Question of the Day: What's Your Standout Image from 2009?

Question of the Day will appear every Wednesday on The Post.

Sooooo a month or so back, when launch of TPP appeared imminent, I emailed a variety of excellent photographers and asked them to answer a Question of the Day, which will be a recurring feature here. Remarkably, they believed this site would actually come to exist, and wrote me back. Thoughtfully! With images!

Amazing.

So, here was the question: What’s your standout image from 2009? Tell us about how it came to be- whether it’s a personal image, or comes with a story, or if you want to share technical details.

Below, eleven photographers of all proclivities weigh in.

Elinor Carucci:

“I took this picture of my son, Eden, a few months ago, during our summer visit to Israel. He was showing me how strong he has become. I looked at him, and suddenly realized that he really got much taller and bigger, and that for the first time I am witnessing him being concerned with his physical strength. I felt ambivalent; I was happy to see him confident about his body and behaving in a more mature, even manly manner but a little sad that he moving away from being my little baby boy, paying attention to different issues than he used to. With a sudden emotional pain I smiled at him and said ‘yes my love, you are very strong’.”

Finn O’Hara:

“Well, my standout image of the year won’t make any photo annual, but it stands out for me as it’s become an image that I will always remember taking.

I was in Sligo, Ireland, this summer, staying with family. On their estate, they have several dogs, including Darcy, who is a very large Irish Wolfhound. As I was taking photos of an old family castle (in the background), Darcy loped up beside me to see what I was doing. I said hello, and as I turned toward him, a sheep behind us caught his attention, and Darcy craned his neck backwards to check it out. As all this happened, the clouds broke, the sun shone (a rarity at times in Ireland), and it caught Darcy. Click.

Sometimes when shooting film you get a shot that really sticks out in your mind. It stays with you, all the way until you pick up the film from the developer, and hope to hell that it lives up to your expectations. This is one of those pictures for me. I hope you like it too.”

Rebecca Greenfield:

“My favorite image from this year came from a personal project. I traveled to Tampa to photograph the tryouts for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader squad. Over the course of a few days, five hundred girls are whittled down to thirty. Even if you were on the previous year’s team, you must try out all over again. This picture is from early morning on the very first day, no cuts had yet been made.”

Dan Saelinger:

“As a still life photographer it’s always difficult answering a question like this, since we tend to work in a more subtle fashion. Let’s face it, war zones and celebrities make for more interesting behind the scenes talk.

So I went with this image I shot for Addison Design for an annual report for Navigators Insurance. The concept was to show risk and opportunity as well as the typical annual report summaries like market growth etc. using a glass of water as a metaphor. This shot in particular illustrated reaching out into new markets.

I had a blast shooting this because it required a lot of thought and planning to execute. I ended up calling in the services of prop maker/water specialist Makoto Aoki of Swell NYC to build a rig that would propel water from one glass to the other. The rig was composed of a lever supported by a couple apple boxes and attached to a rod glued to the glass on the left. The system allowed exact repetition so the glass on the left would end and water would start flying out.

From there we rigged a laser trigger to some high speed Broncolor packs to catch the water at precise moments. I believe we divided the shot into three main ares, exiting the left glass, water arcs, and entering the right glass. The final image was composted from roughly twelve captures. This was definitely one of the coolest projects in terms of concept and execution I worked on this year, and it garnered me the ADC Young Guns award.”

Sarah Palmer:

“I am sending you a recent image I made, entitled “Renaissance,” whose meaning continues to evolve for me. My new work considers (and this image gets straight to the heart of this), among other ideas, the place of things (and people and places and texts) once their “usefulness” is past, or once their meaning has transformed – including darkroom materials, books printed on acid paper, organic matter, even ideas themselves.

These works are from my new series, “As A Real House,” which follows a search, of sorts, for what is possible within photography, my desire to understand how ideas and memories are trapped within the medium and its matter, like precious stone in layers of rock. In this, I hope to reveal the vulnerability of my subjects and medium, to discover my place, and the place of photography, in the topsy-turvy of it all.”

Glenn Glasser:

“In the past year, with the changing economic conditions I really wanted to focus on the “real” as opposed to the “fantasy”. A lot of my friends lost their jobs and suddenly found themselves without a foundation to stand and means to support their idea of a New York lifestyle. After all – it’s the people we grow old with that enrich our lives, and not the things we accumulate to provide happiness. I truly believe that finding that special someone is the greatest personal wealth that we can acquire. I started casting and photographing senior couples from all walks of life – each with their own story.

I met Mariene and Samuel. Both came to NYC from different areas in Poland when they were young, orphaned survivors from the concentration camps – and the last remaining members of their families. They grew up in nearby villages in Poland and were placed in separate orphanages here – and it took a language class in Queens to bring the two teenagers together. Married for over 60 years – and with 3 children and 8 grandchildren – they are just one example of the American Dream.”

Emily Nathan:

“Well isn’t that a popular photo! Its also in a show that I think I super randomly entered (and forgot I entered) after you mentioned it at Wallspace (the only show I have ever entered online).

‘Green Sea’ was taken in Byron Bay, Australia in February 2009 (medium format film-mamiya 7II). Its a photo I take all the time but it’s a very lovely version- ie- big landscape overhead with a surf break in it. It’s a simple photo that does however require a flight to Australia, a second flight north, then a drive and a hike up a hill on a steep but very well defined trail at a good time of day.

