Sarah Dunn has released a stunner. That needs an emergency *ooof*, no doubt. I guess I knew something like that was going to come up this week, or why else did I not get round to writing an *ooof* yesterday?
[Edit: IMAGE REMOVED – follow link to see image on artist’s page: Sarah Dunn Photography]
We are familiar with this set-up already. The neutral background, the shallow depth of field, the harsh light from the left. A___ is sitting at an angle to the camera, his head leaning slightly forward, looking down towards the front (our bottom left). The light illuminates more of his face than in the previously known image. The light is unchanged, but the tilt and slight turn of the head to the subject’s right makes all the difference – more light reaches Richard’s left side of the face. We also get more definition of the facial contours, and the sculptural proportions of the nose appear much stronger than in the b/w image. The added variations of skin colour and the play of the light and shade on the face allow for a more textured effect in the colour image – we see lines by the eyes, the angular forehead, even the smallest dents in the skin.
What had the vague air of a film noir still in the b/w image from the same series, has an altogether different feel when edited as a colour image. Of course, with colour in an image, there is simply more “life” in it. The image feels less aestheticised and more “real”, simply by virtue of showing the subject in a way that we would see him with our own eyes – in colour, not in b/w.
There is a slight feeling of the 1960s formal portrait to this picture. The pose! The clothes. And most definitely the blueish hue of the image. While it compliments the blue eyes of the sitter perfectly – a nice touch, all hues of blue in the image go very well with each other, none of them are competing for dominance, and even the grey (?) background plays ball and takes on a duck egg shade of blue – the eyes stand out due to the isolation of the blue colour in the surrounding skin tone/dark hair. This is an effect that is achieved in post-production. What appears like a colour cast is actually a desaturation effect. By taking the colour values out of the image, muting them, the viewer is distracted from the attention-seeking colours, and instead focuses on the details of the image. Muting the colours in this image is also a fitting strategy, considering the retro feel of the pose and composition: The desaturated, faded-over-time look of old portraits of totalitarian rulers, benignly smiling at the proletariat from classroom and institution walls, springs to mind. You can experiment with the effect yourself – even simple photo editing programs such as Picasa or Windows Live Photo Gallery allow simple adjusting of the saturation via a slider. Photographers adjust the tonal values of their images via Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop, for instance, and pick and choose the areas of an image that they want to desaturate. The desaturated, muted look seems to be a current trend in photography. Personally I am not that fond of it – I like colours to be colours and if they pop, then they convey life and joy. That’s not to say that I dislike total desaturation – b/w namely. It is extremely aesthetic, but I enjoy the distinct contrast between monochrome and polychrome. And with desaturation, there is always the danger of making an image appear bland – like a soup without salt.
By rights, a desaturated image should appear less three-dimensional than one where all variations of the contained colours represent the depth of the subject or object. However, the large aperture with which Dunn is shooting this portrait allows us a sense of scale and depth. (That’s where she differs from the portraits of dictators who are shown in f-stop 22 detail, for the downtrodden plebs to know every pore and pock mark of despotic power. *phew*) And it directs our gaze to the focal point of the image, the sitter’s left eye. As it is always fun, I have made you a little gif with the grid of thirds. As usual, the outcome is surprising, yet amusing.
The two vertical third lines go straight along the bridge of the nose and the ear, while the two horizontal third lines go along eyebrows and chin. So the top right intersection is right on Mr A’s ear. Add the half way lines into the equation and you get an intersection on the tip of Mr A’s nose. I sincerely hope that that has not cosmetically changed in the mean time. All composition critique would have to be rewritten! And right on the tie knot. Another just beside RA’s left eyebrow. What does this prove? Nothing, actually – it just amuses me. Composition – as decided on in post-production – is deliberate, of course, but I doubt very much that Dunn would have needed the help of a grid of thirds to crop her image. This kind of composing in post-production comes intuitively. It does not even need a photographer/visual artist to compose an image in a pleasing way – we are all more or less conditioned to prefer a composition like that. It is around us wherever we look – in advertising, passport images, landscapes, fashion, even our own snaps.
