While I was working with images of the ground and pushing the idea of randomness I began to notice that these pictures were often not huge indicators of my presence in Paris. Ground and sky often begins to seem the same in different places, unless of course you have mastered the art of naming a place based on its groundscape or skyscape. I began also to think about why it interested me to take pictures of images that were not so referential to Paris but were evidence of my tracks, or my experience. Then I considered Benjamin’s discussion of the photographer being a
type of criminal detective, taking pictures as clues. These were my clues to myself and to others of where I had gone and what I had looked at, even if it wasn’t immediately apparent where I was.
So I thought about other ways I might look at images in order to take them out of context a bit. I liked the idea that only I might know where this photo came from, because it was unique. It might be hard for someone else to find the place I took the picture at and perhaps this might
make it more interesting.
I expanded this idea to include reflection. I hadn’t worked with reflection much the first few weeks, but many of my pictures ended up containing reflected images of some type this week. I think in reflections too there is a sense of a misplaced context. Not only are you viewing an image that is not the actual place, but now you are viewing a reflected image, in a phot
ograph. The original object is twice taken out of context and now Susan Sontag’s words about Plato’s allegory of the cave suddenly became a lot clearer as a metaphor for me. What is real is misplaced, taken out of context and we are left only to wonder where we might be, what it might mean. I am interested in these kinds of photos, photos that make you think, photos that might make you view the world a little bit differently. I don’t know how successful my work this week was in doing this but I have tried to push further any concepts that have floated into my mind during the past few weeks.
type of criminal detective, taking pictures as clues. These were my clues to myself and to others of where I had gone and what I had looked at, even if it wasn’t immediately apparent where I was.So I thought about other ways I might look at images in order to take them out of context a bit. I liked the idea that only I might know where this photo came from, because it was unique. It might be hard for someone else to find the place I took the picture at and perhaps this might
make it more interesting.I expanded this idea to include reflection. I hadn’t worked with reflection much the first few weeks, but many of my pictures ended up containing reflected images of some type this week. I think in reflections too there is a sense of a misplaced context. Not only are you viewing an image that is not the actual place, but now you are viewing a reflected image, in a phot
ograph. The original object is twice taken out of context and now Susan Sontag’s words about Plato’s allegory of the cave suddenly became a lot clearer as a metaphor for me. What is real is misplaced, taken out of context and we are left only to wonder where we might be, what it might mean. I am interested in these kinds of photos, photos that make you think, photos that might make you view the world a little bit differently. I don’t know how successful my work this week was in doing this but I have tried to push further any concepts that have floated into my mind during the past few weeks.
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