Emotionally amazing...
I can't remember when was the last time when I was freaked out like this...

mmm....a story.....all I can think of is the phrase "she's a ten pinter!"

I like the low colour saturation, I'm glad she isn't my breakfast buddy.

The first thing I thought - given the positioning of the feet and the billowing skirt - was 'Ballet dancer'...strangely enough ;-)

I very much like the muted colour and toning you've given it Dave, as ever with your stuff the processing is bang on...kinda gives it an oldish/ridden down feel. Which still ties in with the ballet dancer thing if you ask me.

So do the plasters.

and I should learn to read titles really, then it really is about the plasters.

Mind you....I'm still sticking with the ballet scenario ;-)

It's a little bit Lewis Carroll to me... Alice after the mushroom.

What a depressing image! Never having seen the area the image was taken, all I can assume is that she is standing with her face against a cold stone wall. It makes me wince to think of the discomfort she must feel when walking. Sometimes an image is a novel in itself. This image however, is merely the first word on the first page of a very long book.

Great work!

yea, sure does tell a story. love the "feel" of ths shot.

well, to me, she looks like a character from a fairy tale that's aged 50 years and also gained a lot of weight. sort of like a retired athelete. but there's still something sort of magical about this picture which i really like.

Simply beautiful. Great picture.
I like the color tone and the composition as well...
I'l be right back.

a bad woman is a sort of woman a man never gets tired of

*** stupendous ***

Great shot. Strong emotions I feel, when looking at it. But I am not sure kind of emotions they are.

Mark: I removed the title. I'll add it back in later.

Brilliant! Absolutely! Love it, there's so much to see here...the tiny feet, the band aids, the rough skin, the wind apparently blowing some air up into that skirt (is it???)...
Very nice and certainly interesting!

Ouch! I'm glad they are not my feet. I love the tones you have created in this shot. Very good indeed

Lovely shot and it looks like you've done some ace dodging and burning too, unless the light was incredibly flat and you were just able to ramp the contrast across the board.

I know Paul described yesterday's shot as being Draganesque but this seems to fit that description much more so to my mind. I don't know how you feel about having your PP compared to his but rest assured I mean it as a compliment.

Very well done. One of my favourites. However did you get it so grey? It can't just be desaturation. It seems to have greyness built into it. It's just grey personified for me. Love it.

She's standing really close to that wall - either leaning against it hiding her face or holding herself in with her hands over the top of it, possibly even just looking over it at whatever lies beyond. I think the latter: she's forgotten the discomfort of those cheao shoes, the cold wind tugging at her skirt, oblivious of the photographer, and she's gazing, maybe out to sea?

I really like the effect the desaturated colurs have on this image.

This image is very interesting. I love the tone and the detailed textures you can see for all the types of surfaces there are from the skin to the dress to the cement.
The woman is a bit heavy but none the less her legs make for a great subject. It makes me wonder where she is and what she is actually doing. Is she waiting, is she resting… is she trying to avoid a puddle? It almost looks like she wants to fit on the tiny sidewalk at all costs.

Hey, great photo! I know what she is doing...she is looking over a bridge or something...?
Well done - as always.

I'm curious about the title now (having got here after it was removed)

I got flashbacks to the sores I've had in this shot.

I figure that this this woman is probably sad...

urging to see over the wall, to see the greener grass,
Some sort of sad story about how:

er an't t'usband used to come ere evry year,
en now its just er,
every year,
in the same place,
staring over't wall

(I've intentionally put a strong yorkshire accent on her. ha!)

Brilliant post processing again :)
Your last 2 have been the best in while IMHO

Whoa - its actually quite confronting, but maybe that is due it being an uncommon viewpoint.

Lookis like break time, to rest and look over a wall.

Very nice. I like the way you matched the color of the bricks to her dress. The framing of this photo is very pleasing to the eye. Everything is balanced perfectly. There is more wall showing to the left of her than to the right, but her dress is blowing out more to the right than to the left. Very very nice. You snapped at just the right second.

Um, is that a small person? Its an interesting shot, granted.

Wonderfully done, but makes me feel a little sad! Maybe if we saw the top half of her, perhaps enjoying a view it, might evoke different feelings. The power of the camera - in the right hands of course! ;-)

awww. the menfolk here are mean!

seems to me she just had a long hard day. her feet regularly suffer from shoe bites. she is waiting for her man and is watching as he is walking towards her, over the bridge with a bouqet in his hands.

c'mon. everyone deserves a little fairytale.

so, what was the title?

Is she getting out of the way of a bicycle or motorcycle careening down the road? Maybe she's leaning into someone's window, engaged in neighborhood gossip. Or making a withdrawal at the ATM. Either way, her feet hurt! Great coloring.

it looks like she is turning away from dust blown in the wind. either that or she just dodged a car that ran by her so fast that it lifted her skirt. at least that's the way i'm imagining the moment :)
i wonder why she is wearing those tiny (for her) and unconfortable shoes.
--
the colors and saturation are really beautiful.

