Portrait of CSA members

Kevin_in_MDKevin_in_MD Senior Member
edited April 2014 in General Discussion
Ran across this picture of some CSA members today in Slate as part of a larger article on the work of a group portrait specialist.

Don't know who they are or when the photo was taken.
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Comments

  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    It's a (to me) strange image. Obviously a composite of two images given the night sky. Attempt to present a freak show aspect? Why does the guy standing on the right have lanolin handprints on his chest? Photographer Neal Slavin, published in 1986.

    loneswimmer.com

  • suziedodssuziedods Mem​ber
    I remember seeing this. I , as one who is uh... challenged (?) in the size department ... don't look at it as a freak show, but rather an attempt to portray the fact that Channel swimming is for any shape and size.
  • lakespraylakespray Senior Member
    It's a (to me) strange image. Obviously a composite of two images given the night sky. Attempt to present a freak show aspect? Why does the guy standing on the right have lanolin handprints on his chest? Photographer Neal Slavin, published in 1986.
    From a former photographer, he likely used a graduated filter the bottom half clear and the upper half darkened. In 1986 it was far more difficult to combine images then it is with today's digital technology. Having spent almost two weeks in Dover and maybe I've been in this community too long, I didn't find anything freakish about it, just another day at Dover Harbor. And by the looks of it a very nice day. My initial thought looking at the photo was how much those stones hurt unprotected feet, ouch.

  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    edited April 2014
    I wasn't even thinking of the physical sizes. I was thinking of the colours and posing and details like the goggles.

    @lakespray, if he simply used a grad, there wouldn't be stars visible though. Unless the stars are airbrushed (literally as it was then?) in.

    loneswimmer.com

  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member
    I like it! I'd have it in a frame somewhere in my house (exact location to be determined by, to borrow from @Leonard_Jansen, she-who-must-be-obeyed).

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • flystormsflystorms Memphis, TNSenior Member
    I like it too and would love a copy. There's something quirky about it - sort of like a Wes Anderson movie poster about the crossings.
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited April 2014
    flystorms wrote:
    There's something quirky about it - sort of like a Wes Anderson movie poster about the crossings.
    I agree. Studiously quirky. Which reinforces @loneswimmer's question about the "freak show aspect," which was perhaps misunderstood as derogatory.

    It is a pretty odd hobby, all considered.

    Freak flag a'flyin...
  • I think I like it for the same reason I don't like it...it is a little disturbing, a little circus-y, and portrays the subjects as the rejects of the swimming world...too tall, too small, too big, too scrawny to make it in the pool...but at the same time, too determined to quit, and steadfast that they will be swimmers no matter what, and that is more admirable than any pool swimmer. It gets to me and unsettles me on too many levels...so I like it and do not like it all at once!
  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member
    Kind of like a poster for a movie about channel swimming as directed by David Lynch. "Twin Peaks" meets the EC.

    -LBJ

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • emkhowleyemkhowley Boston, MACharter Member
    Isn't that Alison Streeter on the left hand side?

    Stop me if you've heard this one...
    A grasshopper walks into a bar...
    https://elainekhowley.com/

  • HaydnHaydn Member
    Yes, and Mervyn Sharp on her right?
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