Hey everyone!
So…I was trying really hard (too hard I think) to see if I had any pictures that matched the weekly photo challenge. Turns out I have WAY more than I thought. What I didn’t realize before going through my collection is how much I like the idea of a silhouette. Sometimes it is about shadow and lighting, but it’s also about how those things or people who aren’t catching the light play a role in the picture. It comes across as almost secondary. I will share my gallery with you momentarily, but for instance, there is a photo of me in Acapulco. I am taking a picture with my boyfriend’s family against the sun set. If it was simply a bad choice on the part of the photographer, then we didn’t show so well, but the sunset was amazing. The sunset became the main focus…and really, I think subconsciously that’s what we really wanted to capture. Not our bodies, but our bodies in this amazing shot! The shadows created are also deeply amazing. I have another photo of just the sunset. The waves on the ocean are stunning. The clouds are magnified and dynamic.
I also realized, that when I studied literature, I loved the play of light and dark imagery. Each seems to intensify the other. Even in the brightest of days we can find the dark, we don’t realize the dark, or expect the suddenness of it sometimes. Like life, things change. We realize our mortality the way we see a tree in the fall, it’s bare banches naked in the spotlight of a setting sun. In the dark we look for light. During my trip to Acapulco, I remember looking out to the ocean. During the day is is already immensely big, but at night it is wondrously scary. To the imagination, it is an invitation for your wildest monsters to reach out with a giant hand and pull you into the abyss!
As an artist…or at least one who appreciates art, silhouette is also a collaborative bricolage of images and shadows. I am smitten. Here are some of my photos.
The pictures range from the snowstorm in Chicago (February 2nd 2011. All winter it did not snow. It was like Old Man winter was trying to hold back a sneeze, and then, out of nowhere, Chicago finds itself under 2 feet of snow) To Navy Pier in black and white.)It was a winter day — just before Christmas. The sun was bright, and then rapidly became darker because the days were shorter.) Then there are some of NYC in black and white. This time around I actually spent a bit more time walking through Central Park, as well as completely crossing over the Brooklyn Bridge. There are also some of Grand Central Station which has such lovely architecture! What I love about these photos are the way buildings creep up in shadows EVERYWHERE! Lastly (my favorite!) Acapulco. I like these because they have samples of darkness in daylight, and light in the darkness.
A woman with an internal GPS 