The Other Side of Almaty, a photo from Almaty, East

Photographer's Note

This is an experimental picture for me as it's very different from my usual type of subject.

Almaty has many "hidden" businesses located in residential areas. I was trying to find a travel agency housed in an unassuming apartment block on the outskirts of the city. I eventually found it after poking around the back of the building and climbing up the rear stairs.

While in the back yard I came across this rubbish store with the interesting grafitti and promised to return the next day to photograph it. When I did I found this couple hunting through the bins for anything they might find useful. I wondered if they blamed their harsh existence on the "fashists".

The original was in colour but I seemed to get greater effect by converting to black and white. I also added some grain and increased contrast to give a harsher tone.

Pompey, scalerman, sergio1, Wandering_Dan has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Steft (6109) 2004-12-06 13:34

Strong picture of daily life... and poverty. The choise of black and white is really good, it makes the picture a litte bit more dramatic.

Pompey (1117) 2004-12-06 14:05

Great picture Jonathan, a great insight into a harsher life than we can imagine in the west.
Good idea to convert to B/W as it adds impact.
Good note also.
Well Done!

scalerman (26900) 2004-12-06 18:44

It's worthy of a photo class, and maybe Reuters. Says alot, Weasle, pictures don't have to be pretty to be good. good rip!

philip_coggan (11) 2005-01-21 4:45

I thnik b+w is right, but maybe a bit too much digital noise for my taste. But a good photo. And why is the grafitti in English? strange...

banyanman (7797) 2006-02-14 8:01

Not a pretty sight, Jonathan, but of course not everything that we post to TE has to be. It is good to see the raw side of life sometimes. Excellent choice of B&W for this as to helps to focus the attention on the grafitti. Cheers . . . David

sergio1 (12152) 2006-03-23 7:32

Hi Jonathan
Good capture this and good pov. Interesting grafitti. The b&w is great.
Well done.
Sergio

beachbum (0) 2006-04-06 13:47

so i used to live in almaty and this pic def illustrates the daily life for some folks.. i like b/w.
oh and philip, english is like the 2nd most popular language spoken, after russian.. so A LOT of graffiti and other signs are in english..

verde (957) 2006-05-05 19:22

this is a really great shot of graffiti. I love the message here with the dumpster diving couple.

really well seen
b

capthaddock (28790) 2006-06-15 9:59

Yes the bw enhances the feeling of desperation and anger, funny graffiti, check this one out from another website I visit regularly:

http://www.engrish.com/detail.php?imagename=fack.jpg&category=Buildings&date=2000-08-29

Wandering_Dan (3449) 2008-09-13 17:26

Hi, Jonathan -

Very expressive journalistic photo. B&W was a good choice, too. But I think you should tone down the ground on the lower left.

Regards,
Dan