American Identity ..................... WhyNot ....................... 7/19/23

This series I think is too long to include in the weekly post. So I thought I'd bring it separately and see how it goes .... This series is part of a show at our local art museum whose subject is "American Identity" ....

Not completely as coherent as I might like to fit well under the ancient, and now apparently no longer valid, photographic essay exception to the weekly thread. ... I may have other views from this event for another day .... maybe .....

WhyNot

I saw that exhibit as well, in Edinburgh maybe 9-10yrs ago , it did have an eerily lifelike appearance

......

I want to thank David and Jim for stopping to say hello and their comments ... Appreciated .. However, the critique seems to be that I was at the wrong museum as there was nothing worth seeing at the one I photographed ... Well .... I'll think about that but I wont post here again !!.....

WhyNot

What I like about this collection is that the viewers themselves have become part of the subject. They reflect aspects of "American Identity." Each of your photos prominently includes the exhibition title. This draws them together in the collection as well as adding an interpretation to the individual shot.
The varying stances, clothes and groups of the viewers become the point. It's the coherence of the point that makes it an essay rather than looking at these as individual photos.
I really, really like shot 3 where the photographer's selected angle has morphed a viewer into the frame.

Re the weekly thread and its rules. I wouldn't worry too much about it and I think everyone would be happy to see this excellent series posted there. If you look at my series this week (the week ends today) on the Unicorns Marching in Siena, you can see the problem. I had many more taken on the march that I wanted to include . Especially because of the flat view of the forum, a long list of shots would get posted over and over. It would clog up the week's forum. Consequently, I stretched the rules a bit and picked only 5 that showed some of the different aspects of the march. In your case this is more difficult because the range of different viewers is the point of the exercise. Even so, it would be OK.
I hope your post here doesn't get overlooked when the new eek of C&C begins. Could you make a post within the new weeks postings(it will start later today) as a heads up to this post of yours and explain why you did it this way. Or, if you don't get to do it and it is OK by you, I'll do a post within the new thread suggesting that everyone checks this,

I thought that these pictures are not quite coherent enough to be an essay and was concerned that they might not convey the story I saw in them .. and I think the first two critiques confirmed that thought. .... I too thought as a stand alone the third was the best but least fit into the story as the participant attention was divided but I included it because it was the best of the lot compositionally ...(IMHO) I would have liked to have spent more time with this idea at the time I was taking these!! ...

The 4/3rds Weekly tried and failed to move its thread to stand alone posts in a sub-forum -- that seems to have failed as the members felt uncomfortable outside the weekly thread ... The C&C seem to continue as a weekly thread in spite of the inconvenience of the flat view provided.. and the sub-forum outside the thread seems to languish and behave much like any stand alone posts in any photography thread .. so I'll post in the Weekly when I have a picture that might suit that format but go back to DPR with my more usual story sequences ... or maybe use the 4/3rds Sub-Forum here, as long as it lasts, as a site for long sequences that don't fit well in the DPR format ... as I have done with the Finch sequence recently ...

Sorry I failed to comment on your recent series but I do have problems responding and following discussions in that flat view .... especially after it passes three pages .... not a great excuse but then ....

WhyNot