In the first reactions to the image I have noticed that even the hardest critics of Dunn’s photography you know who you are *ggg* have mellowed over time and praised this new image upon first contact. To some degree that surprises me, because the b/w image *should* really have touched us more, just by virtue of the sitter connecting with the viewers by looking at the camera. Here, he has averted his gaze, deliberately ignores us, and evades (acknowledgment of) connection. Instead of interaction, we only have a one-way link here, through the viewer’s gaze. But maybe that is exactly what is touching us, and RA has always been particularly effective when gazing off-camera. But there it is, the killer: the non-smile smile – the mouth appears curled but really isn’t, and particularly his left eye looks as if smiling. Could be just the curve and shape of the eye, and the evidence of laughter lines, emphasised by the light. This mysterious look, however, remains as effective as it was when Mona Lisa patented it. The slight incline of the head with the gaze turned down off-camera gives the impression that Armitage is in thought. Not dreamy, but concentrated, fixing his gaze on an unseen object while his mind is wandering. Important thoughts, by the look of it: His lips are resolutely closed, an indication that he has no intention to speak but to keep thinking.
What could he be contemplating? The geometric shape of the floor tiles? The contents of his lunch box? The next steps on his way to world domination?
Guylty Pleasure 
Reblogged this on Me + Richard Armitage and commented:
So, yeah, I guess she did talk me into it!
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The profile of the musculature of the left side of his forehead. That was it for me. *ggg*
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Evidence of a *real* human being as opposed to a life-less mask? The devil is in the detail…
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Reblogged this on Richard Armitage US and commented:
Thanks, Guylty! (But I’m not digging the blue tint to the photo, tho I understand its purpose.)
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I’m thinking the official letter is as good as the photo. Love this, Guylty! Reblogged.
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Cheers, RAUS! That kind of stuff is in my blood. Germans are extremely good at belting out orders. 😀
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Thanks! Enjoyable as always. I also like when you have the large picture to the left. I don’t have to keep scrolling back to the picture at the top to see what you are describing.
When I first saw this photo I wasn’t crazy about it. I like it better now (it’s grown on me and your explanation helps.) I still find his mouth to be a little hard or even angry. Maybe it’s just me. The Mona Lisa comparison helped. I do have the obligatory portrait at my work station but under the new directive it may be too small 🙂
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The blog design is quite handy that way, isn’t it, Tree? The reason it appears new to you is that I usually post the blogs on me+r but recently have been writing the emergency ones here on my on blog.
I like this image. But in comparison I like the direct gaze of the b/w better.
Re. official portrait: Warning. RArmy inspectors are already on their way to you to force you into compliance as regards the Picture Directive. 😉
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Oh no – why weren’t flower crowns forbidden? Love that letter. This “official portrait” is now displayed less than life size as my phone background. I font think his eyes have looked more lovely. Always adore your ooofs!
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Damn – an oversight by the Executive Committee! I suspect they will have to send out a follow-up memorandum, ruling out the use of flower crowns, love hearts and painted-on glasses, too.
As for less-than life-size phone wallpaper – not sure if that is enough. 😀
Thanks S!
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This is the first Sarah Dunn photo I love. The eyes get me. (the nose -yup. Sorry).
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Sooner or later she gets everyone 😀
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Great *ooof*, great photo & great memo!! Triple crown!
Copying below my comment @Servetus probably just as you posted this:
“Now this is a nice one….. love the pensiveness, with somehow an active element lurking underneath. You just have to wonder what the man is thinking (cuz you know he ALWAYS is). With him, I could never buy, “Well, they told me look down & to the left, so I did”…”
Btw, I’m having trouble reading the top line of the Director-General’s seal, what does it say?
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Hehe, someone who is looking at the details. The Director-General’s seal says “Glacies, multa glacies”. (Tip: Google Translate is a godsend :-D)
I like how you put that “pensiveness with an active element lurking underneath” – exactly how I saw it, too. And LOL, you are so right about the thought-process!
