 Memories of A Broken God is finally published and available on Amazon. I first wrote this short novelette, or long short story if you prefer, in 2010 when I was living in Dublin. The original intention was to create a narrative for a photobook where each page on the right side of the book would have no more than five lines of text narrative, while the pages on the left side of the book would show the photo narrative. The idea came to me as a photographer, not as a writer. I would take the photos showing the main character's point of view. So I had the idea, the text narrative – which was much shorter than the final version in this book – and a model to act in the photo narrative. The model was Larena Slight who I had photographed months before. She liked the project and she was happy to help me with it. What I didn't have was a place to do the photos and I would probably use my own apartment. Unfortunately I felt I was not ready to take the photos I planned for the book. I was working full time during the day and I didn't want to work on the project in a hurry and stressed so I waited, but I waited for too long and it never happened. I thought about trying to finally do the photos for the book when I was living in south Germany some years later but I didn't find any model willing to work for my project. I don't know why but people thought the project was pornographic so eventually I gave up. Eleven years after writing the story for the first time I decided to publish the story without the photos but I had to develop the text further, and it was easy because I felt I had a lot to express in it thanks to the many experiences and books I had read in the meantime. However, I had many delays caused by the poor conditions of the walls of my apartment, with four of my neighbours constantly distracting me day and night. I also was constantly tired from lack of sleep caused by the same problem. Being able to finally finish writing the story, publish it and see the feedback from readers after many years is a huge relief. It also gives me hopes to write and publish many more fictions I have thought many times about. I just don't know how many years it will take for the conclusion of future writings, but hopefully not eleven years – if my neighbours allow me.
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Now you can have puzzles with my photographs. Two options available, one with 500 pieces and the other with 1000 pieces. Check them out at marcio-faustino.pixels.com/shop/puzzles   Every apartment and houses I lived in Germany had problems with the walls, which one can hear clearly what happens in the other side as if there is no wall at all. While it is said that privacy is an important thing for Germans I feel I never had privacy in Germany; I can hear every private talk and intimate life of my neighbours and they can hear mine. It makes me feel I'm never on my own and everything I do I have to be concerned about those who may hear it - One feels lonely when in companion of people they can not interact with and expose the self, not when alone. For that reason I gave up playing guitar, still photography at home and some workouts at home just to respect my neighbours' space, meaning not distract them with my presence. What was left for me was reading books, Yoga, listening to music and movies with headphones. On the other hand, reading and Yoga is also difficult because three of my neighbours don't have the same care, which makes it hard to do anything that demands a certain concentration.
Eventually I developed Tensor Tympani Syndrome, which is caused when one over protects the ears, as I was always wearing earplugs or headphones at home. My problem doubled then, because while I can not leave home or open the windows without protecting my over sensitive ears caused by the syndrome, I have now to avoid wearing earplugs as much as possible at home in order to not make it worse. I tried to talk to the loud neighbours but they didn't help. I talked to the building administrator but he also didn't care, nor the police. What they all say is that the building is old and there is nothing they can do about it. It sounds as a deny to actually face the problem, by accepting it and pretending the problem is not social but individual; Me, who as complaining person don't fit in and want to act. But it is exactly for the building being old and having problems people should be extra careful, not careless pretending that there are no problems. I was even told to not go talk to my upstairs neighbour, for him being very old. I can't talk to a neighbour about them being loud for them being old, meanwhile I developed an illness and nobody cares about helping me to get better but worse; Because I am young I am expected to be “strong”. I sure would move out if I had the financial conditions. The point is the social norm created to avoid individual action and individual standing out contrasting against the egalitarian social ideology – The conformity. This lack of privacy makes it difficult to be alone with one's own thoughts, which is essential for the psychological aspect of the individual being; Being able to step outside of the social stage and have a private life for the private self[1]. "Never is he more active than when he does nothing, never is he less alone than when he is by himself." - Cato With my ear condition I could not work in the job I had and I should not work on most jobs. From a successful self-employed business I became jobless and I got a part-time job instead. Because it is hard to sleep with loud neighbours when I should not wear earplugs I have missed many days of work for tiredness, which makes it hard to keep any job I may get. So I got fired from the MiniJob I had got. I talked to my quiet neighbours and they told me that they don't complain about the loud people because they feel scared or because they know it won't help. One of them suggested me to put on loud music and hope for the loud neighbours to move out. Apparently it is what some people feel as the only acting option, the violence. [1] ARENDT, H. The Life of the Mind: The groundbreaking investigation on how we think. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1977.  What most people haven't realized yet is that the tool has a lot to do with the message content. As Nail Postman once said, " technology is the biggest ideology of all". This is the main reason I work with analog cameras and pinhole; It is not about being wistful but about what Cicero would call the avoidance of senses' corruption. After all, soon or later we always go back to our roots looking for something left behind. Specially when a culture becomes dominated by the distraction of entertainment language. The results I get are important to to me, but more important than the result is the process. My experience during the process will impact on the result of what I photograph; The choice of ways to work, methods, tools, paths, is a choice of perspectives, personal relation to what the result will become and even of what the message will be. Process wins over output, which we become wiser and gain perspectives from. As Buddha once said (or meant) “ Success as well life is the journey, not the destination ”.
