civilized ku # 125 ~ have some fun

On the ferry to the Statue of Liberty ~ NYC • click to embiggenI think that it would stating the obvious to say that a picture with people in it is different from one without people. But, beyond the obvious visual content, it seems to me that the underlying dynamic of a picture is radically changed, especially so considering this characteristic of the medium:

The advantage photography has over any other art form is its ability to free a moment in time, allowing the viewer to see things which would otherwise remain hidden. ~ Lician Perkins

If one is inclined to believe that the medium of photography is capable of "allowing the viewer to see things which would otherwise remain hidden", and I place myself firmly in that camp, then a picture with people in it has so much more potential to unmask the "hidden" than say your typical landscape picture. Not that the best of landscape pictures don't have much to reveal, it's just that potentially, to my eye and sensibilities, each and every person depicted in a picture has something "hidden" to reveal.

Consider today's diptych. IMO, a talented writer could easily write a very involving short story from the wealth of "revealed" information in those two pictures. One could easily spend a considerable amount of time getting to know each and every person depicted therein.

Of course the "knowing" that one intuited and the short story would be completely fictitious. But, once again to my eye and sensibilities, that's one of the great beauties of the medium - that a picture is both true and false.

That is to say that on the purely visual level, the picture is very true. It depicts a moment in time with a great deal of clarity and precision. An attuned viewer can feel the weather and the gentle roll of the boat. One can see a potpourri of nationalities and ages as well as some apparent relationships. There is an obvious and almost singular air of focus on the part of the crowd. And then there is the object of attention, the Statue of Liberty. The very attuned viewer might also notice what is missing in the righthand picture - near the left side of the skyline, the World Trade Center buildings are not where they are supposed to be.

All of that is true and the stage is now set for the fun to begin.

Now, I am not about to tell you what fun you can have, but I will say that amongst the many story possibilities to be "seen" that affects me is the one that this diptych mimics from approximately 120 years ago - the huddled masses yearning to be free entering NY harbor and being greeted / welcomed by Lady Liberty. What a sight, what a moment, repeated over and over again, that must have been.