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“Google Translate is a godsend :-D) ” – yes, it definitely is! And after the amazing ASS letter, of course I’m going to check all the details! 🙂
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Great – that means that the details are appreciated, too, and it is not a waste of time to spend half an hour getting the letter head right 😀 Yep, I am mad…
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That’s what happens when you spoil us by setting such a high bar for yourself! 🙂
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I like the challenge 🙂
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It’s funny. I’m having the opposite reaction. I have loved the majority of Dunn’s photos, but this one I did not care for on first glance and I wasn’t sure why. I’m actually liking it even less now that you’ve pointed out the desaturation effect. That’s it. I thought (in my uneducated view) that it was a blue filter and I thought that was pretty tacky. Desaturation is even worse (to me) because it’s like those cheesy photos of babies where everything is black and white except the rose strategically covering the private bits. Ugh.
And yet, I can’t just outright dislike the photo, because the man in it looks so *good*. His eyes. The not-smile. The lighting on the perfect nose. The lines and angles of his face are so engaging. And that expression on his face — I want to keep looking at it, figure it out. It’s hard to discount Dunn’s techniques completely when she has captured so much interesting frozen motion on that gorgeous face. So this photo annoys me, because I *want* to love it, but I’m put off by it, but I can’t stop looking at it.
I guess conflict is one of the things an artist likes to provoke in a viewer, right?
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The whole desaturated look is very much on trend these days. It probably goes with the general fashion of bringing back anything vintage and retro. As I said – I am not too fond of it either. Why drain life and colour artificially away to create something that was actually a fault of old processing chemicals (i.e. the faded look)? It’s an artistic choice, of course, and therefore valid. But we are free to dislike even though the subject makes it very hard to do so, as much as we want to. Artists want reaction to their work. Well, preferably praise, of course, and even better so if that translates into sales :-D. But even if we dislike something, we still have engaged with it, because we must have deliberated over our opinion. In this case, anyway, we are making a judgment on the aesthetics rather than the technique, and in a way that is good because we can still compliment the photographer on her technical prowess even if we do not connect emotionally with the chosen aesthetics.
Quick word on filters: They are mainly used for b/w photography and not for colour photography. Their effect is an emphasis of the contrast elements in an image, and they enhance tone rather than colour. Effectively, the colour of the filter cancels out the corresponding colour hues in the image, i.e. if you use a blue filter, you will lighten the blue parts of an image. That is because the filter will allow the wavelengths of the blue colour through, while “blocking” (or adding its own value to) the other colours, and thereby darkening them. In this case it looked to me as if all parts of the image appeared lightened, not just the blue, hence my conclusion that the image was not filtered but desaturated. (Plus the general “rule” that colour filters are more applicable for creating b/w images rather than colour effects on colour images.)
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Great *ooof* and a new favorite, or one of thirty favorite portrait shots. I like the blue. Thanks.
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Cheers, Perry :-). The list of favourite RA pics is continuously expanding.
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I like how the blue makes those blue eyes pop. Not to sure about the duck egg blue background, I like maybe a cooler blue, this one is too warm for me. Still a great photo to put a smile on my face.
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I am trying to imagine which other backgrounds would have suited the image in its desaturated state. White would have been too bright. Black would have merged with the dark hair and resulted in a floating hairless face. Other colours would’ve been garish. I think this works quite well, but that is personal preference 🙂
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You have no idea how much I have come to love your *ooof’s* and this is a doozy! Being also an emergency one just adds to its appeal, IMO. Blue seems to be “his colour” no matter which shade and his expression there just makes me melt. Those eyes get me too! How I’d love to know what is going on behind them in that amazing brain of his. *sigh*
All the great stuff you have taught us must finally be rubbing off on me, Guylty. I was watching a British TV series recently (forget which one at the moment) and one of the characters was being photographed in a studio and I noticed right away that they had used something to blur the line where the wall met the floor, like a huge roll of paper or something. It was very effective and I remembered that you had explained to us exactly how they did it and why! I was quite proud of myself and it’s all down to your great teaching. 🙂
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Thanks Teuchter! Yes, the immediacy of a first response *ooof* hits quite hard. I always find them irresistable to do – and much easier than going back to a shoot that has been out for a long time. Maybe it has to do with the freshness and novelty of a new image, with my own (and the viewers’) reactions still very raw and clear in mind?