Book : Hamburg Square Pinhole: Pinhole Photographs of Hamburg available at Amazon.  On the 26th September, at Langschläferflohmarkt, I will be showing my latest book (The Anxiety of Nonexistence) and my photographs, from 11h until 16h.
I will also be giving €15 discount for prints to be purchased in my online shop. Langschläferflohmarkt Überseeboulevard Hafencity 20457 Hamburg  Purchase a copy of the book by clicking on the image. This is my 5th book but for the first time I am publishing a book without photographs in it. The book is a collection of essays I wrote along the years. It comprises a wide range of subjects such as Psychology, Philosophy, Politics, Religion and specially art.
In these writings I attempt to present my understanding on different subjects from a personal experience point of view, as a self expression and self-learning. The texts present my curiosity on understanding people and humanity in general. An investigation about what makes us humans and what makes me an Artist. You can purchase your paperback copy of "The Anxiety of Nonexistence" at Amazon by clicking on the image and don't forget to send me your feedback.  You can purchase prints (and support my art) by clicking on the image. Art helps us to deal with our feelings, it helps us to become civilized, it is the playing and the symbolic association we do to things, just like toddlers do, which deep inside it is always a serious thing for helping us to make sense of this world. Every act and interaction is an expression; From the little help we offer to a stranger, in mean comments some people do about others' appearances, in art, especially in confusing art, all is a form of expression.
Maybe because of its expressiveness representation people normally expect art to have a message, so they try to interpret what pieces of art say or what they are about, turning art into a utilitarian object that needs to have an explanation in order to be accepted and recognize as art. Susan Sontag says in "Against Interpretation" that art is not about something, art is not supposed to have an utilitarian use for the public who appreciate and collect it. Art is a thing of its own. Its only use is to experience it, sense it as we are supposed to sense the world around us – shapes, sounds, colours, texture, composition pasterns and so. The same is when a child kicks the door because of frustration. It is not a message but a sole expression of frustration. A something to be experienced in order to overcome the frustration; A hope that out of the destruction a greater figure will establish order. Reason why adults should not ask toddlers why they are misbehaving; They don't know and, according to Winnicott, such question only creates more confusion and frustration in their heads, which causes them to overthinking, leading them to mental stress and depression. We can create and recreate meanings according to our own individual or collective understanding and experiences. Meanings are important, they are the associative representation we use to make sense of the world. Consequently we use such meanings in our conceptual expression. But meaning and truth are not the same thing, so art is not about the message it carries (the meaning we give to it) but about the experiencing of its expressiveness, as creation and destruction, as overcoming our deep painful and unbearable feeling that causes us to overthink, so we can quite our mind and experience the fulfilling calm stillness behind everything, after the fulfilling act.  Click on the image to purchase the print. I went to Morocco in the Christmas of 2019 and I really enjoyed its rich landscape. It was a road trip starting from Casablanca and going through Rabat, Fes, Zagora desert, Benhaddou, Marrakesh and many other small towns in between. The trip was with my brothers and cousins who long time I hadn't seen. I am making the images available to be purchase now. They are landscapes, architectures and street scenes. These photos will make a difference to my online shop gallery for showing something else apart from Europe, with the north African deserts, towns and people. I am offering a big discount for the person who will make the first purchase. The discount can be obtained by using the this discount code during the online purchasing process: TCEKTV    We can estimate but never predict the future. We never know what changes in the wind may occur once we throw the arrow of our actions. For this reason we never know exactly how our lives will be once we put our planning in action. The target, then, works only as inspiration, orientation and reference. To act is always a risk taking. When travelling to Israel I thought my experience there would be of hard and boring work, and it was, but many unexpected experiences came along and left their stamp in my memories which makes me forget about the boring and hard moments as irrelevant. My expectations may have caused me to appreciate the experiences much better, reason why positive expectations can be dangerous, making one not appreciate the positive aspects of experiences because of higher goals. Negative expectations can be even more dangerous, because we