrying a jerrican full of chemicals?) costs this photo a "favorite" status.

dolin (7369) 2006-02-20 6:08

Hi Kev.
Etrange cette scиne, pleine de mytиres.
Le visage sur la droite, cette bande noire sur la gauche, ce cube rose qui sort de je ne sais oщ, ce mec .... une atmosphиre trиs spйcaile.
J'aime bien ta compo...trиs originale.
Fred

maciekda (19895) 2006-02-20 6:32

fantastic shot Kev, this head in front and the one far in the background, complex composition, wicked pink box. one of your best shots, goes to my favs

markoci (3933) 2006-02-20 9:38

wow, this is real art kev! almost like a collage, absolutely fabulous! i agree with many, no doubt one of your best.

btw what is that box?

Fixfocus (9385) 2006-02-20 13:28

Hi Kev,
What a surprise that it is not a museum or art gallery.Superb compo and timing,the silhouetted face is great here.
Greetings,
Hermann

hyasar (7775) 2006-02-20 15:22

Hi Kev,

without having a major object (may be pink box), you have a very nice shot.

congratulations,
Hakan

Zepi (22848) 2006-02-20 15:30

Hello Kev,
Trиs fort ce genre de composition !
J’adore ce type bien net au second plan, cette silhouette au premier dans le noir donne de la dimension et du mystиre !
En plus, le cube rose donne de la vie et un petit cфtй graphique !
J’aime beaucoup
Merci pour le partage
Amicalement,
Sйbastien

syd1946 (1167) 2006-02-20 15:30

Hello Kev,
Great capture of this unique moment.Very artistic with this shadow adding points to this fantastic photo.It is like an advertising picture!Congratulations!

Best Regards,
Thomas

designsoul (17843) 2006-02-20 15:47

Kev, you are thinking OOTB! I think this is my very favourite of all of your pictures, a wonderful work on levels both graphic and contextual. A marvellously seen moment and the positioning of the pink cube in between the dark silhouette of the face of a passerby and the opening with the guys in there. The colour scheme is superb...
bravo
sasa

jinju (14265) 2006-02-21 3:29

Cool.

I like the composition so much, especially that FACE overlooking this whole scene. You got it spot on, perfectly placing it on the frame.

alekpet (4663) 2006-02-21 6:00

Hi Kev.
I am trying to make something meaningful of a critique but it is very hard, compared to the fabulous image you've posted. I'm only going to talk about how I've seen it and what draws me to it the most. First, I had to get a little off the monitor to appreciate the whole structure of the composition.
I love that interchange between the dark and light and again light, with the flying colourfull box among almost perfectly colourless photo, if you consider skin coloured walls as white. This almost no colour then began to grow more and more and the eye then wondered to the coloured box, which instantly changed the perspective of the walls to being colourless. Then I decided to come closer to the monitor and noticed how the faces are pretty similar in a sense that the furthest one is contrasting a strong light behind and the close one is itself a contrast be being black. I also like the way the silhouette turned out as being a shadow of the guy at the back. Think about it: a light source, a face and a black face which is blurres just as it's being a shadow. There the so obvious colourfull box is being used as a perfect bringer of the perspective, which is very hard at so much contrasted images. This is such a good image in so many ways, it deserves a place in any galery.

Aleks

nerve (10231) 2006-02-21 10:29

This is definitely one of your bests Kev..
great composition, a haunting shadow.. everythings fits in its place here..
Yes, this is art out of nothing really!, ;)
Congratulations!.

wilkinsonsg (8662) 2006-02-21 12:11