That is the beauty of images where the sitter avoids eye-contact – they are much more mysterious, and therefore leave room for interpretation or imagination. And of course it would be interesting to know what goes on in the sitter’s mind (at any time, actually…)
And oh, I am very pleased to hear about your growing awareness and knowledge of photography, Teuchter! Isn’t it great to know the WHYs? I find it does not take away from the effect but rather enhances it. (And the teacher in me is thrilled that something has stuck in my readers <3)
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Loved the prime directive letter as much as the ooof. Well, almost. The letter did not generate impure thoughts, only laughing. I like the faded blue look, especially with his left eye catching the blue and framed by those lashes which should be illegal (just too long, thick and pretty). I have an issue with his hair. Like the back, can’t stand the front. It looks like a pompadour on steroids.
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I have to agree that I think his hair was a tiny bit too long at that point. Details like that make my mind wander: I imagine RA sitting in front of a mirror, with a hairstylist faffing around him, fluffing up his hair, meticulously adjusting individual strands, creating a cushion of dark waves on the Armitage crown. Was the whole arrangement concreted into place with tons of hairspray? And then, what did it look like after the shoot. Could Mr A not wait to run his hair through his mop and brush out all the spray residue, or did he waltz out of the studio like us women flounce out of the hair salon, head held up high, fully aware of the irresistable beauty of the freshly coiffed mane? The feeling of a new me, new life having just started? LOL – I think I missed an *ooof*let there…
Lashes – ugh! Unfair. Should be made illegal.
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LOL! ..but..but..I feel the strong need to add a nice mustache and beard in a style of D’artagnan to that picture! Oh , Guylty *sigh*…those eyes and that forehead *ooof*
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D’Artagnan LOL – oh my, there is another mental image that I won’t be able to shake off.
By the way, I would add “those eyebrows” and “those lashes” to that list 😀
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Yes! As soon as I saw this photo I was hoping you’d ooof! it, Guylty 🙂 Magnificent. I love the blue cast. And I even love the pompadour, Kathy 😉 We know he has strong, wavy hair so it’s not as if it wouldn’t do that naturally. :-). I’m completely with you on the eyelashes though 😀
Love the instructions, Guylty – will do my best to obey…
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I expect pictorial evidence from your place of work. (Portraits fixed underneath the workbench do not count, haha!)
And yes, I think you know me well at this point. The surprise pictures have a way of making me completely unable to rest until I have *ooof*ed them. Last night it took me until 2am to get it out. Mind you, I got sidetracked into fiddling around with the seal and the formatting of the whole letter. Totally OCD…
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Guyler Text! Schöner Bezug zur Mona Lisa. Ich wäre auch für die Aufnahme in den Louvre.
Und der Blick geht definitiv in die Brotbox mit der Leberwurstsemmel. 🙂
Wohin sonst ?
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Guyl? Geil! LOL – mein gewählter Name ist da leider etwas doppeldeutiig… Louvre, Prado, Rijksmuseum, Guggenheim, Uffizie – everywhere, Leberwurstsemmel-appreciation rules!
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Sorry, bin so doof, was meint “appreciation rules”? Ja, dein Name ist “leicht” zweideutig 🙂
War sicher komplett unbeabsichtigt, oder? Wortspiele sind was Feines 🙂
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“Leberwurstsemmel-Liebe rockt” 😀
Und das mit dem “geil” ist mir erst aufgefallen, nachdem ich mein Blog benannt hatte. Mir ging es darum, Guy of Gisborne in den Ausdruck “guilty pleasure” einzubauen. Epic FAIL. :-))
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Boah, danke! 🙂
Möchte zumindest kapieren, wenn mich einer lobt ! Schönen Tag noch !
