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?
Photo A for me…I know it’s the more ‘obvious’ one of the two, but the guy in the red jacket lay on the floor looks as though he’s been shot and the dark patch by his right foot looks like a pool of blood (is it actually his bag?).
Common sense says that this obviously isn’t a dead man laying in the middle of a public area as nobody is really paying any attention to him…but would that actually be as surprising as it first seems? Speaking for the UK, we are on the majority a nation of hypocrites. Quick to say how the country is falling in to ruin with people not giving a damn, but slow to act on our words and do something to make a difference. So ignoring a ‘shot’ man lay on the street may not be so surprising after all.
I love A, the crossing lines and man lying down in Red, does it for me.
Penny DeLosSantos and Chase Jarvis, two of my favourite photographers. This is heaven.
Photo A draws my interest more.
It has a story to tell……but what story?
Why is this man lying there?
What does the man think that walks by him?
Is it a homeless guy or just a man resting?
Look at his shoes so neatly together.
Also the composition is very strong. Very simple.
I find myself looking longer to photo A then to photo B.
My vote is for A – it makes you think and evokes emotion, B has nice symmetry but is bland and forgettable. I know I’ll remember A and for get B!
First reacton was A, 100%. But B has something, shapes, more depth, direction and an interesting interuption by the round shape of the wheel. But I guess it’s A, as I’m a fan of moments.