Streets Ahead – Sixteenth Edition

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For me, this is a subtle, but beautiful capture of an elderly woman who is maintaining her independence. Because even though we know that she must be walking slowly and carefully, we can feel her strength as she firmly presses her cane forward. I also love the fact that she’s walking down the middle of a cobblestone street instead of on the sidewalk. Yep. She’s definitely in control. But the perfect punctuation to this image is in the graffiti… which speaks of an unseen presence of rebellious youth. And I’m willing to bet this woman had a streak (or two) of rebelliousness during her younger years.

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I think this image has a wonderful Hopper-esque feel to it. I found myself immediately drawn to the strong diagonal division between light and darkness… and the light reflection cast by the cart really brings this image to life for me. But the thing I’m most intrigued by are the feet. Here we see two people sitting on a city street… one person has their feet crossed, which gives us the impression that he is relaxed, yet somewhat composed and guarded. And the other person is sitting on the ground with their legs completely spread apart… which suggests an air of carelessness, exhaustion or “feeling a little too much at home.” Beautiful capture, Jeanette!!

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For those of you not familiar with Allie’s work, I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to visit her Flickr Photostream. She shares with us some very candid and authentically beautiful moments of life in Egypt. And to be honest, I had a really hard time deciding which one of her images I wanted to talk about. However, this particular photograph really warmed my heart. I felt something very special about the laughter being shared between the young girl and old man. All I could think about was “Did he just tell her a joke?” or “Was he teasing her with a trick using the cups?” But whatever transpired between them was really unimportant, because the true beauty of this photograph lies in how it clearly illuminates a fun and spontaneous moment shared between two people separated by many generations.

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This image immediately grabbed my attention while I was looking through the Flickr Group this week… and here are the reasons why: Firstly, I love Lee’s POV (Point of View) in this photo. I think there is something really cool about being able to see our environment from a bird’s eye view. Secondly, I like her choice of tones and textures… they add a nice charcoal feel to the photograph. But what I find myself being drawn to the most is: the graphic quality. Because if we remove all the narrative and “labeling” in this picture and just look at it from a visual standpoint, we will see a gorgeous geometrical composition of shapes and lines. Very nice!

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Before talking about why this image “spoke” to me, I wanted to share that Catherine Restivo and I had the great privilege of meeting up with Cecily during her recent Philadelphia visit. And if there is anyone who has a fun, outgoing and sharing personality — it’s Cecily. So, why am I drawn to this photograph? Well, I happen to come from the generation of girls who grew up reading Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren… long before she was made into a movie or television series. One of the things I loved most about Pippi was her quirky house… and this house feels like a perfect representation of what I imagined Pippi’s house was like. This is one fantastic find, Cecily! And thank you for inspiring me to revisit the Jersey Shore with a new set of eyes…

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Now, if I captured this Hipstamatic shot… everyone, all over the world, would simultaneously hear me screech with joy. Because this has to be one of the best and most upbeat shots I’ve seen in a long time. Geeesh… talk about seizing a decisive moment and having a good Hipsta combo ready! In my humble opinion, this image deserves to go viral. Fantastic image, Therese!!!