joe's contacts ^pro

a portrait with lots of character - a man with sunglasses in front of a cloudy sky (?) - his face is distorted, because the camera was very close to him - his chin is big, his forehead small - he looks uninterested, maybe a little agressive - his scarred face enhances his "toughness" - his sunglasses are lopsided, there is a reflection of something in one glass - the title is very appropiate to the image - the brownish tint of the monochrome photo is just perfect - this is a wonderful image

an image that pops in the eyes - an everyday scene: a woman sitting on a bench, her handbag right next to her - she is studying what appears to be a streetmap - it's summer, she is wearing a dark costume and sandals - that's all - but then: the crop - it is unusual and "outrageous" - the photographer cut off the head - what usually is a crime, here it works perfectly - even though the photography is technically not of high standard (blurs, strange focus), it's the scene and above all the crop which makes this one different - the photographer (i know her work) deliberately chose everything in and about this picture, and right she did - this is a wonderful image

an image of one of my favorite photographers: so i'll probably be biased - but so what - the title gives a clue, we see a scene of a crime - the dislocated legs of a person in a corner of a claustrophobic room, stains (of blood?) on the wallpaper - the set looks like that of a cheap hotelroom, but it could be as well elsewhere - the light is sort of dingy, the emphasis is located at the most unimportant spot of the scene - we don't know what was going on here (really a murder?) - the photo transports uneasiness, fear (horror), uncertainty - it's more an ambigous riddle than a document - and exactly this is what makes this photo so impressive - this is a wonderful image

a simple photo, yet complex - there is a trunk of a tree, but one cannot see the ground - green chairs are hiding the view - the chairs surround the tree circularly - somebody deliberately made a little piece of art of a pile of chairs, probably in a beergarden - although the colors of this photography are sort of bleached out, the object matter is very interesting - never saw this kind of pattern before - the photographer has well detected this - technically the image is not on the spot, but in respect to the unusual sight of ordinary objects i must say: this is a wonderful image

an open window, a young lady sitting in the aperture, her back leaning against the side - her left leg is bent, the right one almost stretched out - her hands on knee and thigh - her skirt has rode up, showing lots of her beautiful legs (this is THE eyecatcher of the photo) - she's wearing a white blouse, a dark skirt and dark shoes - the background is blurred, the light comes from the outside and there seems to be a light inside too - the gesture of the young lady is somewhat seductive, though her face does not show emotion - it's a sexy photo - fortunately it's in b&w, that cuts off the pinup edge - the crop is good, but i'd rather have the girl not that centered - i'm not sure if it's a fashion photo - it's technically near to perfection and although it's very near to a standard shot, i must say: this is a wonderful image

a dark sky, two silhouettes if the front: women talking to each other - the left one is pointing at the other, it seems that she is telling something important to the right woman - i cannot see her faces, just their contours - but this is just enough to transport an emotion with this image - an emotion of threat (the heavy clouds in the background) and an emotion of hope and care - so the title is absolutely perfect for this photo - the colors also transport the same messages - the head of the left woman is in front of a lighter part of the clouds so one can see her outlines more clearly: perfect - if the lower parts of the women's legs were not cut off so abruptly, the image would have been perfect - still: this is a wonderful image

white and light grey in wonderful forms - this photo really stands out - an architectural shot of a different kind - if there were no title, one would find it difficult to determine what one sees - the interior of a church with an arch and a column - the image is divided into two parts - the left one shows the ceiling with a cross-shaped arch, the right one another arch with the column - the light is somewhat diffuse and very soft - the photo is almost of an abstract kind and derives its impact from the marvellous "conflict" of forms and monochromacity - only little distraction arises from the upper right corner and a covering cap of the electrical installation left of the column - this is a wonderful image

a (almost) black and white scene of a roofed place - the place itself is paved, a stripe of grids and a rough wall close it to the left - the ceiling is broken up on the left side and there are diagonal rays of light reaching from the apertures to the grids - a couple is walking on the pavement, well contrasted to the bright entry of the paved place - i'm sure that i have seen a similar scenery quite often, but i never bothered to take a photo of it - fortunately the photographer has a better eye and saw the potential of this - the contrasts are impressive, the composition of the dark and lit parts of the picture is simply ingenious - i just love the diagonal rays of light and the silhouettes of the couple - this is a wonderful image

green, all green - this is the first impression of this image - a six-seating bench in the underground (presumably), black leather - green tiles and a green emergency exit sign - white and black lines, that's all - an unpersonal light, nobody to see - all empty, a symbol for loneliness - all green - aesthetic horror - great photography - great arrangement, phantastic crop - this is a wonderful image (one of a whole bunch of great seating arrangements of the photographer)

