Imagine There's An Image

Another little bit of validation, always welcome by this semi-insecure photographer, arrived today. One of my photographs, "Man on Bench No. 2", was given a "Best of Project" (BIP) award on Usefilm.com.

Now before anyone gets too excited, this doesn't mean that my photo was the best in some project, as the award might imply. Rather, it is one of several images awarded this accolade for the current Usefilm.com project, which happens to be "Henri." Usefilm always has a project running (so far, there have been 46 of them) and encourages its members to submit one or more photos for each project. The volunteer staff award several "BIP" designations during the run of each project.

Recent projects have included "Under Your Feet," "Blurry Images," and "Shadows." Each encourages us to use our imagination and stretch a bit, perhaps trying a style or technique that we haven't yet attempted. It's a good thing.

The current project, "Henri," of course, is dedicated to Henri Cartier-Bresson and will run for the entire month of August. Members have been asked to upload their best street photography images.

I've uploaded quite a few, mostly from my recent visit to NYC, but also three from my youth. My "BIP" photo, which I renamed "L'Homme sur Banc, bis" for the project entry, dates from early September 1974. I was twenty-four years old, Nixon had not even been out of the White House for a month, and I had a newly-aquired collapsible 50mm Summicron for my Leica IIIc.

When I started thinking of getting back into photography about three years ago, this image was among the few that made me think that maybe I had once had some talent in this area.

I'm glad that someone else thinks so, too.