ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 31 – STELLA AND EUGENE SET THEIR HEARTS ON THE NICE NEW CAR OUTSIDE THE SHOP WINDOW (MONO)

 

 

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I’m trying to do different things with these Looking at Cars posts and, well, here is something different – seen while looking across Park Street, in central Bristol, on 24 Apr 2013.

A reversal of reality: the inhabitants of shop windows are now real people, looking into the shop window displays of our world and playing out their materialistic tendencies.  When reality reverses, the dummies go shopping, right?  I can only hope that, when they display me on their mantelpiece, it will be with due sensitivity and prominence, and showing my best profile too …

When I’m processing images and start to see something going right, something promising emerging in front of me, I often start to hum, whistle and even sing (try not to imagine the last of these, especially if you’re under age or have just eaten).  The volume of my ravings can increase as what I’m working on really comes together, and my wife has mentioned strange noises emanating from the FATman Photos Launch Pad … and you thought you were weird … well that makes two of us then …

Anyway, when working on this, I found myself continually humming and singing snatches from Paul Simon’s “Rene and Georgette Magritte with their dog after the war”, and maybe that’s who I see these two as being.  I’ve called them Stella and Eugene because that occurred to me earlier, and I can really see him as a Eugene, but perhaps they’re really Rene and Georgette.

The tone and contrast have been added to create more of an unreal atmosphere.  I had thought about removing the small bright area near the top left corner but, because I wanted the whole diameter of the big car’s wheel, and room to spare each side, this small, pale rectangle helps balance the composition.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  Earlier Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: Canon G11 PowerShot at 140mm (35mm equiv); 400 ISO; converted to mono and toned in Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the High Contrast Harsh preset.

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