Welcome to the -tea- machine, a photo from Chian Rai, North

Photographer's Note

A tea factory : that's where the tea leaves go directly after they have been carefully sorted and roughly air dried for a night.

I suppose this is about the same air drying machine you have in self service laundries, only adapted to tea leaves... this was taken at about 7AM and as you can imagine, early in the morning, Mae Salong streets smell... tea!

Photowise tea factories are mostly in the dark, so I prefered to keep that atmosphere, I had some expressionist middle/eastern-european or russian photographers images in mind when I shot that... the man, the machine and symbols around.

naxius, AmiBe, dolin, robiuk, Michael_Gan, igorb, Praetzer, eleparc, Proxilva, Porteplume, Rinie_Hoff, KevRyan, mlopes, bfly ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

Ebbe (9625) 2005-03-21 14:48

Nice work in a harsh light situation. The bent down looking up position is almost like one of pray to this stainless god.

naxius (16685) 2005-03-21 14:50

Bonsoir Luko,
Je trouvais la photo plutôt sombre et après avoir lu ta note je comprends mieux l'intérêt.
En tout cas, pas évident de se rendre rapidement de la scène car cela reste très spécifique comme activié.
Merci du partage, c'est très informatif.

Alexandre

AmiBe (6042) 2005-03-21 14:54

Très belle image n/b, superbes nuances de gris.
J'aime beaucoup cette ambiance sombre mais suffisament éclairée pour en découvrir l'essentiel.
C'est simplement superbe...

dolin (7369) 2005-03-21 15:05

Hello.
Très jolie photo.
Un très beau n/b qui lui va à merveille.
Un peu sombre, mais c'est justement ca qui me plait. Bon contraste.
Joli
Fred

jcandeli (40) 2005-03-21 15:20

Wow. Very nice. Kind of reminds me of a 1940's industrial photo. Really nice lighting. I like the dark parts in contrast to the nice morning light on the man and machine. Really nice. JP

robiuk (10807) 2005-03-21 15:45

Oooh - this one is a pure poetry!
The compo is superb, light well controlled through some PP-ing (I believe), but the levels & grey tones are fantastic.
Textures are revealed in all their glory throughout the frame, but my favourite are light, shadows and tones on this guy's working clothes.
Robi

Michael_Gan (2776) 2005-03-21 15:51

Oh wow, this is absolutely fantastic! I really love the contrasts and especially the deep dark areas. The low light creates beautiful long shadows, which give the picture a very special atmosphere. The man seems to be praying and doing a wish that is going to be materialized through this machine.

Galeota (10352) 2005-03-21 15:52

That thing seems like the Apollo XI exhausting pipe, and if that guy doesn't take his head out of there he's gonna smell like roasted thai chicken. There's something intriguing me. In your last two photographs, taken with a wide angle fixed focal, your subjects "fill" the frame which means that they were almost at the reach of your hand.

I've gone through the exif information of your 17-40mm photos though, and with the exception of one, they were all taken at focal lengths above 28mm. Now, does this mean that we were not born "telephoto cowards" but we become one as soon as we put a zoom lens on the camera mount? Are the photos you posted here representative of the majority you took with the zoom? Just wondering if something like the 24-70 wouldn't have suited you best.. oh well, passing time.

I like the way he seems to be looking at that black hole, perhaps waiting for a miracle to come out of that time machine. Great play of light and shades, not to mention the tones.

[2] +

Homerhomer (4080) 2005-03-21 15:53

This series gets better and better, ok I really don't have anything interesting to add after what has been said already, but being Polish I wonder which Eastern European photographers you had in mind when shooting this(or who are the once from that region that you admire in general).
Thanks
Peter

igorb (758) 2005-03-21 16:11

WOOOWWW.
A real b/w art!

Praetzer (209) 2005-03-21 16:31

Excellent exposure. OK look on my laptop; Superb on my calibrated monitor.

eleparc (24063) 2005-03-21 16:41

beaux tons metalliques et belle lumière dans cette image! ca fait une grosse thèiere si je comprends bien;-)

Proxilva (2157) 2005-03-21 16:48

luko...

this one is once again great!!!

the light, the compo and verything is perfect here... the Ilford HP5 proves itself here once again... hope this film will stay for a long time... along with the 'real' B&W prints it's a lust for the eye!!!!

