Autumn in January

For "Get Pushed: Round 42"
"100 x: The 2014 Edition": 10x10. 3/100
1/10 Challenges/Pushes: Rückenfigur!

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For Round42 of GetPushed, I was paired with Malcolm Smith (malcjsmith), who is also a follow member of the 100x group. Before I go into the push, I will have to say how impressed I was of Malcolm stream, which I browsed for the first time for this assignment. Exceptionally strong photos. in addition, his style of photography is the type that I personally admire. Diverse and experimental.

Malcolm challenge for me was as follows:

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" Your challenge is to produce an image using the technique of rückenfigur!

Literally meaning "back figure", the term rückenfigur is usually associated with German romantic painters, such as Caspar David Friedrich, to describe a viewpoint that includes another person seen from behind, viewing a scene spread out before the viewer.

As rückenfigur is fundamentally about the human contemplation of a landscape (whether it be natural or urban), here's some criteria to get started...

Absolute MUSTS:

- Photo clearly shows a subject from a rear point-of-view in contemplation of another scene that may or may not be visible to us as a viewer.
- Rear figure subject must be the main human subject of the photo... and not just a random body part - picture must at least have a head.
- Main subject must not have a visible face (for a definitive rule: oblique rear profile Ok, but no visible eyes).
- No other faces should appear in the composition unless they are being directly viewed by the "rear figure" (if they're in the indistinct background of the shot, that's Ok)

Desirable Criteria:

- It's all about contemplation... the more evident this feeling is from the composition, the better
- the main subject is shown in isolation within the composition. The main subject can either be in the form of a single person or a group that appears isolated"
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I have to say, that's a great challenge!

I also had to admit my ignorance until recently, I was introduced to it only early this year by the talented Leopold (benman31, whom I shared a week long challenged last year) who is doing a 100x project of all rückenfigur.

The photo was shot in my back yard. Living in "The South" (and for people who do not live in the US, "The South" have more meaning than just a geographic direction) you have to be content with very hot, probably humid summers. What balances that out are the mostly very mild periods in between. Long Autumns and Springs. it is very normal to have yellow leaves through February.   Being in freezing cold New York over the Christmas break, I was reminded of how lucky we are. Even during the Arctic Vortex blast that brought most of the country below freezing recently, we still had decent weather here. Relatively cold, but nothing even close to the rest of the country.

As I mentioned before, for my 100x project, I am doing 10x10 (10 themes-10 photos) and one of those themes is challenges. Some of these will come from GetPushed group but they are not restricted to that. My contacts are welcome to send their challenges to me. First come-first served until I reach 10.

Until the next challenge......


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My X, for the 2014 100X challenge is “10x10”: 10 photos with 10 themes. These will be spread throughout the year with particular order.