My first thought was, like Mark, Ballet Dancer, but close behind that thought, with the skirt just starting to billow, was an aging Marilyn.

The first thing that I thought was a scene from the movie "Woman in Red". Everything is in place and I wounder what she is looking. I can only see the legs but I can imagine the person.

Excellent post processing.

I've now reinstated the title.

great picture!

Hmm, Very Marilyn Monroe...but then, not at all.
I like it, and yet again, perfect tones!!

This reminds me of something Jan Saudek would do, though your work is a bit more SFW than his. Lately I've been seeing a trend of great tones across all the photoblogs I visit, and you are no exception.

For some reason the first thing that came to my mind was 'Ballet dancer'.
Very bold and beautiful : )

This is very touching....... Its so human. It talks to us all. Still looking out to sea....... the hope of a better life on the horizon....... while actually being rooted in the reality of being trapped in poverty... over-weight.... and in shoes that hurt.
Its fascinating to see you tackle images with more meaning and narrative.....hey... nice one Dave.

Geez... Another winner, David. So much mood and mystery; I find it almost disturbing. Such great tones all around. Wondeful job.

This is such an amazing pictorial representation of something so common yet something that is difficult to capture. you have captured so much about her life with so little actually in the picture. loneliness, depression, poverty, life gone by just to name a few...
Hats off to you Mr. Nightangle....

David, this one is simply great. Wow. Sad colors. Perfect structures. I'm impressed.

Wow. powerful.

Mmmm sombre image or what...

I do like the processing you have done on this, it all seems to fit perfectly together and the subject material really is thought provoking.

"There's always someone out there worse off than you are..."

very nice contrast but i dont like the motif :( sorry again

Old fashioned balance. Probably she was a dancer a long time ago. THe posture is almost perfect..

Nominated you in the 2006 photobloggies my dear ;)

Oh! She is suffering form eliphantitis of simply obesity. Which ever she won't have fun knowin you are putting her feet's on display.
Looking the other way its art, the photography, it wants things for display. Looking critics and artise not humanity, at first place. Good Work.
:-)

ok so the best photo I have seen on your site.

Diabetes is brutal.

joel peter-witkin

Reality Check

Stunning photo...one of those that makes you unconfortable but you can't ignore the quality of the shot.

Great tones and details.

This is awesome! It's like a twisted illustration for Alice in Wonderland....lucky she didn't turn around!

Thanks everyone.

There have doubtlessly been many beautiful pictures on your blog. But something from the photojournalistic approach is new. Nonetheless, your attention to detail is amazing. And with these details alone you unravel an entire story behind the picture. i agree with Armoks - hats off to you.

Truth is that I only feel positive when I see this. It stirs up memories of my grandma and her friends and how I would see them as a very small child. They all had thick legs and always wore dresses or skirts. Their feet were always sore, but there was a smile on every face and lots of love to give.

She srikes me as someone out of a Flannery O'Conner novel or short story. The image is poignantly depressing. The way you desaturated, but kept the shadows deep makes for a feeling of cold and wet atmousphere, almost as though it has just rained or is threatening too.

You want to feel sorry for the woman, the way you feel some sympathy for anyone who doesn't seem comfortable with the everyday amenities of life. You are drawn to consider how much irritation she may deal with on a daily basis because her weight causes her shoes to fit poorly. I would image that might make it worse, because it isn't just a defect in the shoes, but a problem that may bother her in its own right. The irritation of the shoes may remind her of her weight, and that may lead to who knows how much guilt and self loathing. Though I expect it doesn't enter her conscious mind very often, except perhaps on dreary days when she stops to take in the weather, allowing herself a brief moment of repose on a moody afternoon.

I picture her in her mid 40's, possibly a mother, likely working in an office as a secretary of some sort. A jovial person most of the time, though a darker more cunical side peeps out when she thinks no one is looking.

Its a lovely photo Dave. Kudos.

Amzingly emotional picture - agree with jaso wall's comment above. Although i think that she just maybe cannot afford to buy new shoes - the picture is really emotive - and i think the rest of your commenters have said it all - great stuff as usual

I'm not sure I want to know the story behind the image. I'd be disappointed if she was just withdrawing cash from an ATM. Poverty does indeed have it's price - in cheap shoes that pinch and rub.

That said, I do like this one. I always look but rarely comment, so please take this as a big compliment!

This one really makes me feel uneasy for the sickly large person that is out of frame.. and with ever step she must take there is pain from this weight...

I really am bothered by that.

wonderful, wonderful shot.

really well done.

This photo takes me out of time...would she ever know that her dress can look beuatiful?

Great !

Amazing image!
At first I thought it was a little girl, because of the dress and shoes, but then I had a closer look and it was almost heartbreaking. I love the tones, they make it kinda melancholic. Well done :)

beautifull picture :D

i love this shot. you have a great talent on observing people. thanks for sharing it, it makes us think.

I love this image, it draws you into a state of wonder. What does the rest of her look like? Is she happy? Where was she going? So many questions. Wonderful shot!

Why the title cost of poverty I see obesity but the picture is captivating