On Jan 4, 2005, at 8:32 AM, Bruce Dayton wrote:
Not that I'm a critic or anything, but I find that the ambivalence of the photograph is its charm. When I first opened it, I laughed, but then, I saw a more serious side of it. Then, I wondered, "how big is this gun?" and then I saw that everything was pointing toward the right, from which there was something emanating (namely the "smoke" of the clouds). I think the sort of "blood redness" of the whole photo also is striving to say something about the theme. I see in this, a sort of Wild West, gun-slinger concept. In any case, IMO, it's not about the photo, but what the photographer is trying to say. The question is, doe he succeed? :-) To my eye, he does. But that's me....Your description is about the same for me Frank. It is just floating there and I'm not sure what to make of it. Maybe if there were lettering for the sign it would gel better for me.
Lots of photos are just--well, photos. Others are an attempt by the photographer to communicate something more than the photograph itself. This is one photo that, to my eye, is trying to communicate something other than "photo" and, IMO, it works. It certainly is obvious to me that he put a lot of thought and effort into this photo. I don't believe the clouds are an accident, nor or the treeless leaves. They all have something to say in this photo, as well as the gun, sitting where it is, and pointing where it is. I like it.
P.S. Today will be my last day to post here for a while. We are flying to the States in exactly two weeks, and I'm just too busy getting ready, and when we get there, we won't have any reliable internet access for I don't know how long. I'll be accumulating my email in my Gmail box, so hopefully, I won't miss the important stuff.
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-Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
