Photo of the Week - #24 - 2/27/22

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Hmmmm…. I see a crow or raven and a human face. I’m sure there’s an allegory in there somewhere. Mystery always attracts my attention and this image is loade3d with it. On a technical note, I think the image needs more overall contrasts, especially more highlighting.

I can imagine a person looking up, or dreaming that they are looking up, and dreaming of flying like that bird. But, there are many other possible interpretations without knowing what the photographer had in mind. Perhaps these images are presented like a Rorschach test, with the viewer left to interpret them as they may.

 

I think that the two images are well crafted and that the tonal ranges and large gray border are quite appropriate.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Glenn McCreery

I think it is a well done piece that poses all sorts of questions about what it means. It is enigmatic, which in this case is a good thing. It would have made a nice album cover in the days when albums really were a thing.

Spent five-minutes trying to "lock in" on an interpretation and could get beyond the textural elements. There's huge dynamic range between the two backgrounds, yet the highlights on the building a face are almost a perfect match. I see the bird as a peacock, but, try as I might, I can't connect the two shots in my mind, other than the matching light. After my attempt at interpretation, I read others' and found no help.

 

Oh, my first thought is that the face is a woman's, but I can also see it as a boy. Either way, I'm still not "getting it."

 

Thanks for the intriguing sample.

My key into this duo is the sensuality of the lighting and texture. It's that sensual quality that I think harmonizes the two images most. The "light/dark" difference provides the tension tugging at the harmony. Much like Tippi Hedren handled by Hitchcock, there's a birdlike quality to the human profile here. This photo treats the human face with more softness, however, than Hitchcock does.

 

Perspective is also a key for me. As the photographer is looking up at the bird and building, the subject of the second photo looks up as well. And, yet, the bird feels to me like it has a downward trajectory. So, I feel aligned with the photographer and subject in the upward gaze just as I'm pushed back a little by the bird.

 

The building's hard geometry is countered by the soft curves of the face, while both share a spiritual glow in the light. Both images use negative space, one dark and one lighter, which adds both depth and mystery.

 

Each seems poetic.

Each seems poetic.

 

My initial thoughts also.

 

On seeing this diptych, my first thought was: "Self Pity" (D.H. Lawrence)

 

I never saw a wild thing

sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself.

It’s interesting, I like both as a combination and each individually but I would never have shot either.

 

Rick H.

This image reminds so much of some of the work of Ralph Gibson. Without trying to program a "story" what I get is a really rich sense of I think the word used above was enigmatic, associations that to me taps into submerged connections just out of recognition which I believe is in the realm of surrealism. Plus, as Sam said above, the harmonies of the lights and darks, harmonies and tensions makes this an image that is more than a photograph. In other words, I haven't a clue of what it really means but I know I like it a lot!

Wow this is really surrealism at its finest. I sort of see it as “dream & dreamer” and I love the juxtaposition between hard & soft elements as well as the way light and dark are presented in each shot. I feel like the avian curves of the face are complimentary to the curves of the flying bird, even if one comes on much stronger than the other.

The hard edge of the building throws me off tho I really like both images and I like them together too

Thank you all for the comments.

 

Michael, I wish it had been a crow or raven but no such luck, it was a pigeon.

 

Glenn, with the viewer left to interpret them as they may. As counterparts I did have my interpretation in mind but I had no intent to guide the viewer to my take.

 

Ludmilla, me too.

 

Robin, I am often drawn to the enigmatic. and am flattered by the LP cover idea... album cover art is something I really like.

 

dcstep, even tho diptychs seem to beg for meanings they often are no more than relationships of textures, lighting, composition etc. Your comment strikes home because even tho I did have meaning in my head with these I did not try to focus on that. But I did work with relating the textures and lighting and forms with the intention of making it work without my narrative up front.

 

sam, thank you. Always a thoughtful read.

 

William, "Self Pity" what's not to love about that take. It parallels my mindset.

 

Rick, always good to hear you like something you would not have done.

 

Barry, I can definitely see Gibson's uncluttered contrasts here. After seeing these I thought of some of Keith Carter's soft focus work... now I will think of it as a hybrid of the two. Neither were in my mind when shot and pp.

Edited March 4, 2022 by inoneeye

Hey Tom, you slipped in while I was writing.

"The hard edge of the building throws me off [...]" Even though I don't intend or enjoy throwing a viewer off (something i often hear) I really don't mind hearing that it does. I do like imperfections. A kind of photographic wabi-sabi (侘寂).

An anecdote that this brings to mind... One of two of the most memorable critiques I have received came as a response to my asking someone why they could almost always pick out a photograph of mine. My tastes have long been very eclectic and I was questioning if there was a common thread that tied them together. His simple answer was that my photos most often had a "push-pull " feel to them. It is not intentional it just comes naturally to me and I go with it.

An aspect of photography I'm not sure has been discussed much on PN but that I find in many good photos and I think is present here is the feeling that there's a secret. While an enigma seems to plead with the viewer to solve it, a secret may entice the viewer similarly but also suggest to the viewer some degree of privacy, a sort of empathetic barrier. In that private space, the sharing that there's a secret without necessarily the sharing of the secret itself has its own kind of intimacy. Viewing becomes not altogether a breakthrough. There's a sense of something revealed and something hidden, perhaps most importantly a resonance*.

 

*Acoustical resonance is the vibration induced in a violin or piano string of a given pitch when a musical note of the same pitch is sung or played nearby.

Sam,

"[...]the sharing that there's a secret without necessarily the sharing of the secret itself has its own kind of intimacy."

 

"There's a sense of something revealed and something hidden, perhaps most importantly a resonance*.

 

*Acoustical resonance is the vibration induced in a violin or piano string of a given pitch when a musical note of the same pitch is sung or played nearby."

 

Thanks for planting these useful thoughts in my head.

Hey Tom, you slipped in while I was writing.

"The hard edge of the building throws me off [...]" Even though I don't intend or enjoy throwing a viewer off (something i often hear) I really don't mind hearing that it does. I do like imperfections. A kind of photographic wabi-sabi (侘寂).

An anecdote that this brings to mind... One of two of the most memorable critiques I have received came as a response to my asking someone why they could almost always pick out a photograph of mine. My tastes have long been very eclectic and I was questioning if there was a common thread that tied them together. His simple answer was that my photos most often had a "push-pull " feel to them. It is not intentional it just comes naturally to me and I go with it.

 

Hi Josh, I sorta figured this one was yours... Tho I didn't mention it (not knowing for sure), I feel like perhaps it is part of your self portrait series? In any event, I wasn't so much thrown off, per se- it just had me at a loss for wards, or a way to express what I didn't know I was feeling about that hard edge.... if that makes sense.

 

Either way, you have single handedly accomplished something not many can in putting me at a loss for words! LOL

 

Cheers, brother!

!!! Tom, yes what you say about that hard edge that the bird is navigating around makes good sense.

It started as a photobiograpy diptych, hence the -untitled 20.21- but it will not be included in the x3 self portrait project. It may land in a personal scrapbook collection.