I've been reading this forum and responding ocasionally for the past year. You have helped me get through many a long, slow night at work.

Anyway, I've finally built a website of my stuff. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

www.topfloortech.com/photo

Thanks, john

-- john locher (locherjohn@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002

Answers

I really like your "singles" section. Very powerful work. singl02.htm is gut wrenching... very powerful photograph indeed. It made my eyes watery.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), January 14, 2002.

I really love your pictures, John. Excellent work. Singles is top.

-- Paul (pr.sander@gmx.net), January 14, 2002.

How did you achieve such interesting effects in greek25.ht m?

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), January 14, 2002.

John,To me a good photograph inspires and provokes.Your collection did neither I'm afraid...except for one,that was the cover photo,but that's why it's there I pressume? The collection is no diffrent to that of a first year photography student-technique is good,but content is dull.This is proved by you having to support most of the pictures with long winded captions.I would suggest you go back to the drawing board and find a project that isn't so boring.

I know you will all flame me now ,however,the truth is sometimes a good thing,always a good thing.

-- Simon Lovegrove (simonlovrgrove@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

WOW!!!! he took a snap of a man at a grave crying.Hardly ground breaking photojournalism is it.

Stop creeping and tell him the truth.

-- Simon Lovegrove (simonlovegrove@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

Your "Greeks" and "Miss Michigan" sections are excellent. Your work is quite strong and pleasantly refreshing. It reminds me of the work of the late great Alfred Eisenstaedt with a little HCB thrown in for good measure. Bravo!

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), January 14, 2002.

OH COME ON!!!!!!!! It's dull and lifeless,without content.

-- Simon Lovegrove (simonlovegrove@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

Simon, we do each enjoy our own opinions, right. But if my eyes got watery after looking at the couple at the temporary memorial wall, then how was the photo unsucessful to me?

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), January 14, 2002.

Can't a guy, in the spirit of photographic collegiality, offer up his URL without being skewered?

Why browse this forum at all if your sensibilities are so delicate as to be mortally offended by one honest photog's website?

Mr. Locher, I enjoyed your photos, especially the Stories section. Please post more.

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), January 14, 2002.

John

Is it just me, but the links are not working for me on Netscape?

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

John,

At first I was just going to do a quick visual scan and say "nice work", but I really looked at the photos. I really liked many, but the ones that stood out were the runner cooling off in the spray which caused a rainbow, the Mexican rodeo participant that was surrounded by a wreath of cowboy hats and that county fair carny with that expression that makes you wonder what he is really thinking.

Oh yeah... Nice work!

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), January 14, 2002.

John:

I thoroughly enjoyed your portfolio. Thanks for sharing your work.

Dennis

-- Dennis Couvillion (couvilaw@aol.com), January 14, 2002.

Excellent. I think some pictures lack intimacy, especially in the Greeks section where it would really have paid off, but on the whole I think it's great. The one picture that does nothing for me at all is the cover!

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 14, 2002.

Nice work John - some powerful stuff that is as good as a lot of well known published work. By the way I wouldn't give any credance to what Simon sez - his e-mail address is a phony and I doubt he'd ever have the guts to share his wo

-- Bob Todrick (bobtodrick@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

Nice portfolio. Interesting how important the words are, to go with the images. I liked your opening one of course, of the secruity guard talking and the speed skaters. There is another of a man in the grass near a water front- someone else mentioned HCB- it does remind me of Bresson's famous shot of a family picnicing near the water.

The compositions are quite spare and well executed.

As for greek25.htm, if I had to guess, I'd say it was a long exposure, and the movement of the figures, that produced the interesting effect. It appears that they were moving slowly enough across the frame to cause a shadow to stay in place on the film- kind of like dodging.

-- TW (tsesung@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

The links do not work on the homepage. Well done photos. I like the rodeo rider the best. That is excellent. My only negative comments are that they do seem of much greater local interest than to me living here in New York, many of them do not have deeper meaning or have particular resonance to me. The "Greeks" absolutely falls into this category -- works well in Missoula, but perhaps less well elsewhere. Your singles are of greater interest to me. I do like the cover picture, but don't quite know why..I do appreciate your thought and you could certainly illustrate a Nat. Geo. article on Missoula very nicely.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

There are several very good photos on your website. I tend to prefer the ones that are not captioned ... I'd rather let the photo speak to me.

I think you might try going back to the Singles section and editing some displays of related pictures around what you've got there.

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), January 14, 2002.

I’m leaning toward Robin’s comments on the Greeks. Though I live in NY, I was in a frat so I know a little of what you are trying to capture. It seems that many of your photos tell the same story--they offer glimpses of the intimacy that people share in those tight groups/close quarters.

The issue is not the photo-taking but the editing. If you were to work out on paper the various themes you are trying to convey, you might be able to organize, say, 10 images into the outline. Not that I’m telling you how to do your job; it’s just that you will have a better sense of story if one image seems to follow from the next, offering an argument or counterpoint.

Frat life can also be pretty harsh, as the media usually tell us. Your shots avoid the dark side. The media don’t present the pathos that underlies much of the self-destructive behavior identified with Greek systems. We tend to forget that these are 18 year olds making difficult choices, some for the first time. I’ll bet you would have access to explore those themes (if they interest you), and you certainly have the skills.

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), January 14, 2002.

John,

I enjoyed spending quite some time around your site. You have an eye for composition and an attitude which apparently allows you to get quite close to people. Reading your bio and resume I suppose you are some decade younger than the average poster on this forum. Taking this into consideration I would like to see some day where your talent has directed you. Once you get a chance (or even an assignment, which I think you'd derserve) to travel a bit farther, I'm sure you will open your an our eyes to a great and wonderful world. Keep exploring it!

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), January 14, 2002.

John,

Thank you, I thoroughly enjoyed your portfolio. Great stuff. And at your age! (Not that older people have better portfolios!)

-- Sikaan (Sikaan4@aol.com), January 14, 2002.

John- It is not the critic that counts, not the one who points out how the photographer stumbled or how the taker of pictures might have done it better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually behind the Leica, whose face is marred with sweat and dust, who strives valiantly, who expends roll after roll of film and never quits, spending himself in the worthy pursuit of images, who knows the great devotions, the Elmars, the Summicrons, the Summiluxes; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring to get exceptional images, so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who toss brickbats but do not display their own work on this forum for others to criticize. Good work, John. Frank Horn. (With apologies to Theodore Roosevelt!)

-- Frank Horn (owlhoot45@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

John,

I'm no photo critic but your pictures have a rare appeal, IMHO. I hope, one day, to exhibit some of my photos on the web, when I finally buy and learn to use a scanner. If my pictures are half as good as yours I will be more than satisfied. At that point in time, I hope I will be brave enough to accept people's comments, both negative and positive - even the slings and arrows of outrageous Simon!

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

". (With apologies to Theodore Roosevelt!)"

Frank, I thought there were going to be apologies to someone! ;-)

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), January 15, 2002.

Thanks for the replies. I like to hear people's opinions on my stuff, good or bad. I don't mind criticisms - I've got thick skin.

Tony and TW: The picture is of three guys running along the interstate at night. Behind them is a Van with it's headlights giving the runners a nice rim light. I shot with a 80-200 zoom out the back of a truck in front of the runners with a 1/4 sec. shutter speed to give it the blur. It was one of those rare times when you imagine a picture ahead of time and it actually happens. I spent eight hours in the bed of the truck in front and shot about 5 rolls of film waiting for that picture to happen.

Sorry to those whom the links didn't work for, I'll have to fix that right away.

thanks, John

-- John Locher (locherjohn@hotmail.com`), January 15, 2002.