832 - Two Of A Kind



There are images of and images about, and this is a completely subjective thing. For you, my image about may simply be an image of. You may still like it, because you like that which it is of, but you won’t associate much meaning with it.

On the other hand, an image may mean something to you, may be about something, a concept, a feeling, something greater, something abstract, something that is not the immediate subject that is depicted. But even if so, you may find that for you my image is about something completely different from what it is about for me. Incidentally this is true for all things that we call art.

Art is extremely indirect, mediated, it goes through the artifact (if it’s a picture or a sculpture or something like that) or the artistic act (if it’s sort of a performance), and as such it is representational by its very nature. This indirectness is part of the artistic game, and so is ambivalence.

Today’s images are two of a kind. They are in no way related in subject matter, they are not images of the same things, and in that regard they are even as unrelated as can be, but they share a structure, one could say: a composition.

As I said yesterday, I found a certain pattern in many of my experimental images, and I guess it is worth pursuing it further. That pattern is kind of a strong vertical division that runs through more or less the middle of an image and that divides the image in two only loosely or not at all related parts.

Whenever something like that happens to me, it becomes part of my way of seeing, and today I set out expressly to make images of that kind. So here you have it: if you wonder what these images should be about, well, wonder no more, they are about a certain geometric pattern.

I have the Song of the Day, “Two Of A Kind” by Memphis Slim, on disc 53 of “The Ultimate Jazz Archive”. You can get it as well on the 1963 album “All Kinds Of Blues”, although it’s not exactly the same version. I found no sound sample beyond what Amazon has.


There are 2 comments

Juha Haataja   (2009-01-23)

Interesting way of looking at composition. I take a lot of photos of trees, and try but often fail to avoid using the same framing etc.

But here you decide on the composition, and then look at different subjects with this viewpoint. Would it be possible to do this on a meta-level - photograph people like trees, or trees like people, cars like bicycles, mountains like flowers, etc. Probably not I guess.

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Cedric   (2009-01-24)

Totally agree with your sentiments about art being subjective. That is what makes art universal, to transcend all cultures and be independent of language.
Your thoughts on composition are interesting and something to ponder. I do not see similar patterns in my own photography but perhaps I haven't been looking for it.
I also like the point made by Juha Haataja. To photograph people like trees... interesting.
Kind Regards.

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