Smoking the cheroot, a photo from Magway, North

Photographer's Note

Something to smoke now? then you can't avoid the burmese cheroot, green tobacco leaves wrapped around a mix of tobacco and small pieces of wood, tamarind or whatever... choose your size.

I even found a Mandalay supermarket selling chocolate or strawberry flavored cheroots, a pack of 5 for 5 US cents, hardly even the price of its sticker and its plastic container.

Burmese people say cheroots are less hazardous than pure tobacco.. hmmmh... anyway it certainly depends on the cheroot size and smoking frequency. As you may not clearly see the old cowherder woman was smoking the king size, otherwise called in other cultures a "Fidel" sized spliff (muy elegante para los machos...).

I was wondering about the use of the tin can in which she concealed the burning part of the cheroot and yet was ready to laugh at in comparison to the vastness of the natural ashtray also called a ploughed field... I had to take my wrong deductions back when I was informed (thanks to Ye's translation who btw was also taking the tin prop lightmindedly) that the bigger cheroots are likely to produce burning incandescent parts of wood which would easily burn and ruin their clothes... their point made!

Anyway the real smoker elegance in this world doesn't lie in their smoking apparatus but in more general details such as posing in front of a XIIIth century pagoda, for instance.

Proxilva, michel_r, eleparc, Galeota, cgrindahl, ishai, bnallama, luisafonso, stevep ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

Proxilva (2157) 2005-09-12 17:21

Luko

great photo, but where is the smoke??? ;)

i like the Sacré Coeur in in the vague background of this beautiful couple. He looks cool ino the lense and she obviously smoked a little to much

nice tone
glad you took your leica baby with you again ;)

cheers
Jorrit

alimo3 (6854) 2005-09-12 17:27

Bonsoir Luko,
Très chouette ce noir et blanc a l’ancienne,
Selon moi c’est le plus beau double portrait de ta collection.
Je ne te croyais pas capable de ce genre de photo, j’avais tort !
Une image émouvante et belle.

Tom

michel_r (1118) 2005-09-12 17:41

Bel étagement sur 3 plans et surtout quelle texture dans ce noir et blanc. Quelle regard. Marci pour cette note aussi. plaisir de la lecture et des yeux... très fort luko...
amicalement, michel.

eleparc (24063) 2005-09-12 18:29

ha ce bon vieux leica ressorti du placard;-)) haha! il n'y a pas à mégoter, c'est vrai que les contrastes et les tons de gris, de noirs et de blancs sont incomparables, sauf à être retravailler par simon;-) tres belle image pleine d'energie tres positive.. bien vu!
eric

MKING (3054) 2005-09-12 23:43

Story and illustration go hand-in-glove as always. Everything is nicely balanced in the frame. The second figure's smile sets the mood admirably; almost feel like I'm standing in that field with them puffing away. :)

Perhaps it's the reduced size for the web but the semi-OOF woman is a little annoying; she's neither in sharp focus nor adequately blurred. At this size I'd say stopping down further would have taken this distraction away but I'd probably quite like it on the print itself.

I really regret not venturing beyond the dusty, casino-gambling infested border town of Tachilek, looks like I missed so much of the real Burma...

Galeota (10352) 2005-09-13 0:31

Je ne peux tout simplement pas comprendre comment certaines personnes peuvent faire preuve de lacunes culturelles aussi fondamentales (I've named the blond curled boy up there): franchement, confondre le Taj Mahal avec le Sacré Coeur, il faut le faire.

Alors si je comprends bien c'est une leçon de "piqué". Les détails sur les lignes de son visage sont extraordinaires, même ne s'agissant pas d'un plan rapproché. Mais au delà de ce choix magnifique de profondeur de champ, avec trois, voir quatre plans de mise au point différents qui se succèdent, ce sont les tonalités qui me laisssent béat d'admiration. Je comprends bien, après avoir vu ces images et ayant pensé aux tirages qui peuvent en découler, que tu ne fasses pas de noir et blanc avec ta caméra digitale mais uniquement avec la Leica.

Comme je suis un garçon relativement curieux de nature, je me demande néanmoins..mais SI tu devais convertir une de tes photos digitales en n&b pour émuler ces tonalités, comment ferais-tu... (just dreaming...)

Darren (6823) 2005-09-13 1:34

Hi Luko. this is a good shot, I would have guessed she was chewing betel as opposed to smoking a cheroot though. I do like how their postures mirror each others and your toning and exposure are just great (didn't you used to use Ilford more often than Tri-X?). A couple little things sort of hold this back for me though. First, I wish the line of the horizon wasn't going through here head. Perhaps if you could have grown to 2m before taking this shot it would have worked better? Second, although they are interesting, they are not as engaging, nor are they doing anything near as interesting as in your best shots.

stefi (1230) 2005-09-13 2:25

Hi Luko, looking at your photo is always a great lesson! I admire your incredible geometric eye (HCB docet).
In this shot a perfect golden triangle (see my WS).
Great, great. Directly into my favorites.
Thank you,
Stefano

[workshop] [compare]

entrelec (8328) 2005-09-13 2:45

Very nice perspective here. This picture coulbd be a 1920 one. Classical and modern;simplicity, but this kind you cannot get easilt.

