Friday, December 5, 2008

December 5, 2008

This photo has been on my mind ever since I took it in Perth, at the Natural History Museum there. The stuffed wild animals fascinate and horrify simultaneously. Proof of terrible liberties we've taken with the natural world...

Because of the interplay of glass reflections, the animals look as though they are vanishing or fading away. I study the images - on the verge of figuring out a new series. It would be titled something like vanishing act, or vanishing wilderness...I am still pondering exactly the right title and also the best way to use the images. So different from what I usually do, but very exciting and full of potential.

2 comments:

Kat said...

You might also check out Richard Ross's photography here: http://www.richardross.net/popup_frame.aspx?menu=image&name=museology&categoryID=6

I saw an image from his series, Museology, in Life magazine back in the 80s, of a rhino in a glass case in the corner of a deserted museum space, and it haunted me for years. He took a lot of the images in the book in the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle in Paris in the early 80s. It had been locked up for years, and has only recently been reopened and remodelled.

Anyway, the images captured for me the desolation I always felt in those spaces, where "life" is so static, so dusty and dead, but posed to look alive.

Your Perth photo strikes me the same way. Haunting.

Debbi said...

Maybe it is late after a very long day, but when I looked at this picture (without reading) I was struck by how the tiger appeared to be arriving to the scene from some other place/time. The reflections made the back of the tiger look ethereal. But, after reading I liked your interpretation of vanishing, too. Perhaps the tiger is being 'swallowed' up...

November 20, 2008

November 20, 2008

November 20, 2008

How does color set a mood? The soft gray and white of the carpet, the cat Marshall, and the sunlit window contribute to to the sense of calm repose. What does blue mean to you or me? We all have symbolic associations for colors; some based on personal experience and some instilled culturally. 

The cobalt blue of the vase provides a point and counterpoint to the composition, in addition to providing elements that balance.
Keeping the cat in the lower third of the composition weights the image and is another visual door into the picture world.

November 19, 2008

November 19, 2008

November 19, 2008

This picture tells several stories. It references the human desire to order the world around us - the lettering on the wall establishes the alley as a No Parking zone, and the broken glass-  jutting out at the top - is another message of fear and frailty. Whoever lives behind this wall wants to be left alone.

But there is beauty in the contrast of the rough brick surface and the smooth translucency of the broken glass bottles. A contrast of textures makes for an interesting composition. And the abstract nature of the printed letters against the structure of the bricks would be worth emulating in another sort of composition.

There is as much beauty in decay as there is in a bouquet of fresh flowers. And aren't decay and fresh growth just two different spots on the same continuum?



November 18, 2008

November 18, 2008

November 18, 2008

The Hydrangeas offer a lesson in the effective use of color. The pale blue and lavender are roughly the same value, so they balance each other beautifully. I am challenged to mimic that combination of analogous colors on silk Habotai!

This photograph would be considered beautiful even without the red-orange and yellow flowers at the bottom. But the addition of the complements to the blue and purple creates a focal point and generates some nice contrast because of the complementary pairing. And imagine how different this composition would be, were the red-orange and yellow at the top instead of at the bottom. The current placement adds important visual weight.

November 17, 2008

November 17, 2008

November 16, 2008

November 16, 2008
Being and Non-being

Substance and Light

November 16, 2008

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside 
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the space inside
that holds whatever we want.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.

Tao te Ching; Verse 11
Stephen Mitchell translation