Photo Challenge #15 Self Portrait - Winner chosen

[01af]

Wow! Thank you everyone, and particularly those who voted for my picture. It's the second time I won a Photoclubalpha Photo Challenge---the first was #7 "Right Around that Corner"---and I feel honored.

However part of the honour must go to someone else, because here I was just an epigone. The original idea for my self-portrait wasn't my own; it was Lee Friedlander's---I am surprised no-one noticed yet. The first time I learned about his self-portrait called "Haverstraw, New York 1966" was on Mike Johnston's blog The Online Photographer. See the post "The Shadow List: Number 8" from March 15th, 2006 (and don't miss the comments ... by the way, the whole shadow list is worthwhile reading; so is the T.O.P. Ten list the former is the shadow of).

I think "Haverstraw, New York 1966" is one of the most fascinating and most intense photographs I ever looked at. Mike went on and wrote in his post, if you'd like to appreciate what makes this picture special, try (really, I'm not being combative, I mean just go try) making a self-portrait of yourself at the wheel of your own vehicle. Not as easy as it looks, is it?

For more than three years now, Mike's challenge kept revolving in the back of my head. I even bought Friedlander's book, "Self Portrait." When Lonnie Utah eventually put up Photo Challenge #15, it was the time to act. And Mike was right---it definitely was not easy. I drove almost a hundred miles around in the local rural areas on several days, to find a suitable location. Still, my first attempt failed miserably. What you see above is the result of the 2nd attempt ... I still don't feel I got it perfectly right but it's pretty close. After all, it did evoke some intrigued comments. And while working on it, I learned a lot, and my admiration for Friedlander's work became even stronger than before.

I guess the fact that even a copy of Friedlander's work can win competitions does show his genius. So hats off to Lee Friedlander (who by the way turned 75 earlier this year).

-- Olaf

[aster]

It is a deserved success Olaf.

It feels good to know that there are collaborative contributors like yourself and many others in this forum who make these challenges worthy and spectacular.

Thank you for the detailed information on how you worked on your self-portrait. I learned something new yet once again..

Looking forward to sharing more,

Yildiz