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Love the wayward hair! Num num!
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hehehe, pompadour for some, numnum for others 🙂
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I love him most with longer hair and stubble, so I agree & this is probably an 8.5-9 for me 🙂
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What? not a perfect 10?
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I’m talking the photo, not the man, he’d be a 10 coming straight in from working the compost heap (in fact, I love a working man so…. 🙂
A “10” photo to me would be candid, with a smile and more casual clothes (though he is certainly a mighty fine “sharp-dressed man”)….. that’s just my ultimate favorite photo style (I think, till I see something that destroys that preconception).
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Too many variables in a candid for me to achieve a “10”, but I can totally see the attractiveness of something that is *real*. Who knows – it could happen.
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I understand why you would feel that way, it’s undoubtedly your professionalism coming into play. Richard can look great in any setting, but I really like seeing him more relaxed. He seems very comfortable in leather and jeans, and something about that seems to comes through, to me.
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The only thing I’m able to do when watching this picture is to drool like Pavlov’s dog whereas you have written a superb post about it. Congratulations!
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Many thanks, PreferNot2 🙂 My drooling reactions must have been eroded over time? Oh no, I hope not. It’s all a massive effort of self-restraint, getting these posts out *LOL*
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In my first comment I have not talked about the message of the Director-General, sorry. We all know that, among other things, he is omniscient and any unlawful use will be prosecuted but… does the Director-General himself punish law-breakers? In that case…. 😉
As far as the pose is concerned, it reminds me also the one of the captain (for those who believe in re-births) in Tititan’s Pala Pesaro http://wp.me/a4nLZs-3d
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LOL – naughty naughty! Deliberate rule-breaking for ulterior motives will be punished by exclusion from the Army 😉
As for the Titian painting – OMG Prefer!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am less struck by the pose (reminds me more of the ladder image we are currently discussing over on me+r http://bit.ly/1nOZqml) – but by the absolutely uncanny resemblance of the captain and beardy, short haired RA!!!! I think you are on to something there. Not only Capt Haddock, he is also a doppelganger with serious art!!!
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The absolutely uncanny resemblance deserves a post http://wp.me/p4nLZs-3g. I was writing you a reply but it was very long 🙂
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And I have just commented 😀 Thanks for writing that up – great!
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Just catching up here, Guylty- I’m not a fan of most of Dunn’s photos of RA at all, but I do like the overall pose in this one, even if not so much the muted background. Do especially like your directive, though!
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Yes, the pose is nice. Makes up for the lack of colour 😉
Hope the official portrait is up in Casa D!
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With the help of your ooofs and the most amusing letter most of the photos tend to become almost Louvre-worthy ;-).I am not that crictical as I’m not a photographer – just ‘like’ or ‘not like’. This is definitely a ‘like’ – seems to be old-fashioned but as you pointed out really up to date.
I would really like to obey the director-general’s advice but there are “other powers” which prevent me … What shall I do? 😉
Danke, guylty – wieder sehr unterhaltsam!
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I don’t think you need to be a photographer in order to like or dislike. You are your own art critic, and as long as you can name reasons *why* you like or dislike something, they are valid.
Other powers? What could you mean???? Thou shalt not have any other director-generals beside me!! (Should’ve put that as a tagline underneath the seal :-D)
Danke fürs Lesen!
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Thou shalt not have any other director-generals beside me!! – LoL. Yes, that would match perfectly!
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😀
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This photo makes me cry. I don’t know why but I just have to look at his eyes and he seems (to me only) so sad, and alone and lost. Oh the power of Richard’s eyes ! The sadness I feel is intensified by this pale blue all around his face. For me this colour represents water and I share with RA the fear of water. But at the same time I need to look at this picture because he has never appeared so “real” as if he was jumping out of my computer into my home. This is where we recognize the simple photographer like us with a professional one !
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It’s always fascinating for me to see what other people see in a photograph. The association with water for me is a happy one, so my interpretation would go a different way.
Dunn really has a way with eyes – she makes them pop in all her images, whether b/w or colour. Really good, or compelling.