think we are happy for what we got since it is more than we expected, accepting what actually may still make us miserable, for believing to be in an advantage or privileged position, not willing to risk losing it with further action. Like when I talk about the health care in Germany not being public, not being universal and not being free but the contrary, it is private and very expensive - Different from what people abroad believe and say, and, also different from what a lot of Germans tell foreigners or themselves. When presented to such questioning the answer is often a comparison to others countries - specially comparison to American health care system, not because it is good but, the opposite, because any other system looks good comparing to America's - in order to point what they got as better than what they are comparing it to, and so to accept what they got as it is, as justification to not take the risk of action to change it, overlooking its own reality.
We look for happiness and pleasures in life. Different from what many people think, happiness and pleasure are not sensed in a constant state of mind, body and life. It is found in the changes, in the overcoming of distress. They are the transitional state of mind. "It is action, not rest, that constitutes our pleasure" (John Adams). This is what games do for us, they present us distress to overcome and then to sense pleasure out of the challenging stress. The game, or the entertainment, is a safe spaces to risk action for not belonging and not affecting our real lives - unless we bring our real lives to it or it to our real lives - so it can be a distraction from the challenges of real life, as a way to accept what you got in real life for having somewhere else to risk action and whatever else to pursue pleasure.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. This photograph was shot from the stairs in the Rathaus Subway Station in Hamburg (Germany). On the up part of the photo we see the Rathaus Towers (City Hall tower) scratching towards the sky.
Here, again, the wide angle effect that widens the part of the stairs that is near us, creates a sensation of invitation to the stairs path into the image. In the photo we find many lines crossing diagonally towards the center of the image where we find the tower: The stains handles and the side edge of the stairs, the top part of the construction of the stairs and the top part of the Rathaus building on the top left side of the image. They all work creating an imaginary line to our eyes working as a path to them, inviting our eyes to look back at the tower whenever we scan them over the picture. I also like the mysterious feel of the scene, with the tower half hiding behind the building too, creating this curious sensation of desiring to climb the stairs in order to be able to see more of it. The contrast of light and shadows also helps with such mysterious feelings. The scene also reminds me of the experience of dream effect. Which nothing is very clear and forms are confused. It is interesting to think that our visual culture tends towards the pornographic visual; The visual that exposes everything in all its details. It is a visual aspect that has its attractiveness but it leaves no much room for the viewer's imagination and personal experience of the scene. This is the reason I tend to the classic visual language. The pinhole photograph like this one (photograph shot with no lens), helps with such dreaming like effect because it naturally has a soft focus, for having no lens to make shapes highly defined.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. This is the garden with a fountain of the beautiful and well preserved Schwerin Castle in Germany
The wide angle photographs help to have a view of its totality. It is interesting to notice that the fountain in the lower part of the images is as if bending towards us out of the way of the garden in front of it. A visual sensation I enjoy very much. In the background is the castle, distantant and calling our attention for its tower. Image as a whole has an interesting visual line created by the composition of the elements. On the top is the tower, then the castle below it, then the sidewalks and colunes on both sides of the image towards us. This creates a visual effect resembling a triangle, which turns the image visually interesting and harmonious in my opinion. Schwerin is a city in Germany known for its palaces and beautiful architecture. It became an independent city in 1160 by Henry the Lion. It is the oldest city of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is globally known for its romantic Schwerin Palace, situated on an island in Lake Schwerin. The palace was one of the main residences of the dukes and grand dukes of Mecklenburg until 1918 and is the official seat of the state parliament since 1990. The city also has a largely intact old town, thanks to only minor damage in World War II.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. This is the stairs to Rathaus subway station, just in front of Hamburg Rathaus (City Hall) in Germany. In the background you can see the city center architecture and its urbain feel.
