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Author Topic: Funeral  (Read 2278 times)

RobbieV

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Funeral
« on: August 30, 2012, 11:17:38 am »


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Rob C

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2012, 12:53:41 pm »

Robbie, this is too subtle for me; where's the stiff?

Rob C

shutterpup

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2012, 01:24:08 pm »

Robbie,
Not what I expected when I read the title, but a good metaphor!
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2012, 11:39:41 pm »

Robbie, this is too subtle for me; where's the stiff?

Rob C
The "stiff" is the one lying down in the middle. The ones wearing black suits are the pall bearers. It's obvious, Rob.

As Pup says, good metaphor.
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-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

Rob C

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2012, 03:53:59 am »

You guys should stay out of the woods!

However, now you point it out, I do see the general shape; however, I'm more an incendiary sort of bloke, so such a simulacrum isn't much in my trace or palimpsest department. Mea culpa.

;-)

Rob C

francois

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2012, 05:20:31 am »

…As Pup says, good metaphor.


I agree 100%. The title is perfect.
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Francois

RobbieV

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2012, 09:00:11 am »

The "stiff" is the one lying down in the middle. The ones wearing black suits are the pall bearers. It's obvious, Rob.

As Pup says, good metaphor.


Thanks for beating me to the explanation Eric.

Everyone else, thanks for contributing. I have the opportunity to make some large-ish prints (50x70cm or 70x100) and I'm leaning towards this one.
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amolitor

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2012, 09:49:38 am »

This is a pretty good photograph, but I think the title is an effort to improve the image by adding a title. On the one hand, it works pretty well -- with the title in mind the experience of the image does in fact gain strength and emotional power. On the other hand, I can't help but feel that the image isn't particularly strong on its own.

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RobbieV

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2012, 10:27:36 am »

This is a pretty good photograph, but I think the title is an effort to improve the image by adding a title. On the one hand, it works pretty well -- with the title in mind the experience of the image does in fact gain strength and emotional power. On the other hand, I can't help but feel that the image isn't particularly strong on its own.



Thanks for your comment. I had been exploring and studying the Crawford Lake area for a while now and came across this scene and noted to myself that it seemed like a funeral. I composed the photo in the best way I possibly could to convey the title.

In your opinion, is it the composition, the elements or the processing that take away strength from the image? Or is it all three?

Again, many thanks for taking the time to comment.
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amolitor

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2012, 10:39:11 am »

I cannot see any obvious way that these things could have been composed into a frame in a substantially stronger way, offhand.

The processing seems strong, you're emphasizing the things you want emphasized, which is great.

Therefore it must be the elements! Absent the title, the image feels like it's trying to convey something (which is great -- well done) but that something is ambiguous. It could be a funeral, it could be.. I dunno.. Black Guards with a Battering Ram. It could be a metaphorical path leading to heaven or freedom or light.

There is, I think, a definite sense of "two rows of dark figures alongside something lighter". I don't get a strong feeling that the lighter thing they're alongside needs to be viewed as a figure or even an object (although obviously it IS an object, it feels like it could be interpreted otherwise).

Now that I'm thinking it through more, I'm not sure about my previous opinion. It's evocative of ideas, for damn sure, and that's generally all I demand of a photograph. Somehow I just feel like I want the sharpness and clarity (not necessarily of a single idea, but something more open-ended about clarity) that the title brings to the image, and I want the image to do that by itself.

Now I'm mixed about how I feel about it (that's normal, for me, I waffle back and forth on photographs, if they're any damn good, as my normal state).

I probably didn't say a single coherent thing, but maybe that stream of consciousness contains something useful?
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Rob C

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2012, 11:36:46 am »

Well, if you don't dig funerals and other rituals, how about seeing a series of elephant trunks looking down with concern at the little log that's lying on the ground in front of them all? Maybe they don't really feel like picking it up, but realise that if they don't they'll get a little prick from a little prick riding high up on their necks? Decisions, decisions.

Rob C

WalterEG

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Re: Funeral
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2012, 05:10:34 pm »

If anything, I find the title is only half the story.  Yes, I can 'get' the sentiment of pall bearers and sarcophagus but, for me, the picture works more strongly with the fallen log being a pointer to the path out of the gloom of the forest to the to the LIGHT beyond.  Could it be the Light Perpetual referred to in the liturgy of the funeral.

In truth a funeral is a process of transgression but in popular parlance a funeral is thought of as a celebration or an honouring of an end: a full stop (period).  But from a theological perspective, the funeral is a point of departure and a point of renewal; embarkation on the next journey of which we here in life know nothing — in the Christian ethos at any rate.  This picture addresses such an idea quite succinctly.

This also harks back to a comment of Roland Barthes' that a CORPSE is a living representation of a dead thing.  The fallen log is not inactive, it is useful.  Useful as a conduit to physically walk along and useful as a conduit to allow the mind to imagine.

W
« Last Edit: August 31, 2012, 05:30:47 pm by WalterEG »
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