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Can I just say that it is easy to give armchair critisism, but another thing entirely to take shots like this.
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Hello Erik I reckon you have started a really interesting series, and should make some excellent exhibition material. If only I had the chance of doing the same.. my (small) Russian camera collection would get a good work-out Colin
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 Originally Posted by cliveh
Can I just say that it is easy to give armchair critisism, but another thing entirely to take shots like this.
The OP specifically asked for criticism.
Originally Posted by Erik Petersson
This is a small sample. What works, what doesn’t? What can be improved? Etc, etc. Thanks in ahead.
Erik
Mark Barendt, Ignacio, CO
"The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size." Albert Einstein
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Thanks for support and encouragement! I'm grateful for for criticism. How could I otherwise improve?
Mark, over time I have to become more and more bothered by the perspective thingy. But this comes from my method, I use the SLR as a TLR which leads to a lower point of view. Otherwise people would be too bothered by the camera. And the framing is no easy thing to fix. The metro is full of people, commercials etc. I always concentrated on people's expressions and let the other things just be. I somehow like the faces cut in half etc. The empty areas, well I'll have to think about that.
A friend of mine who also is a very good photographer helped me to choose about 45 pictures from this series that I will go through and try to do nice prints during the holidays. Then I'll show them to a gallery. Let's see how it goes!
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Man, I love the shot of the two guys sharing music player earbuds!
Gotta be a caption for that somewhere.
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Originally Posted by Erik Petersson
Otherwise people would be too bothered by the camera. And the framing is no easy thing to fix. The metro is full of people, commercials etc. I always concentrated on people's expressions and let the other things just be. I somehow like the faces cut in half etc. The empty areas, well I'll have to think about that.
Eric, you need to answer these questions for yourself.
Which people would be bothered, them or you?
Does your audience care if taking the shot bothers either the subject or you?
As to the framing, if you get the camera up that problem is much easier to solve.
Mark Barendt, Ignacio, CO
"The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size." Albert Einstein
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I actually liked the lower point of view as it offered something different and unique. It's so common to do the same old eye level, or sometimes overhead look, but the lower point of view, from below, is much more rare.
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Mark, the photos have succeeded because I go unnoticed or in other cases confuse people. "What does he do with that camera in his lap?" As Walker Evans noticed in his book "Many are called", people tend to relax their faces in the metro, to act as if no-one was watching. This is very interesting and this is why I do not want to bother them too much.
Thanks h.v. I think the low viewpoint is hard to do well, this was how it turned out and I am actually satisfied with many of the pictures. Satisfied enough to show them!
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It's a great collection of shots, Erik and you're to be congratulated on an exciting project. My only concern would be that the very nature of a "captive audience" like this, all crammed into a carriage, can lend a certain sameness to the shots. For my money, it's all a bit static, not much happening. That has its own validity, of course - people don't tend to do cartwheels in a railway carriage - but for your exhibition/book you might want to maybe expand the theme a little to include, say, the activity on the platforms, with people struggling with luggage etc. You might also consider using several shots in a collage format. Great that you're considering an exhibition in Stockholm, but how about approaching the station authorities in Moscow or Kiev and setting up an exhibition inside the stations? That would really be a sharing with the people.
My two cents, for what it's worth. Keep on! Show us more!
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Hi lesm, and thanks!
I have a few photos from the platforms as well that I might include. But to me the story is not the metro system, it is the faces, the people. this will of course be a bit static.
It will be a big step for me to have an exhibition at all. I'll start with that and see how it goes. Then I'll think of next thing!
more pictures? They're all here: erikpetersson.livejournal.com
/Erik
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