Achiropita

“Achiropita”. Mirror translation is: “Not portrayed by hands”.This is not a common name(but seldom you could hear it in the south of Italy where influences of Greek history are deeper and closer) and even more it is not a common title…but I liked it. First time I heard about it was many years ago when an artist named her daughter so. This name comes from old Greek language. α means= privative Alpha of the Greek alphabet(it is a negative=no, not…). Chiro is the root of another Greek word meaning hands. Pita means: to paint, to draw, to portray, to depict. All above using words of that Artist..”Her daughter was so beautiful that she couldn’t be portrayed using hands only…only Mother Nature could be able in conceiving such a Beauty”. I took this picture in March 1995. This model was on the stage of a Photo Meeting well known at those times in Milano, Italy: SICOF (in other words like Photokina)…While taking this pic Achiropita came back to my mind….so in these years I have always used this title (in photo contests). After 20 years I hope this girl is still the same. She was very professional…a real top model.
Camera: my fav PENTAX LX. PENTAX Zoom 40-80 lens on 80mm. F 4. Shutter Speed: 1/125s. Kodak T-MAX 400 BW film processed in its own developer. Printed on ILFORD RC Multigrade deluxe paper. Scanner Epson Perfection 3200.
Honestly speaking I prefer title much more than photo. About compo: I do have another version. Only the face with no background. A square crop. I choosed (and I prefer)this version because model was playing/walking on the stage from left to right..and all the empty space on left well depicts that moment and memories I bear of it. All the empty space adds dynamism to the compo and pushes eyes to scan the whole frame, IMHO. Perhaps background is a little bit disturbing. It is rough cardboard often and commomly used on stages. Suggestions are welcome.