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Not the usal "mother & daughter" picture

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Anders Å

Free Account, Stockholm

Comments 4

Susana Miguel 22/05/2009 12:38
Hello Anders!

I do like the mother & daughter portrait very much, especially because it is not the usual one.

Thanks also for the interchange with Steffi, it gives another dimension to the way you look at a photo, since, as you very well point out, the expectations and perspectives can influence the perception very much. And understanding somebody else's point of view opens up my mind....

Congratulations for the photo, and regards from Zaragoza,
Susana
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Anders Å 30/11/2008 9:32
Hi Steffi,

Thanks for reflecting about what a change of title means. I suppose that how we experience lots of different things in life is based on expectations.

I once had an elderly manager who said "Two different persons who live exactly the same life can have completely different experiences, one can be miserable and unhappy while the other one is fully content and happy. Everything depends on what expectations you have".

If you think about one of the great challenges of our time is the fact that those of us who live in the western, industrialised world, have life expectations that the environment does not appear to be able to cope with. So will lowering our standards make us all unhappy? It all depends on how our leaders can influence our expectations.

Thus, our little experience with the title of a picture is a good example of this "expctations phenonomen".

I think there should be a photo category in FC called "Purpose" where people explain what they wanted to achieve or communicate with a certain picture. The they could have feedback on whether they have succeeded in meeting ther purpose as well, not just on whether the picture is beautiful and technically well done.

Thanks again for caring :-)
Anders
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Anders Å 29/11/2008 10:53
Hi Steffi,

Thanks for the well considered feedback. You do have a point. On the one hand it is a picture with a mother and daughter on it but on the other hand it is not a typical mother & daughter picture. When taking mother & daughter pictures people usually puts in a lot of effort to convey love and trust between the two, exactly as you point out.

In this case that was actually not my intention. It is an everyday situation at a café when it suddenly appeared to me that the way the two of them were sitting could be a good motive for picture. I think I was a second to late with getting my camera in order. Hence the skeptical look. I still like the picture as a candid portrait of the two of them though. Their expressions are not the typical ones I have on hundreds of other pictures.

My conclusion is that it is the title "Mother & daughter" that is wrong because the picture fails to deliver on what is expected of a mother and daughter picture. So now I have to come up with a new title.

Greetings, Anders
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MicheliN 22/11/2008 17:54
Excellent! I love it!

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