Horizons...........

Horizons...

Fresh off Acadia National Park this past weekend, which incidentally happens to be the amongst the first places on the US eastern seaboard to be graced with beautiful sunrises, notwithstanding cloudy weather of course. This set is our tribute to beautiful morning skies at Acadia!

 

Contrasts

Every once in a while, one comes across a place, or object of such beauty, that even the most jaded and cynical of us can be moved. The Salk Institute in San Diego recently commenced its 50th anniversary celebration with 'Chihuly at the Salk' - an exhibit of 8 of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures, on the campus of the Louis Kahn designed institute. Though the Salk is a short walk from home, I had never visited it until now...but though Chihuly will leave, I expect to return quite a few times!

From the photography perspective, the starkness of the architecture provided the perfect backdrop for Chihuly's vibrant creations. I tried to highlight the architecture in some images, and the sculpture in others. It would have been easy to spend a day there, just taking pictures...I did what I could during the assigned 1-hour tour!

Shadow weaving

Shadows to me represent the essence of structures and forms, at once abstract yet with enough information for the mind to process and form some sort of associations with things you see and experience day to day. This could be the city you live in, the food you eat, the people you meet, the place you work, and so on. I think is something that all abstract art achieves, even with the works that seek to be completely non-representational. It's just human nature to form associations, or 'look' for things in abstract art. Just ask our resident psychiatrist, IVV, who likely would disagree with some of what I'm saying, but thats the fun of such discussions. At least that is my interpretation of it. One only has to look at Franz Kline's works and the associations with New York City are obvious. Even Rothko's fuzzy's shapes can have associations with urban shapes, decaying or moss laden walls, and so on. Shadows create interesting negative space, geometric forms and graphic patterns.

A note of contradiction (by IVV): I am writing this about 36 hours after the original post, having re-read it several times. I am intruding on his post, because (a) he is ok with it, and (b) because I would prefer to place these arguments within the body of this piece, rather than as a comment and (c) because I can! As Aditya predicted, I do disagree with several of his assertions. This is not to imply that he is wrong, or that I am right, but that there are different perspective on these themes. Shadows, in general, are not a major topic of discussion in psychology or psychiatry literature - largely, because psychic constructs are based more on image. (e.g. Kohut's work on self-image or Lacan's musings on fear of the image). Shadow doesnt find it's way into this. Personally, I also disagree with the assertion that a shadow represents 'essence'. It is superficial visual impression, rather than a distillation of a complex theme, which to my mind, is what essence means. Finally, while humans do tend to seek associations and meaning, I would not attribute this to 'human nature' - I would contest the existence of such a thing - all nature is eventually subjective, and largely at the mercy of biological, psychological and social factors that are mostly out of our control. The construct of 'human nature' seems a relatively flimsy way of 'normalizing' our need to deal with the anxiety of trying to grasp things we can't quite explain.

That's enough psychobabble and quasi-academic rambling. Back to what Aditya was saying...

Here are some images that I have captured over the years that build upon this theme.

bellezza.it

If you were to play a word-association game at looking at this last picture and the word 'cheesy' came to mind, let's just say it's the right place, in a gastronomic sense but of course! Italy is all those superlatives that people use to describe it. The architecture especially, is too kind to even the most casual of photographers, as it really does not give any room to "screw-up" a picture. The mundane as it were is probably more rarefied than say ozone above the Antarctic in context of the built form. This collection of pictures represents my attempt to go off the beaten track in a sense of composition. The hope with this set is that it inspires you to go make yourself some fettuccine alfredo. If on the other hand you go shortly hereafter to look for Domino'c coupons then, well, you have the choicest Italian hand-gestures awaiting you. You may not see them, but you will feel them.

Shaken, not stirred!

...was fiddling with some long exposure settings in the car the other day, and accidentally clicked with the shutter set to a 30-second exposure. I immediately placed the camera on the dashboard, with an interesting result!

Reminded me of a similar incident last year. I was photographing a firework display from a sidewalk, when a passerby bumped the tripod. Although I expressed my displeasure rather strongly to the person at that time, I later found the disrupted image to be be the most interesting one from the evening. (In case passerby-who-bumped-the-tripod chances upon this, and recalls the incident, please know that I regret my choice of adjectives!)

The vagaries of chance, one supposes...

I Don't Know Her...

"One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace,
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.


And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!"

Lines from Lord Byron's - 'She Walks In Beauty'