At Twelve I * by Canon DSLR Challenge

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12-SEP-2005	Amy Medina (aka. SFishy)

At Twelve I *

Long Island NY

Imitating the style/photo of Sally Mann
(put my name in AFTER challenge voting was over for copyright reasons)

Canon EOS 20D ,Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
1/100s f/5.6 at 50.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto

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* Submitter retains all copyrights *

Canon DSLR Challenge		20-Sep-2005 00:15
You know, Gayle. I took Eng Lit in college and it annoyed the (^)^*() out of me how the prof would go on and on about the symbolism and the 'real story' behind the story and I thought it was such (&(&(&))_ half the time. Yes, sometimes it's there, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. This image though, since it is based on a known artist who's work is deep, must surely have intentionally constructed this image intending at least some of the things I saw. One day I'll be good enough to put that sort of stuff in my own images. I hope! LOL! ~ Lonnit

Gayle Knowles		19-Sep-2005 22:16
Gosh, and here's me thinking it was just a photo of a kid sitting on the ground. I need to study these pics more ;-)

Canon DSLR Challenge		18-Sep-2005 03:12
The BW conversion is very well done. The image doesn't thrill me overall, but I am quite drawn to her feet - I can feel the cool, soft, grass on my feet and it is in nice contrast to the hardness of the brick wall. I'm not familiar with the shots you're referring to, but my take on this would be that the shoe off and the bare feet are an important element to tell us about the soft, anchored free-reeling childhood, then going up (and growing up, -also supported by the angle of the bricks going upwards) life is harder, and by her expression, more serious. If the original artist bases her images in the transition of child to adult, and being torn in between, it is certainly expressed in the elements of this image. I'm very curious about the 2 images you based this on. Would it be possible for your to scan them and paste them here for reference? I'm also seeing the purity and innocence of childhood in her white pants, the shortness of them indicates her outgrowing them, the bare legs and naked feet also indicating freedom of childhood. Then the midsecection, her shirt, is a muddle of confused pattern, difficult to make out, not unlike the transition from child to adult. Then, moving to the head, to adulthood, her head is bound by the band, indicating the lack of freedom, bound to responsibilities, and it is black - no longer the innocent child. Hard brick/hard life. The line to the right leading out of the image grows darker and darker, as with age. Yes, indeed, this is a complete story image. Wonderful job! ~ Lonnit

Canon DSLR Challenge		16-Sep-2005 17:35
I wasn't familiar with Mann until I just dug around, but I'm pretty impressed with what I saw. It's difficult to judge this image if you'e comparing it to her (especially having not seen the images in question) but in the sense that you're going for the "Only 12 but growing up fast" angle, then I guess you caught that for sure. Phil

Canon DSLR Challenge		14-Sep-2005 16:24
I think that her looking older makes it a good Mann shot. My brief search for her work last night seemed to show a struggle between child and adult. theFly

iso3200		14-Sep-2005 14:17
Yes I know the book in question, though I have never seen the contents. A shame the reference image for this is not online as a comparison. I too thought she looked older, though without other people in the frame it is easy to be misled. Looking at this one day on, and it still grabs me.

Gayle Knowles		14-Sep-2005 09:25
It was me that left that comment about her age. She looks closer in age to my almost 16yo daughter than she does to the almost 12yo. I'm kinda leaning towards this being a Cindy shot, dunno why though.

Canon DSLR Challenge		14-Sep-2005 05:09
Don't let her father hear you say that, he'll have a cow!!! She just turned 12 recently

Canon DSLR Challenge		14-Sep-2005 03:41
She looks a lot older than twelve. More like about 16 or 17.

Canon DSLR Challenge		14-Sep-2005 00:20
had to log out and log back in to hide who I am ;) if you haven't seen sally mann's book "at twelve" I encourage it if you're a fan. Both of these shots were "recreations" of shots in that book, though admittedly, this one here is more a tribute or 'in the style of' because I couldn't get all the props and people required, so I took ideas from two photos in the book and combined them in this one. the second picture is much more true to the original. thanks for your compliment. it means alot coming from you!

iso3200		13-Sep-2005 21:25
Superb. I'm not sure about it being in the style of Sally Mann 100%, but then some of the images she has produced would be enough to get you locked up nowadays if you attempted to recreate them. This, however, is fantastic. A normal girl in a normal location and you've got a great natural look about it. I'm intrigued more and more as I do not recognise the person in the shot, the artist is anonymous and I really wonder who among us has been able to do this image. I prefer it to your second entry as it is much more relaxed. The general feel is there. The mono conversion and tonal range is great. The diagonal of the wall aids the composition. It is just brilliant to see a serious entry in amongst our amusing ones.