Jorrit

Porteplume (4036) 2005-03-21 17:33

I really like this one! Even if you have cut his "bottom", I'm convinced it would have been even better then...

Here the light is really the main tool of the picture, you used it well and got the contrast perfect!
I discovered that many B&W I saw here on TE were especially attractive when the light was playing a rather prominent role. I hope you won't mind that if I add it to my "Light Theme" - It will be in very good company... :o)

Rinie_Hoff (9340) 2005-03-21 17:48

Hello Luko, nice frame, to begin with ;-)
Really nice one, and so sharp. It's a picture full of concentration, it gives me a feeling as if he is worshipping that machine, sitting so relaxed in a crouch. The light and dark is very nice, and the light on the baskets on the left, form a great repetitive pattern.
Are you always such an early riser when on holidays?

Zepi (22848) 2005-03-21 18:16

Hello Luko !
Magnifique lumière,elle fait tout ici, en fin,presque tout !
Le photographe y est pour beaucoup aussi,superbe cadrage,splendide noir et blanc !
J’aime la façon dont cette image est construite,on sent beaucoup de rigueur !
C’est très très beau

Merveilleux travail !
Amicalement
Sébastien

mlopes (494) 2005-03-21 18:17

Very good photo! the high contrast and dark light fits very well this compo. Good note with it. Congratulations, Mário.

bboss (3578) 2005-03-21 18:23

This is a stunning image, great composition in perfect balance, and perfect exposure. Its like he's praying to the machine/god - man in subservience to machine. Very soviet.
Maybe he is watching his socks going round?
Cheers, David

scalerman (26900) 2005-03-22 1:02

Always enjoy opening your thumbs Luko, even just for the story, notes. Nice and sharp contrasts in this fine BW image.

flydragon (0) 2005-03-22 4:58

Luko ;o)
c'est wowwww cette photo
bien vue de partout ;o)
et ton N&B mmm superbe
je me tais et regarde ,o)
••simon••

ps faut lui dire d'appuyer sur le bouton au gars
sinon y va passer la journée a regarder sa machine ,o)

Darren (6823) 2005-03-22 6:23

Hi Luko. this one is very good. Looks quite different than most of your shots actually. The toning is great: I don't care for my shots with HP5, but yours look great. Must be the lab I go to uses the wrong developer? I really like the lights and shadows here and I think you got just the right amount of light to his face. Compositionally, I kind of find this one off. I don't care for having his butt cropped as it is, and I think there is too much space behind him; my taste would be to have him much closer to the left edge of the frame. You really seemed to be taken by the tea processing in Northern Thailand.

tongapup (0) 2005-03-22 10:43

Studium: A man squatting by a cylindrical metallic object, a basket at his feet, baskets to his side. Dark interior. Proliferance of geometrical shapes.

Punctum: Grapes of Wrath, Margaret Bourke-White, Life magazine, Greek oracle, Soviet industrialization.

Yes? No? I am trying to get a grip on it but having trouble separating the concepts from "subjective" and "objective" points of view. And where does a comment on the excellent range of tones come in?

KevRyan (22956) 2005-03-22 12:46

A very interesting photo subject wise with a great tonal range - beautifully done! I'm not so sure about the composition though - whether it's wanting to see his whole body or the centrality of the main subjects I'm not sure that the compo quite works for me - it seems my eye wanders off the picture too easily to the left or right if I look away from the centre.

Midnight_sun (1941) 2005-03-22 17:08

Man and the machine: a staring match. As i too join this man in staring at the machine, i notice it looks like the barrel of a massive gun.

There is a lot of press at the moment about free trade and fair trade, where trade for thrid world countries is basically a 'take it or leave it' gun against the head deal.

Cool shot, i've bought some hp5 and will try it sometime, hopefully i'll develop it ok!

dopiro (926) 2005-03-23 18:54

Some watch TV and fall asleep, some watch the tea machine and help keep us moist and awake.
Many circle shapes in the photo, its wonderfuly pleasant.
Le cadrage est juste et les contrastes sont parfait.

Kicka (0) 2005-04-10 16:42

Intresting photograph Luko. Well I needed your note to understand the whole scene. The man and his machin, the basket in front of him and at the shelves beside. The low light from behinde giving the long dark shadows are very effective to give the feeling of an early morning. Great B&W.
Take care, Jessica