Friday, July 03, 2009

Distractions



I am both fascinated and appalled by this statue. The hands on his back are what get to me. Yet I love both photographs. The teacher in the online class I am taking says the background is too distracting and it takes away from the focal point.

Technically that may be true. But metaphorically, isn't this how it sometimes is in life itself? Too many background details pulling us in too many directions? And how often are those distractions things that are dead, things that we should release, so that we can move forward?

6 comments:

  1. So true, Annie. I agree about the hands. I particularly like the first one because of the way the background "distractions" converge in the middle.

    Mich

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  2. Am I wrong here or is it actually a statue of two persons? In truth, I must admit to being drawn to the background, wondering what in the world was attached to those lockers; but, in reading your words, returned to discover that the hands, or so it seems to me, are really another person who is on hands and knees, pleading, maybe, with this one who ignores all and simply looks at the sky above. I also, then, took another look at the second photo and realized that the flowers are positioned on the headstones of a mausoleum wall....

    Well, let me try again, Annie. Clicking on the photo let me think the fellow standing isn't ignoring the other, but is "lost" in the other's pain. Somehow I find it quite appropriate for a place where one yet deals with an ache for a loved one gone on.....

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  3. I think the background speaks in the photo. I think it all works really well together. Maybe if the background were a bit blurry?

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  4. I'm not an artist, but I know what I like!

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  5. The statue is intriging. And it was the distractions in the background that actually helped me look at the statue - and to think about death, struggle (and comfort) to live and to leave this world.

    If you go back, I wonder what changes you'll make in your shots?

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