吉姆 JIM HOFMAN | Photography Faces & places in China

Street Photos – Qingxi

Photographers are notorious for being poor judges of their own work.  Selecting good from bad can be torture.  What constitutes a good image is different for different people.  Often photographers get caught up in the emotion of taking a particular photo and that masks the true caliber of the image.  Sometimes I take a photo and I’m positive it’s a keeper, so when I process it later I naturally fall in love with it – even though it may only be marginal.  The most difficult task in any art form is to be truly critical of your own work.

I have a list of questions I ask myself when I edit my photos, including:

  • – Would this photo be interesting to most viewers?
  • – Does it document an anomaly or cultural artifact?
  • – Does it tell a story and/or evoke an emotion?
  • – Are there colors or interesting graphic forms that make it unique?
  • – Does it have a timeless quality?
  • – Is it edgy?  (If it’s not then it must be documentary photography.  Right?)
  • – Is it just a snapshot, or is it something special?
  • and one more – do I really like this one and screw the rest of the world?  Oh wait…

After using these “editing filters” I’m typically left with about 10% of the photos I’ve shot.    I took 250 photos today and below are the resulting 26 images, so apparently I had a good day.  This is a collection of photos from Qingxi that I believe have passed all of these tests.  Of course some lesser photos may have slipped through the cracks because like most photographers, I’m an awful editor of my own work.

 

Qingxi-15

 

Qingxi-14

 

Qingxi-3-2

 

Qingxi-6

 

Qingxi-7

 

Umbrella Boy

 

Umbrella Boy II

 

Fruit Shopper

 

Mother Son Cyclists

 

Drapery Guy

 

Ladies Selling Giblets

 

Meat Man and Son

 

Qingxi-19

 

Qingxi-1-3

 

Qingxi-1-2

 

Qingxi-21

 

Qingxi-20

 

Qingxi-18

 

Qingxi-17

 

Qingxi-16

 

Qingxi-13

 

Qingxi-12

 

Qingxi-10

 

Qingxi-4

 

Qingxi-1

 

Qingxi-1-4

 

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