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I don't get the composition.  It looks like 2 unrelated images composited into 1, but the black area around the clowns head has detail that I can't quite make out which further confuses me.

I don't get it.

Remarkable similarities.

wonderful composition. compliments -koushik

I'm not altogether sure if I have it right either. But I mostly go on impressions, and the impression I get from this image is that the clowns face is on a door, and the dimly lit premises beyond .......well that's where the magic starts.  It looks kind of spooky to me, but then I always was scared of clowns.......I think my father looked at me too closely when I was born : - ) 

My summary......yes mysterious and definitely spooky! 

 

Regards 

 

Alf 

 

 

 

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. Alf has got this figured out, the clown head is indeed hanging on the open door of the shop with a view of the interior within. In the original, the interior was so dark that lightening it sufficiently really resulted in an excessive amount of noise. I opted instead for this posterized view of the interior which makes it look a little like a voodoo church. I share the same view of clowns as Alf, as well. They always gave me the creeps so a demonic interior sort of fits right in, I don't usually process pictures this heavily and it's not to everyone's taste, that's for sure. But there's a little dark corner of myself that cackles gleefully anyway.

Honestly never occurred to me that we were suppose to figure it out, I thought it was self explanatory. What struck me was how similar the emotional content of the clown on the door was to the face in the shadows of the room. I wish PN still afforded the right to delete ones comments.

 

I think the image is interesting because of its originality. It is well framed and there is order in its presentation. Of course it is open to interpretation but the intrigue, the emotion, the message are all there in a well divided duality. The clown with its myth, poetry, expression is the one almost human with its complexity, perhaps I can project myself with, while the room looks a bit scary with too much in it and obviously the clown doesn't like it either. Nice one Jack!

A very nice original result, Jack!

 

It seems to me that the clown's face expresses fear concerning the likelihood that he won't be able to make sense out of the rather mysterious assemblage of items in his environment.  Seems to me this can be universalized as something we all face.

!!!!.....!!

My impression is strictly macabre and that is the immediate feeling I get and not a criticism of this image. 

 

It starts with the floating or decapitated head of a clown and maybe that sense of macabre comes from my recent reading of a book called "Stiff - the curious lives of human cadavers" by Mary Roach - not a book I would buy but from a friend with whom I have a book exchange/loan going on. Then, and perhaps I have seen too many NCIS crime scenes after the perpetrator's hiding place has been found, there is usually a board with lots of images of the victims and the right half reminds me of that.

 

All the best,

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by, I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I thoroughly agree with Tony, for me this a macabre image. I don't usually go over the top like this, replete with black border. I think clowns have that effect on me. Viewers will most likely project their own interpretations, assumptions and biases onto the photo, especially the clown figure. I've already made my views very clear: they have always made me uneasy; I've never seen them as comic figures at all. Bashir comments that "the clown with its myth, poetry, expression is the one almost human..." and identifies more with the carnival figure that warns him away from the demonic sideshow within.. For me, the operative word is "almost"; clowns seem to come from some darkly mythic place, a grotesque mutation of the human psyche. I see him here as a kind of

archetypal gate-keeper figure whose bizarre, comic make-up conceals a malevolent spirit which both mimics and mocks human emotions.

Provocative.  Sinister.  The interpretations are worth the price of admissions.  My compliments.  ~~~~~~~L

Envy?

Just one look and I had 'shivers up my back'. Clowns are not my favorites either. I loved drawing them as a child, but in TV programs nowadays, the 'clown' is nearly always one of the 'dark' characters. Still got shivers....whether sinister, or dark, not all compositions actually cause me to have an immediate 'physical' reaction.

There has to be some merit in that!

I'm with you on that; clowns give me the creeps. I just take pictures of whatever pops up in my path - clowns, cones, cherry blossoms - it's all grist for the mill. Sometimes the resulting photograph (after I'm finished playing around with it) surprises even me. I wonder "where did that come from?" In a way, I guess, we play all the characters in the novel of our life, even the clown.

This does almost appear as a composite and I initially saw it much as Gordon did.  Odd and creepy which I like.