Toilets

This is a beautifully balanced black and white photo of a gentleman’s urinal. Importantly, you’ve managed to keep the straight line of porcelain pans to square up with both the wall and floor tiles. Taking a step back to include so much of the diamond-shaped floor pattern to act as strong leading lines was a great idea. I can tell by your camera settings, that you had to overcome bad lighting conditions, which you did exceptionally well to create a photo that I’d have been very happy to have taken myself..

There were many abandoned toilet entries in this competition but I’ve got to hand it to you, yours really stood out. The theatricality of the sludge green, gothic stage works eerily well as a backdrop to the golden sculptured hands. It’s impossible to tell if they belong to a dancer’s elegantly emerging arms or if they’re the last gasp gesture of someone disappearing down the pan. The highlighted, crossed-hands casting a black shadow, in the shape of a giant tarantula shimmering across the filthy floor, is the final spooky touch to your horrific composition.

Amongst all the detailed, busy and loudly-coloured toilet entries comes your very welcome peaceful porcelain photo. The soft, high key, abstract treatment, makes this a very classy fine art picture which, despite the subject matter, could be displayed on any wall in any room. The black and white conversion was a good choice leaving the subtle, shadowy greys and whites delicately merging into one another. Your superbly conceived, artistic photo took me pleasantly by surprise - it wasn’t at all what I was expecting to see when I set the challenge.

Rub-a-dub-dub, two ducks in a tub or, in your case, two rubber ducks in a toilet pan. The blue loo water is a good complimentary colour for your different choice of yellow floaters. I love the minimalism of the photo and how you’ve managed to capture an image of a toilet pan without showing any recognisable part of a toilet pan. In answer to the question posed by your title - you turn on the whirlpool by flushing the toilet, Robert.

Your photo reminds me of when I was once sitting on a toilet, I noticed tiny lettering on the base of a door in front of me. When I bent down to see what it said, it read “You are now shixxing at an angle of 90 degrees.” Your wonderfully observed photo of a makeshift wooden toilet, precariously balanced on top of a Colorado hill should have a similar sign on the ceiling saying “You are now shixxing whilst you’re falling backwards.”

Cramming four members of a rock band into the confines of a toilet cubical is a very original idea. I imagine this might have been part of a day’s publicity shoot to promote the group’s latest single or album This is a classic rock-stars-with-attitude pose, taken in black and white with a wide-angle lens, reminiscent of many great rock photos I’ve seen over the years. I love the almost insignificant role, the seatless toilet plays, centred between the four musicians. The only thing missing from your photo is a letter ‘F’ in front of ‘LUSH’ on the guys white t-shirt.

What a hilarious photo this is. You don’t tell us where it was taken but I’m sure I’ve been there - or to a gentleman’s toilet with the same picture over the urinal. I can tell you, how, with a uncomfortable smirk on my face, it was very disconcerting having a pee whilst being the butt of the joke. I love the establishment owner’s sense of humour in putting up the picture and your witty photo of the ladies apparent coyness in checking out how well (or not so well) the toilet’s inhabitants are hung.

I love your sense of humour. The moment I saw this photo I thought The Sun was about to be shining out of his proverbial - then I noticed he already had toilet paper. Yours is a very funny interpretation of the challenge and I’m surprised more entrants weren’t cheeky enough to include people in their photos. Your slightly fish-eye lens was the perfect choice, for such a compact space, in which you’ve skilfully arranged your sitting subject to avoid causing any undue offence.

We’ve all been there - rushed to the nearest public convenience (with our legs tightly crossed) only to find that the infuriating toilet is closed. Your classically composed photo made up of thirds, utilises the brick wall, pavement slabs and three metal shutters in an equally-balanced way. And, you’ve cleverly taken a toilet photo without a toilet in sight. For those of us who’ve ever been in desperate need, your photo is an uncomfortable reminder, of gratefully locating a public convenience only to find it frustratingly closed.