I rarely comment on an image believing that it ought to speak for itself, but “God Bless Texas” was interesting because it grew after I captured the data. My original intent was to do something that would sell. I had seen an old rusty car with “Gun Bless Texas” and a couple of rifles on it nearby that seemed staged for my benefit, so I captured it. As I developed it, however, it became obvious that the sky was the real subject; of course the car remained important, but had become allegorical. The composition made me think of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, with the detailed solid image of the “real” world below and the far more ethereal yet also “real” image above the near mid-point at the tree tops. The car was the ever moldering mortal remains of the car; the sky divine immortality.
It does happen sometimes that the subconscious speaks out of one’s life unbidden during the creation of an image. This time it was particularly interesting because my original intent was purely commercial, yet as is frequently the case, the gnomes of photography surprised me with an image containing more than I originally intended. It is important to have an open mind while developing an image, which is why I think of the digital negative as information available to be put to good use. A good image will speak to me during development; in this case the sky had a lot more potential than I initially realized.
Blog No. 85: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz,
I rarely comment on an image believing that it ought to speak for itself, but “God Bless Texas” was interesting because it grew after I captured the data. My original intent was to do something that would sell. I had seen an old rusty car with “Gun Bless Texas” and a couple of rifles on it nearby that seemed staged for my benefit, so I captured it. As I developed it, however, it became obvious that the sky was the real subject; of course the car remained important, but had become allegorical. The composition made me think of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, with the detailed solid image of the “real” world below and the far more ethereal yet also “real” image above the near mid-point at the tree tops. The car was the ever moldering mortal remains of the car; the sky divine immortality.
It does happen sometimes that the subconscious speaks out of one’s life unbidden during the creation of an image. This time it was particularly interesting because my original intent was purely commercial, yet as is frequently the case, the gnomes of photography surprised me with an image containing more than I originally intended. It is important to have an open mind while developing an image, which is why I think of the digital negative as information available to be put to good use. A good image will speak to me during development; in this case the sky had a lot more potential than I initially realized.