I was in Paris last week. Part work, but mostly fun. Eating, drinking, being merry, and of course, snapping photos my iPhone–as I do everyday–with no end goal beyond staying creatively engaged.
I was just now kicking through photos from the trip and stumbled on a couple of snapshots I thought were interesting for various reasons. I’ve posted stuff like this before and was really excited by the resulting discussion, so I figured I’d throw it out there again… These are of course just snapshots, but even snapshots have merit. AND these photos are VERY different from one another…. So, simply put, I thought I’d ask for your thoughts, which is better, A or B? And why?
Vote in the comments. Also love to know ‘why’ if you care to explain. 500 px wide images after the jump…
[ASIDE, since Paris reminds me of good food… if you like chasejarvisLIVE, I’m bringing in 2 special guests TOMORROW (Wednesday) at 12 noon pacific/3:00 eastern time. The goal is to combine a few of my passions and share them with you: photography, food, the internet. As such, join me tomorrow to welcome….
Guest #1 Penny DeLosSantos: Food/Lifestyle/Travel and National Geographic photographer Penny DeLosSantos (@pennydelosantos). Well talk about photo, food, and travel…photographing in the world’s most suicide bombed markets in the middle east, travels to more than 40 countries, and the art of combining your passions into a career.
Guest #2 Barnaby Dorfman: Barnaby is a legendary tech guru turned entreprenuer who recently founded Foodista [@foodista] – the world’s leading online food encyclopedia/wiki and an overall amazing site. Combine food, tech, and storytelling and you get a thick slice of Barnaby. Hope to see you at http://www.chasejarvis.com/live tomorrow ….]
Now go vote on those photos below. Tell me what you think…
Here’s Photo A:
Here’s Photo B: 
Which is better and why?
A — i like the idea of a story over a better composition.
I like B. I like the line of the street leading me to the ferris wheel at the end of the street. The roundness of the ferris wheel is interesting with the straightness of the buildings and of the street. Very interesting shot.
I am really inclined toward photo A. i really like the totally apathetic mood it establishes. that apathy is so characteristic of the urban culture where people spend so much time hunkered down in their own world that they are so unaware of everything going on around them
overall i think the photo would be more striking if the sitting couple in the upper left were cropped out (maybe splitting hairs but..)
by cropping them out the person laying down (“dead”) would be totally separated from all of the other subjects.
so close and yet so alone…
im also a fan of the red in his jacket (semi symbolic?)
Great shots.
Initially I wanted to vote in favor of “B”. I love how everything pulls me to the center of the image, from exposure values and perspective to the idea of moving from mundane daily life to a place where every thing is carefree and easy. However, while typing my vote I kept wondering what was the story with that guy lying on the ground, which to me is what I enjoy most about photographs. The story they tell or in this case do not tell. Nice exercise Chase! My vote goes for “A”.
A is more interesting. Why is the guy laying on the ground? Is he dead? Why are people just walking by and ignoring him? Is he homeless? What’s his story? Is the world really this callous? Isn’t this the cover of Muse’s Absolution album?
B is a ferris wheel at the end of a street. And that is that.
Cory,
How can you go from using your imagination with photo A, only to stop using it with photo B? Being in the street to take the photo puts you in the middle of the story. Envision yourself as the driver of the car. Envision that the street is crowded and the driver of the car is searching for something. The ferris wheel and the bright sky represent a release. Just keep your mind open to all possibilities.