The wide angle image creates a sensation effect that invites us, the viewer of the image down to the steps. This inviting feeling to its steps path is like inviting us to the scene itself. It also has this feeling of the image hugging us. I like this inviting feeling. The black and white photographs have a cool feeling which is enhanced in this image by the traces of snow and on the ground as well as by the buildings' architecture. Black and white photographs also give more focus on the texture of the buildings.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. This is Lübeck Holstentor, the first medieval construction we face when entering in the old medieval town.
The wide angle creates this stretching effect which makes the building look powerful and asserting its presence in the image. The long exposure reinforces this visual effect with the "moving sky" (the movement of the clouds). The long exposure is not an option, it is the only feature of the pinhole camera which this Holstentor was photographed, because pinhole cameras have no lens. This dynamic visual effect by the wide angle and long exposure works here as if suggesting travelling in time. Lübeck is officially known as the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, is a medieval city in Schleswig-Holstein, in north Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany, on the river Trave. It was the leading city of the Hanseatic League, and because of its extensive Brick Gothic architecture, it is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The old medieval town of Lübeck is on an island by the Trave river.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. This is a pinhole photograph (a photograph made with a camera without lens) of Hamburg City Hall and its fountain.
I like how the building stretches up towards the sky as if it is stretched above us, the viewer of the image and hanging us almost in a ghostly like. The black and white image transmits a sense of past and coolness. Such coolness feeling if transmitted to the building and expressed through its own antique architecture, as well as enhanced by the white snow and the contrast of the white sky. The stretched edges of the photo, created by the ultra wide angle image, has a feeling of a dynamic scene, as if we are approaching or distancing the building, or if as the building is approaching or distancing from us.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. It is clear the contrast of beautiful colors is the catch of this photograph. The predominant blue color on the background matches well with the subject, the Coneflower, because the blue color, in our mind, refers to innocence, purity, cleanness, and natural, specially because it is cognitively associated to clean water and clean skies, as the one in the photo itself. The petals pink colors also refers to innocence but in a more child and feminine sense. While the green color of the stalks symbolizes nature, or a purity from nature. Together in this photo these colors combine and confirm the symbolism inherent in them by each other. At the same time they contrast in tones enhancing each other. There is another aspect in this image that makes it interesting. image point of view is from below the height of the subject. For our mind it is as if we are looking up at something above. Wherever is represented as being above our eyes or higher than us transmit the feeling of what the pictured subject can do to us, contrary to the opposite and common image of flowers photographed above them and which suggests what we can do to them. Such perspective makes us feel powerless but at the same time makes us feel the subject powerful. It is especially noticeable when looking at large prints. Such visual message is also confirmed by the subject framed in the center of the image. I took many photos exploring different angles and perspectives, because it gives me a good feeling of the power of nature.
Flower: Pale Coneflower, Pale echinacea.
Family: Compositae. Genus: Echinacea. Species: Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. Color: Pink and Purple. Region: Europe and North America. Use: Ornamental and medicine.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. Close ups have this power to make us feel more the presence of the subject, because we can see more of its details, especially when looking at large prints.
This is a single Pale Coneflower and like all flowers it is beautiful at its own. But a beautiful subject does not make a good photograph, contrary to popular belief. A good photograph has more to do with how the subject is composed, framed, the angle it is portrayed and other things which all carry meanings that we read consciously or unconsciously, based on our cognitive experiences. A beautiful subject can make us forget it all about the photograph and appreciate the subject alone. To be honest, this is a very simple photograph which caught my attention because of the beauty of the flower alone. But as a photographer I don't look only at the subject but at the photo as a whole, because it is from it where we find the photographer's expression that carries their personality, identity and sometimes messages. What I like in this photograph is the flower leaning to the left side of the image and because of its shape it suggests a imaginary diagonal line crossing its extremities in the right and left side. Diagonal lines feels harmonious and suggests dynamics, even if there is nothing happening it proposes that it is alive, symbolizing vigor. The green leaves on the right side of the image point our attention back to the flower making it stand out to our eyes as the main object. The leaves are also elements that help to compensate for the flower leaning on the left side of the image, creating a harmonic visual balance. Flower: Pale Coneflower, Pale echinacea. Family: Compositae. Genus: Echinacea. Species: Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. Color: Pink and Purple. Region: Europe and North America. Use: Ornamental and medicine.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. This photograph has a different texture I find difficult to describe. It is more noticeable in the blurred background, especially in the green tones. It is not quite the same but it reminds me of the feeling I normally get through my film photographs.