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Katia, I agree that the eyes always have it! And that this shot is definitely moody, possibly even on the regretful side…..
I preferred to interpret the sadness as – he needs me there with him to make it all better (lol) !
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Sorry I forgot to speak about the Memo. So funny !!!
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Hehe – that’s just the unnecessary bonus. The important bit is the photo!! ❤
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Melde Vollzug: Das Portrait in A0 hängt im Wohnzimmer. Allerdings ist mein Mann ausgezogen und die Kinder suchen in der Nachbarschaft Asyl. Habe ich was falsch gemacht? 🙂
Kurzer Exkurs: bin gestern noch über deine Fotos und den Bericht von der Berlinpremiere gestolpert. Ich hatte das Gefühl dabeizusein. Wäre ich damals schon so drauf gewesen wie aktuell, who knows. Das Gefühl zwar dabeizusein, aber dann nur zu funktionieren kann ich nachvollziehen. Alles festhalten zu wollen und dabei den Augenblick garnicht richtig würdigen zu können. Die Bilder sind allererste Sahne. Das warten sich gelohnt. Diese Optik macht mich echt schwach. Auch wenn er bei diesem Event wie ein alter ego meines Bruders aussieht . Creepy sage ich dir. 🙂
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Hahaha… Das sind eben die kleinen Opfer, die man bringen muss. Dein Platz in der Army ist allerdings gesichert.
Hey, ist ja nett, dass meine ollen Fotos und der Bericht auch so lange nach dem Event noch Interesse finden 🙂 Habe mich mittlerweile mit dem Gefühl der Entfremdung abgefunden, das ich mir mit meinem Arbeitsmodus selbst gestrickt hatte… Das gehört eben zum Original Guylty-Fangirling dazu 😉 Und freut mich natürlich sehr, dass dir die Bilder gefallen haben (wo ich ja selber so unzufrieden damit bin).
Oha, ein Bruder in derselben Optik. Das ist in der Tat eher creepy 😀
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Tja, da ich eine Spätinfizierte bin ( Ende 2013) liegt noch ein gutes Stück Arbeit vor mir, was die dad Abarbeiten diverser Texte angeht. Komme bestimmt nochmal auf das ein oder andere zurück. 🙂
Bei deinem Blog erscheint mir das machbar bei anderen bin ich wahrscheinlich bis zur Rente noch nicht fertig ( Gruß an Servetus ). Aber jetzt wo sich meine Familie aufgelöst hat, habe ich ja Zeit 🙂
Schön, dass ich in die Army aufgenommen wurde!!!!
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Ich muss gerade an diese alte Joghurt-Werbung denken, wo der kleine süße Junge am Ende sagt “Früher oder später kriegen wir sie alle”. Das inoffizielle Motto der Armitage Army 😀
Hehe, ja, mein Blog ist übersichtlich – aber auch eine Fallstudie für das, was passiert, wenn man seine RAliebe offen zugibt. Ich hab das Blog nur eingerichtet, weil ich ein WP-Konto zum Zugang als Gastblogger bei Servetus brauchte. Deswegen am Anfang auch keinerlei Beiträge. Und spätestens seit der 2013 Premiere ist das Ganze hier abendfüllend geworden. Also: Vorsicht 😀
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Lies lieber die FAZ als meine alte Beiträge. Bringt mehr. 🙂
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Danke Serv, dass du dich um meine Allgemeinbildung sorgst 🙂
Aber sorry, bin halt jetzt neben FAZ-addicted auch RA-addicted. Und fürs Herz bietet der Zweitgenannte DEUTLICH mehr 🙂
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FAZ macht zufrieden, RA macht glücklich!
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ich gebe zu, immer nur das Feuilleton gelesen zu haben (siehe: Untertitel von meinem Blog), das aber mit riesigem Gewinn. Meine politische Meinungen finden sich wo anders.
