Challenge! Winner - Cameraderie Challenge #54: "The Relationship between People and Things"

John King

Member of SOFA
Location
Beaumaris, Melbourne, Australia
Name
John ...
Start Date
Jan 10, 2022
End Date
Feb 10, 2022
Start Date Jan 10, 2022 End Date Feb 10, 2022

Start Date January 10 2022
End Date February 10 2022

Firstly, I must apologise for my tardiness in kicking this new challenge off. Those who have followed my progress here (and at MU-43.COM) will be aware that I have significant health issues. These constrain my life in many ways, and the last week has been filled with medical appointments, fitting of household aids (grab rails and the like) as well as the normal exigencies of our abnormal lives in this time of COVID-19. I am yet to have my booster vaccine shot, due to unavoidable delays in having my first one. I hope this challenge finds you all well.

I would like to thank Miguel for his outstanding hosting of the previous challenge.

I have always been fascinated by the relationship between us humans and the things that we make. Not how we use them so much as how we relate to them. For example, changing a spark plug or otherwise maintaining a motor cycle would qualify, but one being ridden would not. I have spent much time thinking about what I would choose as a topic over this last week. Struggled with it, in fact, and how to get across the constraints of this challenge. Please ask for clarification if my topic doesn't make sense to you.

Here are two examples, 1) my friend cleaning his tuba, not playing it:
View attachment 285928

And 2) the printer and his press:
View attachment 285929

As you can see, the emphasis in my example shots is on the relationship between my friend and his musical instrument, rather than his use of it, and the printer and his press. While these are not crops, crops which satisfy the rules are acceptable There is a balance between the user and the used object, neither one being shown in whole, or being in a dominant position vis-a-vis the other.

So I am making it the 'theme' of this new Challenge - A photograph which conveys The Relationship between People and Things.

As always, any and all interpretations of the above are and will be welcomed, subject to the above clarification, whether they are new photos taken specifically for this Challenge, or older ones which you feel are good interpretations or illustrations. The Challenge will run throughout the entire month of January 2022 - and end at the end of the 10th day of the February, 2022.

As usual, this Challenge will consider originality, technical merit and artistic vision.

No change to the tried and trusted rules, which are as follows:

1. Either take pictures that match the nominated theme or select some from your portfolio. You must be the photographer that created the images in order to enter it.

2. Only one entry per challenge, please. If you want to withdraw an entry and replace it with another, that is OK, but you must make it clear in the post containing your replacement pictures that this is what you've done. You can add or change the title and add to the edit line to let everyone know.

3. The decision of the curator at the end of the challenge is final - don't give him/her a hard time about it: this is just a friendly photo challenge, after all!

4. The winner will assume the responsibility of curator for the next Challenge, and as soon as possible post a message in a new thread in the Cameraderie Photo Challenges forum, with details of the new theme. Don't forget - the opening message must include a copy of these instructions, which also double as the rules.

5. The curator cannot enter in his or her or their own challenge.

Hope you enjoy the challenge and I am looking forward to seeing your contributions.
 
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Thank you, John, for a thoughtful and, for me at least, fascinating theme for this Challenge.

There's an old poem I've always loved by Kipling:
“We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.”


In my rural house, we had to rent a wood Chipper to transform a mountain of branches into wood mulch. When the Chipper broke down, I felt a little like Kipling's narrator when his kettle is leaking and the bottom falls out of the Universe. Fortunately a friend, Chris, who is mechanically inclined (I'm not!) was able to fix the recalcitrant machine, in a matter of minutes, which allowed us to finish the chipping. But whatever magic he performed on the small engine seemed like an act of sorcery to me - though he assured me it was pretty simple, if you know something about how small gasoline engines work. And I happened to have a small camera in my pocket. So - here is my entry to the Relationship between People and Things.

GRII_May11_Wood_chipper#7(LK).jpg
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Thanks for your entry.

While its a very nice photo, and an interesting interpretation of the subject, I don't think it qualifies, as it doesn't contain a person or part thereof.

Please do feel free to substitute another though.
Well, it represents the traditional custom of serving a drink (or food) to the departed. So, objects are used as means of relating to people (or memory of them). On top of that, the headstone bares the carved resemblance to the departed, so additional layer of relation between people and things is added. But of course, your challenge, your discretion - I will not go against it. I'll try to come up with something else.
 
Well, it represents the traditional custom of serving a drink (or food) to the departed. So, objects are used as means of relating to people (or memory of them). On top of that, the headstone bares the carved resemblance to the departed, so additional layer of relation between people and things is added. But of course, your challenge, your discretion - I will not go against it. I'll try to come up with something else.
I could see that, and hesitated for some time before deciding and replying. However, a representation of a person is not the same as a person.

Thanks for your understanding.
 
This is a really interesting premise for a challenge. Thanks, John, for this effort. This is a hard one for me. I try to leave people out of photos because I like the impression of suspended time that results.

In general, I'm not a fan of detailed explanations for photos. In politics, there's a saying "If you're explaining, you're losing." This seems to me to be a useful reminder that the image should tell the story, intuitively, and on its own. I'll need to deviate from this, and not for the first time.

The image I will include comes from a past exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa. It's a remarkable place. As with all good galleries, the architecture and the curation work together to foster a deliberate and thoughtful connection between visitors and art. Sometimes, that connection is contemplative. Sometimes it's informative. Sometimes it's entertainment, or spectacle. And sometimes, despite these intentions, the connection is just incomplete.

When John included the photo of the tuba not being played, I though of this one right away.

24947197578_c42ee0e484_c-2.jpg
 
This is my sixteen year old grandson inspecting a guitar he and his stepdad were building from a kit. He is a fine musician, reads music, plays clarinet in his school marching band, plays keyboards but his real love is playing the guitar which he has taught himself to play. He had been using his uncle's guitar but now has his own!
Jace&Guitar.jpg
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2021_1106_16130100.jpg
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Until a few years ago my grandmother could make do with her walking cane, but now at age 99 she can't leave the house without her stroller, which she absolutely hated at first because it made her feel old, but now to her means freedom and independence.

Being in nature and experiencing the changing seasons have always been one of her great joys, and when there's a younger relative around to stabilize her, she likes to pick out the narrowest, muddiest, most root-strewn paths she can humanly get the sorry stroller through... (This was a decent path so I had my hands free for the photo, on the knarlier stuff I'm too busy helping her). It's nerve wrecking but then who am I to tell her she ought to be staying on the stroller friendly paths?
 
Just a reminder, folks. The challenge ends sometime tomorrow (my local time is already 10 February 2022, but I realise that eastern Australia hits tomorrow about 22 hours ahead of the rest of the world).

So get your entries in by the time it turns over to the eleventh, wherever you are in the world. I'm pretty relaxed about the cut off time. Anything that approximates the tenth is OK by me.
 
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