Joel

cgrindahl (6113) 2005-09-13 3:05

The distant temple at the left and trees at the right as well as the cows on both sides, all softened by the bokeh, to my eye elevate this composition. The two figures are well presented, one with a smile on her face the other a smile in her eyes, one slightly blurred, the other sharply defined. This is simple and lovely Luko. Perfect in black and white, of course with Tri-X this is what you get... ;-)

Furachan (0) 2005-09-13 3:29

Superiorite du film sur le numerique. Du bokeh en trois etapes: sujet principal, sujet secondaire, et arriere plan. Comme le dit si bien Tom "du noir et blanc a l'ancienne"; j'irais plus loin - un effet de belle gravure de livre de voyage, circa 1880. Super syncro des regards. Toute une culture encapsulee. Du travail rigoureux, honnete, depourvu d'artifice.
Et pour finir une derniere phrase splendide dans ta note "Anyway the real smoker elegance..."
Pas mal, ca...
Francis

faubry (35447) 2005-09-13 3:46

hello Luko, again a great shot, i like your portrait, may be a little too clear... but i like, bravo
francine

jcandeli (40) 2005-09-13 8:14

I thought this was flydragon's at first. :P
Beautiful! The lighting and composition are perfect. I love the Wat(?) in the background. The DOF is shallow but not too shallow to make out some details in the woman behind. This looks like a very old photo. Looks like something I would see in "Best of National Geographic."
Beautiful photo. JP

awiefoong (181) 2005-09-13 9:31

excellent shot luko! perfect composition n excellent d.o.f. n good use of b&w too!
the lady smiling at the background makes all the difference.
i like this a lot!

flydragon (0) 2005-09-13 16:04

Luko
c'est une photo d'une autre époque
début du siécle, c'est la sensation qu'elle me
donne, on dirai un document d'archive ;o)
j'adore la ligne entre le temple et les deux visages
pour moi c'est la femme en arriere plan qui fait le plus.
de sa position dans le cadre et sa pose
bon pour la technique ;o) good pov dof blur b&w
cette image c'est du nam plaa *** ,o)
bonne soirée
••simon••

vert demain

kinginexile (2598) 2005-09-14 12:47

je n'ai pas peur de le dire, c'est ta photo la plus reussie et de loin, sur ta gallerie Myanmar. Il n'y a aucun pretexte literraire derriere ce portrait, aucune excuse tarabiscotee pour le manque de (bonne) lumiere, et tu as fait de la photographie comme les plus grands, la technique s'efface derriere la simplicite et expression du sujet. Vraiment, tout simple, mais rien de plus oppose a un snapshot. Ma critique, c'est un petit peu le cote vieille photo "eternel Burma" mais comme ca me fait penser a Cartier-Bresson, ca passe, et plutot bien! ;-)

sohrab (7439) 2005-09-14 13:09

ooooooh this is fantastic..
i love the bokehed pagoda.... for me it's the pagoda that makes the photograph
i just wrote to animesh telling him how i think a vertical photograph with a feel of completeness can be absolutely beautiful.. well.. this is the second 'complete' vertical photograph that i'm coming across today..
take care :)

Homerhomer (4080) 2005-09-14 21:07

I am sad to see the "pali trilogy" end, this however is just as enjoyable.

Don't want to repeat what already has been said, but for me it's the dof you have applied here that is absolutely amazing. First woman tack sharp, second slightly out of focus, just enough not to compete with the first one, and the background oof yet it still holds the contours to give a context and add a beauty.
Peter

ishai (4097) 2005-09-18 8:32

Hi Luko,
That’s a very good double portraits
I like the picture for the happy look and the authentic surrounding in the background (animals and temple)
I also like your Workshop very much

Ishai

walkmania (315) 2006-02-22 3:39

This two women resonate with one another pretty well with their expressions and dresses. The grains are very fine for TRI-X 400,you must also be an expert for dark room and scanning.Compliments! Rick

nex (2738) 2006-05-01 8:13

Great, c´est quelquechose que je vraiment adore, merci
Michael

aralda (1240) 2006-07-20 8:31

Hi Luko,
Nice shot. I agree with Francis, could be a print from ages past. Nice story around the cheroot and the tin can.
Raluca

luisafonso (862) 2007-07-08 15:03

Thanks for linking to this one. Precious light on his face, throwing him to the main role here. But a very striking double. You dof game is impressive as she well could steal some of the laurels to herself too. Really beautiful.