What I like about this image-

1. It feels like surfing to me. A big part of why I surf is so I can be in the ocean and just experience it. Being on a calm break like this, you have a lot of time between waves to hang out and enjoy the landscape (which was kind of surprisingly vast in Byron) and fauna (there were actually sharks out the day I shot this I think but I try not to look for or think about them when surfing. I didn’t until my husband told me he saw a shark at which point I suggested we go in for a bit).

2. It feels warm (because it was). Byron is tropical and you can clearly see that from the water color and the tropical weather moving across the sky. Warm makes and my body me happy. (I live in norcal and the water here is very cold and I usually wear a 4.3mm thick wetsuit to surf which inhibits motion and seems kind of silly when you surf in a place like Bryon that only requires a bathing suit).

I guess that’s about it. It’s shot from a contemplative distance with love at people contemplating (see the guys sitting on the outside) and doing (guy dropping in) something I also love to do.”

Landon Nordeman:

“This image was made on an assignment for The New Yorker. The assignment was to photograph a performance by The Brooklyn Philharmonic at the South Street seaport. The performance was supposed to be concluded by a fireworks display during the grand finale, but due to weather conditions, and currents in the East river, the fireworks (launched from a barge on the water) went off about 150 yards down river from where the orchestra was performing on the pier. When the fireworks started exploding in the sky, I ran to the edge of the pier so that I could reach a better vantage point to photograph them. It turned out that there was a beautiful old fashioned sailboat docked to the pier with people on deck also watching the fireworks. The ropes in the foreground were tied to another larger ship (at top right) also docked to the pier.

To me, this image works because a variety of elements, such as color, scale, depth, graphic composition, and a sense of “what is going on here?” made it into the frame all at once. The people at the bottom of the frame, and the guy in the hat, at the bottom right, help add a sense of scale to the scene, and let the viewer understand the size of the spectacle. I tend to photograph people from a very close distance, but in this instance, my perspective is further back–I couldn’t get any closer–so it’s not typical of the way I shoot. This image is really more of a landscape–(or better yet, a seascape)–and I was relieved to find that even from a distance, the necessary elements came together to make (in my opinion) an interesting photograph.

The only other comment I might add about this image, is that it was encouraging to me that this image was chosen to be published. Not only did it surprise me, but I believe it surprised my editors as well. That is always something I strive for on any assignment–to surprise my editor/s. More often than not, my attempt to surprise them fails, but occasionally, with a little luck, it works. My editors were expecting to see images of an orchestra–and believe me, I photographed the orchestra performing all night–but instead, this unplanned image of people watching the fireworks proved to be more intriguing. It was a thrill to see it published, and is a reminder of how a little luck can turn any assignment into something special.”

Nick Cobbing:

“We were in broken sea ice between north Greenland and Svalbard, the sea was actually quite rough but the sea ice has the effect of dampening down the swell. It’s late evening but there is still an amount of light, being September at a high latitude. The man in the bow became affectionately known as ‘Number Two’ because he was the second mate. I was on board the ship (the Icebreaker Arctic Sunrise) for 101 days — enough time to see many nicknames, friendships and camaraderie — it’s what kept us sane I think.

Number Two is making the watchkeeper’s rounds, he checks the ship from bow to stern and all decks between and I’m in the crow’s nest, as I was, several times a day in search of new pictures. Being at sea for long periods of time stretches the creativity; the vessel becomes smaller by the day. I kept a spare camera up in the crow’s best “for emergencies”, perhaps like this one; I’d see him coming and leg it up there, maybe get there in time. On the horizon there is a ‘water sky’ the darker open water of the sea is reflected in the clouds, contrasting against the ice edge. In the middle distance you can just about see a small steel pipe fixed into the ice, we tied up to this to allow scientists to get down onto the ice that day. Below the ship their footprints merge with the pristine bear tracks we saw when we arrived at what felt like a frozen world.”

Joshua Lutz:

“This past Winter I was commissioned to respond to the idea of borders in relationship to the city of Amsterdam. It was to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s trip to New York. Walking the streets of lower Manhattan it’s easy to find Dutch influences on everything ranging from what we eat to where we live. There may not be herring on the street corners but if you squint your eyes in the West Village…enough said.

The American counterpart and its influence on Dutch culture becomes a bit more nuanced the farther you leave the city centers. I was happy to report that poorly planned communities are not strictly an American phenomenon. While Frank Lloyd Wright might not be in Usonia at least they’re driving a 68 Caddy. And an orange one for that matter.”

Cameron Davidson:

“This was a hard one to choose. This image was made after finishing up a Vanity Fair shoot on the flight of USAirways 1549. I had spent the afternoon re-flying Captain Sully’s headings and altitudes. All the way to the landing point on the Hudson river. I wanted to shoot a positive image of Manhattan at dusk so we headed for the Battery and Financial District.

I like this image for several reasons, primarily because of the color, form and patterns. It can convey several messages and it has been a very successful stock image at one of my agencies. Equipment wise, pretty simple: A Canon 1DsMark III, 24mm f/1.4 lens, ISO1600, Ken-Lab KS-6 gyroscope, along with a pilot who knows how to fly the Hughes to get me in to position.”