Torn Billboard Posters

The pristine black silhouette of a fashion model is in sharp contrast against the torn posters on this Italian billboard. The setting is very much like one that would be chosen by photographers for a modern day fashion shoots to offset clothes worn by a real life models. Your positioning of the ripped fashion week poster sits comfortably within the fragmented placards surrounding it. If this abstract was on a wooden base I’d want to take it down and frame for posterity.

At first your photo was bit of a mystery but the clue was there with the letter ‘M’ and your lyric title indicating that this was Morrissey. Like a pair of flapping, paper wings in front of his face your heavenly photograph put me in mind of his ‘Angel, Angel Down We Go Together’. The unusually happy face of the solo artist and lead singer of The Smiths threw me since he’s more often photographed when singing depressing songs like ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’. I hope I've helped put a smile on your face with your top ten selection.

Politicians make great subjects for torn poster photography as in the case of this electioneering Brazilian. Resembling two juxtaposed, one-eyed Cyclopes this is a wonderfully observed layered political placard given credence to our belief that most members of Parliament are two-faced. I love your ‘Fading Promises’ title and your very eloquent summary describing the decomposition as a combination of entropy and demagogy. On brief photography with a clever title and an articulate description is always a likely contender for my top ten. Well done.

Wider views of billboard photographs work well because it puts the posters in in a street context. Your three black-suited men remind me of Quentin Tarantino’s opening scene from the movie ‘Reservoir Dogs’. Your choice of black and white rendering adds to the neo noir drama of your composition. This time the men aren’t on their way to a diamond heist but (metaphorically speaking) walking away from the poster's funeral. Well done for capturing such a cinematic atmosphere.

I love the comedy element of your street photograph. The billboard looks as if it's attached to the side of a customised car used as a mobile poster unit. It gives your entry that extra ingredient - exactly what I was hoping to see in this challenge. Alternatively your unique entry can be viewed as a framed piece of artwork (complete with hanging fixtures) being driven to be hung in an art gallery.

Your side-by-side defaced posters show the lengths electorates will go to show their disapproval of political oppositions. The image of Zammour, the French far-right contestant standing against Macron in the 2022 presidential elections is seen here obliterated from both posters. Ripped from one and blackened from the other, the smug face uncovered in the process looks as if he condones the political vandalism. Well spotted and well taken.

Partially visible human legs on layers of expired posters immediately put me in mind of Francis Bacon’s oil paintings of abstract limbs. Your photo of the Paris street collage proves my long-held view that these billboards are transient works of art. Indeed it was the French artist Jacques Villeglé that kick-started the torn poster genre back in the fifties. He thought nothing of tearing down huge affiches and reconstructing them back in his studio. Your digital torn poster photo is the modern day equivalent of his Nouveau Réalisme movement.

I hadn't imagined that it would be possible to enter a minimalist photo into a very busy subject like torn poster billboards but you’ve managed to do the impossible. The old faded information sheets framed within the notice board are wonderfully weather-worn and perfectly placed within your careful composed photo. You’ve managed to throw enough light onto the small billboard to make it stand out against the dark purple brick wall. Abbey stables wouldn’t be the first place to go seeking torn posters so well done on your unprecedented find.

The first thing that struck me about your entry was the strong complementary colours. The blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag could easily have been a contender in a parallel Photocrowd challenge. What intrigued me was the looped green cotton thread holding up a set of black keys. Dangling over the V-shape of the torn poster they seems to be a cryptic clue to the mystery your photo poses. Maybe the surreal keys were there to open up the man’s mind to find the answer.

This billboard is a riot of multicoloured torn posters. Mostly layered fragments of ripped advertisements montaged around one another. A man’s smiling face instantly stands out against the typographical tears in your photo. Like a misplaced jigsaw puzzle piece, the rest of his body is found sitting on a stool in the left-hand corner of your superbly disjointed composition. I could look and find new things in your composition all day long.