Arche de la Défense

by Olaf Ulrich

The most stunning interpretation of a photograph I saw last year was on the German branch of Fotocommunity. There was a project a few months ago were the participants were supposed to choose one out of four raw files and process it. Any kind of image manipulation was allowed.

One of the four images provided as raw material was a wide-angle shot of the Arche de la Défense in Paris, France.

And here's what one of the participants came up with. I think the creativity, the effect, and the atmosphere of this (strongly processed) interpretation is mind-blowing. I stumbled across this image months ago, and it still keeps impressing me whenever I look at it. If you think it basically was only brightened up and simply has the converging lines straightened then just try to re-do this image from the original yourself! You'd be surprised how far from trivial it is!

Regarding Mike's photograph "Illinois #20"—I like Mike's version, I like Stephen's version, and I like advman's version, too. That exactly is my problem when trying interpreting my own images. I tend to like them all, I cannot decide which I like the best, and thus get lost in the overwhelming wealth of potentialities. So in the end I usually return to the first version (which usually was the least processed one)...which is what I'd do here, too. I like all versions of Illinois #20 but I think I like Mike's version most.

Posted by: OLAF ULRICH