The reason for such a feeling is clear to me, is the rusticity aspect of it. We get such feelings most from colors and shape texture which is normally obtained through the silver salt grain in film photographs. This photograph is digitally made though, but a certain texture on the colors was obtained that gives some similar feeling of rusticity. The rustic feeling is a feeling of tangibility, as if what we are looking at was handmade, like film negatives and silver salt grains that are tangible. This photo is not but it has the feeling to me. I think the color temperature also helps with such feelings, the dark warm color of green, orange and pink. Also the contrast with the deep blacks. Such rustic feelings have the power to make us feel welcomed like at home, the place where we have the most intimate contact with objects. Flower: Pale Coneflower, Pale echinacea. Family: Compositae. Genus: Echinacea. Species: Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. Color: Pink and Purple. Region: Europe and North America. Use: Ornamental and medicine.  Buy prints by clicking on the photo. I normally find a lot to talk about photographs I like by just looking at them and feeling them in contemplation. This is one of the photographs I like the most and contemplate the most but I feel I have not many words to talk about it. But that's fine. Susan Sontag says that great works of art are the ones that make us silent for quieting our mind in contemplation, without our thoughts distracting us. I don't know if this photo is a great work of art but I do know it makes me have such contemplating feelings.
This photograph of two Dahlias is so rich in color and at the same time it is so peaceful, it amazes me. I would not get such a beautiful background if I didn't decide on natural light and a long lens this year (2020). The flowers I photographed last year were shot with flashlight and a wide angle lens which gives another feeling and result. Dahlia Flowers have so many petals they look pompous. The soft edges on the color shapes in the blurred background feels as reinforcing the flamboyant flower characteristic. Flower: Dahlia Family: Compositae. Genus: Dahlia. Species: Dahlia pinnata Cav. Color: Pink. Use: Ornamental  Click on the photo to buy prints, greeting cards and more. Here I went a little further than the usual in the photo post-edition, in a result that resembles a little the feeling and look of painting specially because of the hard edges of the elements, but the colors also help with such effect.
I find interesting the color composition in this photo, the yellow tones on the up right part of the frame makes the image more lively and distributes our attention in the overall image in a subtle way. Our eyes always go back to the main subject in the lower part of the photo, the flower in focus. Above it, other flowers form an imaginary line which feels like turning around the yellow tonality in the photo, and between the yellow and the white spots of the blurred flower on the extreme left side. I feel whenever my eyes look up in the photo, this line formed by the flower queue kind of naturally brings my eyes back to the main subject. Such effect is pleasing and I guess it is what makes it comfortable to look at. Flower Names: Cosmos; Garden Cosmos; Mexican Aster; Annual Cosmos; Common Cosmos; Cosmea. Family: Compositae. Genus: Cosmos. Species: Cosmos bipinnatus Cav. Color: Pink  Click on the Photo to buy Prints, Greeting Cards and more. I feel the special characteristic of this photo is the colors. I don't like altering and spending time working in image edition to create something new from it. I like to do the best I can to create when photographing and the computer edition is used only for minor and quick adjustments. This color effect is sure because of white balance adjustment (the temperature of the color of the light). While the setting of my camera was adjusted for the straight sunlight which has a warmer color, I came across this flower when the sunlight was gone, hiding behind the clouds, so the shade cool light temperature combined with the setting of my camera created such an effect which I like.