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Why, hello twinnie :-D. Das ging mir bei *dem* Blatt exakt genauso. Feuilleton und sonst ab in die Tonne 😀 Und überhaupt, ich habe die FAZ nur abonniert, weil es für das Studentenabo irgendeine witzige Armbanduhr als Prämie gab, oder so 😀
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This is starting to get frightening. Maybe those doubts were right, and we *are* the same person. My exSO was always subscribing to papers because of the subscription gifts (I never did), but the “I read it for the Feuilleton” thing — okay, so did you make a particular point of reading it on Tuesday? Because that was the day we never missed (more history stuff on that day or something, I forget the reason now).
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Considering that our concepts of “time” and “place” may be completely wrong (hello quantum physics!), it is entirely possible that I am you in a different place, concurrently. Here is the litmus test: Which newspaper, politically completely different to the FAZ, did “we” describe to when the FAZ finally ran out??? *GG*
I do not remember the Tuesday-history day, though, although that was probably the only day of the week I got my money’s worth out of it…
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I guess you don’t mean die Bild-Zeitung 🙂
I’m going to guess that you subscribed to Frankfurter Rundschau. When our Studi-abo ran out, we usually went to the SZ, iirc. But we had an actual real subscription to Die Zeit. Mostly for H. At the time, I read German at about a third the speed I read English, and the articles were exhausting.
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Ha! There is the proof that we are not the same person on two different continents at the same time – it was not the FR but the taz :-D. But a caveat: I did also have a subscription to Die Zeit – which I loved. I’d love to subscribe to it now. It would be the ideal medium to keep in touch with the Fazerland. Alas, their international subscription is so ridiculously expensive that I cannot justify it…
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whew! that’s a relief!
I read the taz when I lived in Berlin after we separated, but I think there’s no way H ever would have subscribed to it.
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LOL. Historians can be soooo conservative. Mind you, I will agree that the taz is inherently tendentious. The fact that I could so easily tolerate that explains why I was not able to make a career as a historian 😀
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Yeah, I think it was the tendentiousness of the paper more than the politics that bothered him. Well, maybe a little the politics, but a bit more the slant, I guess. He always voted SPD / Green, less SPD after Schröder turned out to be such a disappointment, but I don’t know that anything would get him over the line to vote for anything that looked like it could be an SED-successor party. He was 26 when the Wall fell.
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Tendentiousness is fine when the tendencies reflected are the ones you subscribe to, yourself. Which was true in my case – in the sense that taz was the only national newspaper with openly left politics that was within the wider realm of “seriöse Berichterstattung”. Let me hasten to add that I draw the line at Stalinist successor parties, too, even as a dyed-in-the-wool leftie…
Ah those were the days. Nowadays I do not read a daily paper at all. Very bad.
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I remember when I moved to Berlin, thinking, for a month I am going to read all the newspapers I want to read! It really took 60 percent of the day. German newspapers are so good! And then I would listen to DeutschlandRadio Kultur as well. Nowadays I read the headlines of the NYT and The Guardian and listen to NPR (which is getting really poor, I’m drum und dran to stop).
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I am going to sound really whiny now (and am fully aware that there is no excuse for first world problems such as this) but it is extra hard when you are trying to keep up with two places that are close to your heart, i.e. the country of your birth and the country of your residence. I have all but lost touch with German current affairs, and that makes me very sad. I am going to check out subscription prices for Die Zeit again!
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Na, dann hat sich das Gespräch gelohnt!
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LOL – still expensive. 143 € for Europe (6 months). Damn.
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When I was a grad student, the comparable thing for me was the international sub price for The New Yorker, my favorite magazine at the time. Since I was so busy, what I ended up doing was buying something like one per month from the sole newsstand in Göttingen that carried it. It was a compromise — cheaper than a sub, more than I wanted to pay, but kept me sort of up to date on things. (Of course, this was before the Internet).
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I know – no excuse in the day and age of the web. Your suggestion is actually a good idea – a monthly treat. (Will find out now how much the Spiegel is…)
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Dieses Stressgefühl der unbewältigten Texte kannte ich bisher nur daher, dass ich wochenlang die SonntagsFAZ nicht geschafft und vor mir hergeschoben habe 🙂 .
