Topic: What are the two photos you wish you'd taken?

[Nigel]

What is the one photograph you wish you could put your name to and why? Maybe as I get older, I get more reflective, but I've been thinking about this recently.

Importantly, this is about the image, not having had the opportunity to be in the situation. I'd love to have taken one of the shots on the moon, but that's more about going to the moon than the image itself.

Edit: I'm rethinking that rule. Maybe two images, one for the quality of the shot and the second because it would have been amazing to be at that point in history.

The first one doesn't have to be famous, but it would be good if it's one you can link to.

I'd be interested to hear what everyone picks. For me, I need to think for a few more days. Just in case I change my mind! 

[Nigel]

Having spent far too much time thinking about this over the past few days. I've realised what you probably already knew, that it's impossible to pick just one image. Different images speak to us for various reasons at different times.

I've started 'studying' the history of conflict photography. This shot by Charles-François Thibault in Paris, taken on Sunday June 1848, during that year's French Revolution (they love a revolution)! It is one of the first images that shows signs of a conflict.

Thibault took two images (there may have been more that didn't survive) before the storming of the barricade. This is the less well-known, but it fascinates me because of the woman looking out of her window, on the right-hand side, what must she thought this young man was doing?



Thibault went back the next day and took the 'after' shot, but sadly, this shot isn't as clear, but you can see that the woman isn't there.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/la-barricade-de-la-rue-saint-maur-popincourt-apres-lattaque-par-les-troupes-du-general-lamoriciere-le-lundi-26-juin-1848-119126

My 'just-to-be-there' shot has to be from the moon. As someone who watched the first moon landing at school as a 5-year-old, I'm as captivated now as I was then. Given the chance, I'd go tomorrow!



Buzz Aldrin by Neil Armstrong, shot on a converted Hasselblad.

[Francois]

Hey Nigel!
Long time no see!

I must admit that this is a really hard question, maybe because I've lost a lot of creativity in recent times.
But one of the photos I really love is this one of the Case Study House #22 by Julius Shulman


This one really gets my architecture fan's mind happy. It's even more remarkable when you know how it was made!
No meter, long exposure using flashbulbs in the ceiling lamps with the girls having been given the instructions: don't move until I tell you it's OK.

When I was younger, I would have chosen something by Ansel.

And in the "not famous" category, I really like this one of Osaka that I found on Flickr years ago
Osaka Highways Blue Hour by Sandro Bisaro, on Flickr

I don't know if you can tell but I love cities 

[Nigel]

Hey Nigel!
Long time no see!

I must admit that this is a really hard question, maybe because I've lost a lot of creativity in recent times.
But one of the photos I really love is this one of the Case Study House #22 by Julius Shulman

Hi François,
It's good to hear from you.

It is an improssible question, but I found it did get me thinking about what I really enjoy.
I could have easily picked the Julius Shulman shot, the women look incredibly elegant. It's a good choice!

[Pete_R]

Portraiture is the one area of photography where I've never achieved what I would like to and this shot sums up all that I would like to do. It's a large format tin type by Robb Kendrick.



In the 'wish I was there' category, Moonrise, Hernandez...

[Nigel]

Portraiture is the one area of photography where I've never achieved what I would like to and this shot sums up all that I would like to do. It's a large format tin type by Robb Kendrick.

They're both beautiful. I'm with you when it comes to portraiture, I've tried many times and I never quite achieve what I had in mind.

[Francois]

It's funny because I have two categories: the photos I wish I had taken and they photographers I wish I could hang-out with.
For the later, I select Kahn & Selesnick. They're a duo of guys that do surrealist photographs. Here's one of them


I've seen them in a documentary and they look like a lot of fun. During the filming, one of them got stuck with a fishbowl on his head and they just couldn't stop laughing! Just seeing that made my day. I don't know where they take those ideas but I wish I had enough imagination left to do stuff like that.