This cool color effect feels pleasing and comfortable to my eyes but I can't tell why. It may have something to do with petals' colors as well.These two pink Dahlias have a charm of their own and they are what makes the photo attractive. The bee on the flower adds a special touch to it because it feels the scene is more "honest" and not staged, it is real nature and not a studio with staged subject. But the bee helps confirm a visual sensation created by the arrangement of the flowers in the image frame. The diagonal line created between the two elements in the image, one up left and the other down right. This creates the classical dynamic feeling which in this photo in particular is not very strong but light, specially because the Dahlia on the right is already on the background, not sharing the same importance and attention as her companion on the foreground. The bee on the main subject suggests action, that something is happening, which confirms the dynamic visual effect; Again in a very subtle way which I believe to be what makes the image comfortable to look at. Flower: Dahlia Family: Compositae. Genus: Dahlia. Species: Dahlia merckii Lehm Color: Pink. Insect: Bee  Click on the photo to purchase prints online. It's ok when the average public criticises or doesn't understand some photographs' meaning, but it's strange when those who were supposed to be aware about photographs or visual language miss the aesthetic meaning of good representation on nude.
"Is nude necessary?" a photographer asked. "I think you can make a photo appealing without the model being naked" he said. There are many kinds of nude photographs. Some are made to be sexually appealing and some are not. It is actually much easier to make a woman sexually appealing wearing accessories and clothes that help to extol their body features than represent them purely naked who can only rely on poses and their actual body shape to extol their body features. Everything in a visual representation has a meaning. Through a dressed model you can tell, or at least have an idea, about the epoch, taste, age, culture, social class and even personality of the person photographed or of who the photographer is trying to represent, just by the clothes. The same with the make up, location and gestures. When you want to concentrate only on the body form, texture and expression everything else becomes a noise, or a distraction. Even colours, in many circumstances give meanings and become distracting when you want to concentrate on shapes and texture. This is why black and white images are often necessary as well as nude images. I don't mean that works focused on body expression and shapes have to be nude. There are many ways of trying to do it with appropriate clothes. But with clothes it will not be possible to represent and appreciate the full and natural body shape and texture. It also doesn't mean it has to be a full body frontal nude, because the frontal nude are often a distraction too, depending on the level of appreciation, theme and the way it is represented. It will be a distraction for those who are not used to it. In other words, not all nude or even frontal nude representation mean to be erotic or pornographic. We can also be sure that there are a lot of erotic and even pornographic suggesting images everywhere we look at in our daily life through advertises on TV, magazines and billboards that apparently sell services and products but after all they actually sell life style, which also include idealised sexual attraction and sexual power. Often it is too explicit to be true, so we accept it or just ignore it.  Click on the photo to buy it online. These two Day Lilies are framed in this photo in a very basic and composition that still has a strong impact. The composition of the elements placed towards and near a corner each, and in opposite corners. It makes our eyes explore the image travelling diagonal movement; between both elements in opposite corners.
But there is a second aspect in the photograph that I like. I suppose it is because of the petals shape, reminding open arms, what makes it feels to me as the flowers attentively presenting itself, as posing to the photograph. The diagonal composition of the elements also suggests a dynamic feeling, different from images with elements composed of horizontal or vertical line formation. I feel this dynamic feeling collaborate with the flowers' self display feeling I described above. Flower: Orange Day Lily, Fulvous Day Lily, Tawny day lily, daylily, day lily, Common Day Lily, Tawny daylily Family: Xanthorrhoeaceae. Genus: Hemerocallis. Species: Hemerocallis fulva (L.) L. Color: Orange. Use: Ornamental, food and medicine.  Click on the photo to buy it online. We are used to see photos of perfect live or vivid flowers with their invigorating and strong petals. It is part of the popular culture to look for the supposed perfect image as symbolic reference of a perfect experience. But I have many photographs of dead or dying flowers. They don't look perfect at their best but they look natural and real, because age and death is also part of life.