Naja, ist ja sog. Eustress.
Außerdem übt es mein englisch! Vielleicht kann ich auch irgendwann in Englisch schreiben. Aber bei meinem Schwall kriege ich das leider nicht so differenziert rüber . 🙂
(Bin soooo froh , dass ihr mich auf Deutsch versteht !!!)
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Mensch Mädels, da habe ich ja was mit meiner FAZ -Erwähnung losgetreten 🙂
Klar, ist das Blatt schwer konservativ . Aber das Feuilleton ist immer wieder preisverdächtig. Wusstet ihr , dass die FR ( Frankfurter Rundschau) als “hellroter” Gegenpol in Ffm jetzt auch zu FAZ gehört? Aber mit klarem eigenen Profil. Das scheint zu klappen. Aber zuerst haben alle hier mal schwer schlucken müssen. Aber die FR stand vor dem Aus. Da biste froh, wenn einer (selbst der Klassenfeind) zu Hilfe eilt.
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Interessant, nein, das wusste ich nicht! Hoffentlich bleibt es bei der klaren politischen Abgrenzung der beiden Blätter!
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Also die FAZ bewegt NIEMAND aus der schwarzen Ecke 🙂 Eher fällt Ostern auf Weihnachten. Aber bei der Übernahme der FR gab es wohl ganz klare Vorgaben. Es war wichtig, die Eigenständigkeit zu bewahren und eben keine Gleichschaltung zu Betreiben. Da sind alle wohl ganz fair unterwegs und sich sehr wohl bewusst, was man für die Erhaltung der politischen Medienvielfalt zu tun hat. Aber trotzdem ein schwieriges Unterfangen und der Zeitungsmarkt ist wahrlich kein Kindergeburtstag. Wer weiß, wie lange es die Printmedien noch so gibt. Aber Zeitungspapier fühlt sich trotzdem besser an, als online 🙂
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Geht mir genauso – ich möchte gerne eine echte Zeitung abonnieren, nicht auf dem Computer lesen. Und iPad (habe ich) auch nicht. Aber die Auslandsabos sind echt stattlich 😦
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Das Leben in der Diaspora ist echt kein Spaß! Ich fühle mit dir. Wahrscheinlich ist am langen Ende das iPad die günstigste Variante. Dann sind die Abos halbwegs bezahlbar. Aber halt nix “Griffiges”. Lass dir doch ab und zu mal einen Spiegel aus der Heimat schicken. Du kennst doch sicher noch jemanden hier? Oder vergatter die gesamte Familie, dir ein Abo zum Geburtstag und zu Weihnachten zu schenken.
Ich scanne Dir auch gerne mal einen Artikel ein 🙂
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It’s lazy Sunday here in So. Cal., so here I am.
I love this portrait. It reminds me of those classic 1940s Hollywood portrait sittings–the ones they do for the serious male stars.
RA has delectable facial features, but to me he’s more than just leading man handsome. And while I swoon over the half-lowered eyes showing a hint of those cold blues, the luxurious hair and stubble, I am also intrigued. Dunn captures him in thought and detached from us. There’s no direct gaze or the smolder, which comes so naturally for Richard. All he has to do is look up from his brow and we melt. But here we’re invited to linger on every detail of his face, but in any minute he might look up! He’s gorgeous, yes, but mystery too.
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There’s nothing better to do on lazy Sundays than looking at some pretty pictures, isn’t there? 😉
You are right – the image comes from a series of shots that was in the tradition of studio portraiture. Not quite like the classic Hollywood Glamour by the likes of George Hurrell, but nearly there. Here is one that is even more like it (and by the same photographer: http://meandrichard.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/ooof-shadow-man/)
I completely agree with you that the off-camera gaze is more effective than the direct connection with the viewer. More scope for interpretation, basically. And yes, undistracted by the look of the gorgeous eyes, we can linger on other details. Ah, sigh 🙂
Thanks for your comment, Mia 🙂
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