a thick rope and a lot of knots, tied to several poles - some other poles are in the background, as well as some grassy plants - some poles are also tied together by a rusty wire - it seems to be late afternoon - the sun is casting golden light on the scene - what purpose does this bunch of knots have? it's safe but it would take a lot of time to disentangle - the photographer took a photo of a mundane object - isolated from the context it's more of a riddle, composed and illuminated well - this is a wonderful image

when i saw this image for the first time some months ago, it immediately caught my eyes - what an arrangement !! - just four hands in front of a dark background, that's all - two hands of a black and two of a white forming a cascade - the lines of the fingers of the top hand point to the left, the others show downwards - every little detail is obviously planned, together they form a terrific s-shaped tower of hands - every change in the composition would cause a loss of quality - a masterpiece - this is a wonderful image

a night scene - a railroad bridge, the photographer was standing right next to the tracks - we faintly see the steel structure of the bridge itself, some distant lights from the city nearby are not enough to illuminate the scenery - but a train just passed by and we see the tracks of its tail lights - two white lines are their traces and they end in the center of the image - the angle between the two traces and the reflection on the railroad tracks produce an interesting optical effect - one can see some ghostly remains from the passing train - the photographer chose a color with a brown tint: this gives the photo a somewhat ominous touch -  although the images indicates speed, the most intense effect is that of depth (vanishing point) - this is a wonderful image

early evening in the countryside - the enormous sky above covers more than 80 percent of the image, in the rest we see to the left several and to the right just one tree, and in between a yellow wheatfield and some green crop - the shadows from a forest we cannot see are tossed over the field crossing a couple of tracks from a tractor - there is a great tranquillity in this image, one can almost feel the approaching end of a day and the silence of the night - there are no visible people, but we see the tracks of their work in nature - and then there is this enormous sky - in a darker blue to the sides and the top, ranging from white to almost black -  this sky almost squeezes down the landscape - this is a wonderful image

a crow picking for some food - this is the stuff that uninteresting photos are made of - but here we see it thru the eyes of helmut, widely known as nightphotographer - this crow is sitting on a rail in front of a light blue wall, broken up by a dark window and a red pole - there is really not much to see in this image, but lots to admire - the composition is absolutely perfect - the horizontal and vertical strong elements are disrupted by the only living thing, the crow - the juxtaposition of the formal lines by the organic animal is just terrific - the colors are strong and clear, as always with helmut - i have not seen many photos by him, where something alive is depicted - this is the reason why i just love this picture in all his great works - this is a wonderful image

lots of red and black - and some blue and yellow - a very colorful image - we see three kids in front of the video wall in the millenium park in chicago, where the fountain right next wets the ground - the kids are having fun, refreshing in the water and being fascinated by the changig images on the video - we see only their silhouettes, the left kid is running and it's contours are blurred - the gestures of the figures are great and so are the shadows on the wet surface - there is a harmonious concept to this photo, even though i wish to see a bit more of the video wall at the top and and black parts at the bottom cropped - still, the terrific gestures, the wonderful shadows and the intensity of the colors turn this into a wonderful image

a lady in a (black) dress - she turns her back towards the viewer, almost like she were shy - with her left hand she is lifting the dress a bit, like little girls do when they are proud to show their new clothes - we cannot see the head of the lady, the crop only shows the parts from her neck to her knee - the image is soft and grainy at the same time, the color is a monochrome brownish yellow - the light is on the left side, accentuating the contours of her arm, the right side of her is almost fading into the background - her gesture seems both shy and coquettish - the composition is on the spot and it's a pleasure to look at the photo for a longer time - it's a wonderful image

a white background - and then there is the slope of a rollercoaster - five waggons with people who are obviously enjoying themselves - the speed seems to be high, as the hair of some passengers flutter in the wind - the crop is just perfect - the understructure of the rollercoaster forms a terrific pattern - and then the slope: it's a perfect arc - the outlines are reduced and it's more a work of graphic than a photo - one could argue about the frame, but this is just a matter of taste - it's a wonderful image

blue, white, grey, black - a wonderful curve, pointing up at the right - the photographer looked from down below, up to the sky - the buildings surrounding the point of view limit the deep blue, shaping that great curve - the placement of the colors is absolute on the spot, the composition is stunning - i just love that white line bordering the black building at the top of the image - simple, almost bold, yet creating a very effective optical signal  - this is a wonderful photo