goddamn the man by
DiukComment by ubique: I really love this minimalist style of photography (actually, also of art generally, of cuisine, of music and just about everything). There's something in it that reveals essentials by excluding what doesn't matter so much. Here we have extravagant contrast, and suspension of all photographic subtlety. And it works beautifully for me. I'm also very keen on harsh crops, and on juxtapositions of person with urban spoor (spoor = tracks, artifacts, so I refer to the signs).
Here's a small thing that's actually big ... if it were not for the reflected light on the spectacles, the picture would be diminished. That light elevates, because it confers character somehow, at least in my fevered mind.
As a photograph it's more like a cartoon or caricature than a fully realised image. But I mean the good kind of cartoon, like a scintillating political cartoon in a newspaper. Something that distills a complex idea down to its essence, with amazing (yet generally unnoticed) economy of rendering.
I would not want every photograph to look like this, but I would be disinterested in photography if at least some didn't. We're all better photographers for seeing and appreciating elegant economy of expression of this standard.
It's also graphically, compositionally, very interesting. Negative space isn't merely blank or unused space; it has a purpose. It's part of what the picture is, not what it isn't.
I fling a pulsating yellow thumb at your feet, and hope that it may light your way through this darkness. Thank you.
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