This depressed red Cosmos flower still has its beauty though. The flower in the lower part of the image transmits the idea that it is powerless, not influential or not the main subject of the ambiance where it finds itself, although it is the main subject of this photo. The reason the flower is framed in the lower part of this photograph is with the intention to give a more feeling of its surroundings, even if it is blurred. We can't see the elements in the second ground, which is good for the fact they are not a distraction competing for our attention against the main subject, but we still can see and feel some strong shapes and varieties of colors which suggests a wilderness and multitude of flowers and nature in the place. What the photo says is that the flower, despite its own individuality among rich nature, is just another life among many others. The dejected petals suggest its age and deterioration in nature as part of life. For the individual deterioration means the eventual end of life. For nature, individual deterioration among many, means cycle; The natural life cycle of death and rebirth. This cycle is what the flower in the photo signifies to its natural and vast nature. Flower Names: Cosmos; Garden Cosmos; Mexican Aster; Annual Cosmos; Common Cosmos; Cosmea. Family: Compositae. Genus: Cosmos. Species: Cosmos bipinnatus Cav. Color: Red  Click on the photo to buy it online. This photo of a Japanese Anemone has a kind of purity on it. It is a very simple image and I believe the best visual works are the ones that can provoke strong feelings or assert deep ideas through simplicity, with no distraction.
The white petals certainly help bring this idea of innocence which is intrinsic in the color symbology itself - reason why traditionally brides wear white. But the string sensation of visual purity is highlighted by two other main aspects of this photograph itself. The first aspect is the fact that it presents a few elements to look at and, by that, I don't only mean the flower alone but also the color shades and textures. Our eyes don't have to travel much beyond the flower and for very long to have the complete picture formed on our mind. Nonetheless, the two elements behind the Anemone flower, together with the flower stalk, form lines that work as trails to our eyes pointing them to the center of the image, to the main subject, when our eyes go beyond it. These elements drag our attention back to the flower in a pleasing and natural way. A second point in the blurred green background. The green color brings the feeling of nature to our mind which is also related to the symbolism of purity. The green color tones in the background vary from dark to bright but not strong enough to become a distraction, not forming shapes and lines distinct enough to interfere with the main elements. Around the flower is almost an empty space feeling but with this purity tone of green color that makes the subject enhance as a pure and innocent element. Flower: Japanese Anemone, Hardy Grape Leaf Anemone, Grapeleaf Anemone Family: Ranunculaceae. Genus: Anemone. Species: Anemone tomentosa (Maxim.) C.Pei Color: White  Click on the photo to buy it online. These two Fulvous Day Lily in the center of the photo feels powerful, as if asserting themselves in the scene. The reason for that is the combination of many visual aspects.
The first of these visual aspects is the centered subject. Normally, when the subject of a image appears in the center it suggest its presence affirmation and power. In the center of this photos we have two elements and both pointing in opposite direction of it other. Such composition characteristic visually indicates that they both have this asserting power independent of each other - reason why we see photos of bad-boys or bad-girls crossing their arms in the center of images giving their backs to each other. An other point is the dynamism the composition creates; Because they are pointing each to opposite direction, from the center of the photo to its margins, it feels the subject is experiencing a wider visual field that we can't see, what we see is limited by the edge of the the photo. Even without seeing it, the feeling that there is a wider visual field being experienced by the subject of the image (no matter if such subject is just flowers or inanimate object) that is limited by the photograph edge, transmit the sensation that we are approaching the subject, or that the subject is the main attention around. Its presence is being strong asserted. On top of that, which collaborate with the aspects mentioned above, there is the back ground leaves that despite blurred they form lines which feels as expanding from the center to the edges of the image, which I believe to be what gives a strong touch of dynamism feeling on photo. When I decided to rely only on the natural sun light this summer (2020) for the flowers photographs I was a little bit apprehensive. It is because in the previous year I worked with strobe light and light modifiers for the better control of the light and shadow results. Relying on the natural light only means giving up such control and I wondered if it would be a big loss in my results, but it wasn't at all. Without strobe light I switched to tele-lens in order to take more advantage of the shallow depth of field (DOF) - the blurred background - and enhance the main subjects. Without mentioning the color and light contrast I feel the description above is what makes this photograph special. Flower: Orange Day Lily, Fulvous Day Lily, Tawny day lily, daylily, day lily, Common Day Lily, Tawny daylily Family: Xanthorrhoeaceae. Genus: Hemerocallis. Species: Hemerocallis fulva (L.) L. Color: Orange. Use: Ornamental, food and medicine. |
Reading Suggestion: Street Portraits and No Violent Communication • • • Is photography an easy way to make art? • • • About Nudity • • • The photo mechanical eye culture and the need of abstract vision Categories
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