Sunday, February 14, 2016

Never Done, Ever Young: an Ode to Joy

This image was taken at/during the “Mosey Down Main street” in 2014. Unfortunately, there was a general dearth of photogenic situations and people at this particular “Mosey,” But I did get there a bit early, and got this shot while they were setting up.

This image talks to me about the ways in which we chose to perceive our aging. As I looked at these women I saw a group that had chosen to “Be in the moment,” bright, alive, active and exuberant! They could have been at home doing mundane things around the house, but instead that chose to be ‘Out There” living, living with Joy, Laughter, and Movement.

The image itself is, I guess, just a photo of some people with a colorful background, other than the name I gave the shot and this post, it is just a photo. I could have cropped down to just above the curb to get rid of that shallow diagonal, But in doing that I would have be doing more of what I don’t truly like to do, follow the rules. In this case the curb angle detracts, some would say, from the subjects of the image, because it does draw the eye, but then the colors and the expressions draw you back to the people. so it is a back and forth thing, I like that. I like things that pull your eye from one thing to another, even when it is a WTF kind of thing.

I like images that in some way, to some people, don’t work as a whole. In my view your looking at this image makes you, the observer, the current owner (once “you” are looking at this image I no longer have control and you put your perceptions onto this image) kind of a 'Schrodinger's Cat' scenario. when you look at this image you change it from the image I took to the image you see. “It’s all in your head” they say, and of course that is an absolute truth, it is ALL IN YOUR HEAD.

Jim

James Longster, © 2014

Never Done, Ever Young: an Ode to Joy

1 comment:

  1. As I wrote on FB about this image:

    Well, Jim, this is quite an image! I agree with the analysis you make of it on your blog. Personally I would have erased the visible part of the sidewalk border in the bottom left corner. And I would have made a mistake, because it adds to the dissymmetry of the whole, another surprising element among a whole bunch of them! One can't help it, the eyes wander from left to right to top to bottom to whatever… splendid!

    And those frigging colours!

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