Featuring Love | 116-01

Photograph "Love", Vejer de la Frontera, June 2018

The first edition of "Featured" let's us take a deeper look at the photo called "Love". Taken in Vejer de la Frontera in the south of Spain in June 2018.

It shows us a scene where a elderly woman crosses a street while being watched by a man on a balcony.

While we were wondering around the village of Vejer de la Frontera, one of the numerous white villages in the south of Spain, we saw many nice streets and buildings. Just before I took this picture we had a late breakfast at Peneque. Before we returned to the car to go to Barbate we saw this woman walking towards the crosswalk. The man on the balcony was already looking at her. The scene as you see it on the picture happened just seconds later. There are quite a few details I only just noticed after I developed and scanned the picture (see below). What I like about this picture the most is the story it tells as well as the composition and lines.

The subtle white tones with the hard black areas define the composition. The round lines all over the picture give it a gentle feel as some sort of dance. The round building creates a nice gradient from left to right to help to make the building less hard.

The definition of the border between the building and the sky given by the cacti were crucial, without it the picture would be out of balance.

The cross-walk seems to predict the future by show us the woman's next steps. The white planes break the dark bottom part of the picture although the stones reflect nicely which give them a subtle texture.

This photo has been part of an exhibition I had last year in Breda, The Netherlands. It hang next to a picture I took a day before of a man looking at his mobile phone (Email) and a photo taken in Ronda of a group of tourists gathered around a guide (Tourist). During the exhibition "Love" was one of the favourites of the visitors.

Location Vejer de la Frontera

Details

It looks like the man on the balcony and the women walking on the street are secretly in love. He glances over to her as if he remembers their last night together. At first I didn't notice the shorts the man was wearing. After I had scanned the film on high resolution and was retouching the picture I noticed this detail. Both the woman and man are wearing sunglasses as though they want to remain anonymous.

That smile on her face makes this picture to me. The stories you could make out of that enjoyable smile are priceless. As if she knows that the man on the balcony is looking at her and she is thinking about the same thing as he is. She is dressed very nicely, wearing fashionable sunglasses, matching skirt and contrasting blouse. He is noticing as well. The contrast of the clothing, the building and the street with the crosswalk makes the woman stand out in this picture. Along with the love story make it one of my favorites.

The "Stop' warning before the crosswalk is playing an importart part of the photo. It plays with the story and is part of the layout. it tells the woman to stop walking and reach out to the man on the balcony. I love these kinds of graphical details. Everybody is implementing them in their own way. The white line next to the sign correlates to the curved line of the building and emphasises the composition.

The cacti on the roof give a nice definition of the room line. If you would take them away you would miss the border which would make the photo out of balance. When I checked out the location on Google Streetview the cacti were not there and the shutters were closed. The whole atmosphere is totally different instantly. I remembered the scene differently then It actually was, but it is still find to check out Street view to locate the places were you took a picture and to relive the moment.

In many parts of the world you'd find these wires connecting buildings and providing them with electricity and internet (I presume). You don't have that in The Netherlands, that's what make them fascinating to me. They are like the veins of village, supplying energy and information to all the organs of the body. You can find this detail appear in many of my photos. There is one picture I took in St. Petersburg featuring these wires as a graphical element.