Herbert's Dream, a photo from Derbyshire, England

Photographer's Note

"They advance in the shadow, long white figures, on stilts, being draped by clothes, who seem to wait for any meeting.

Appearing in the course of a tree, at the corner of a street, provided with the only language of silences and slow gestures ; they begin strange secret meetings, they approach, go away and finally invite us to follow them..."

A shot from my coverage of the promenade performance of Compagnie de Quidams in the city of Derby in the English East Midlands this September. This one reminds me of the use of light by the famous Derby painter Joseph Wright although not in the same colour frame - I was reminded of him by a recent post from Agnieszka Traczewska here on TE.

This performer found an uplight beneath a tree near their finale performance piece which involved these costumes inflating - releasing a large white balloon and initiating a firework display from the new pedestrian bridge built across the River Derwent nearby.

ktanska, lebjohnson, rigoletto, bostankorkulugu has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

ninaL (21348) 2009-10-23 1:57

Extraordinaire !!!

Big photography, intelligent photography, beautiful photography, true photography.

I am really impressed.

Best regards. Grazyna.

Angshu (56760) 2009-10-23 1:58

Hello Kevin
Astonishing...the facial expression, the light on his face, the play of shadows and the partial light on his elaborate costume. You would have taken this shot from the crowd watching the performance as we do see part of somebody next to you on the right bottom. Amazing shot, and its so difficult to get these, but then you are Kevin Ryan!
Best regards
Angshu

ktanska (44766) 2009-10-23 3:45

Hi Kev,
Impressive performance portrait, demonstrating well your skills on getting close and personal on very challenging light. Deep shadows and highlihts on white cloth and mask look really good.
Kari

pauloog (11751) 2009-10-23 5:57

Hello Kev,
An impressive view of the dramatic figure, with a fantastic play of light and shadows and the face with its red eyes springing out in the light.
Regards,
Paul

lebjohnson (609) 2009-10-23 6:12

A dream, a nightmare, and a work of art, all in the same photo. This is wonderful, frighteningly well composed, spookily colored. Those red-lined eyes, face lit from below, all I can say is "WOW"!

Regards,
Lois

bantonbuju (51815) 2009-10-23 7:58

masterly shown!...

one of the TOP works of 2009, imho...

(should we inform deniz about our 2010 plans?...:-))

best, j.

rigoletto (34279) 2009-10-23 11:04

great light job! i can barely see why you refer to Agnieszka's work. i shold have also told this to her: the compo of 5D's quality and your arty taste are overwhelming :)

ps: Senegal? Beer? What are you two talking about?

bostankorkulugu (42866) 2009-10-23 22:48

i know i am bad but he looks wrapped in a white parachute to me! >:P... the light on him rules of course, and you did a masterful job in the dark as usual... cheers grandpa...

rajiv_077 (1412) 2009-11-04 3:29

Hello Sir

This is something different, Artist's make up and costumes looks good and perfect. Good lights and shadow. His eyes and most catching part of this picture

kind regards

rajiv