My husband Tom is a great photographer but we have very different ways of seeing the same item. We went for a drive last weekend, mostly dirt roads with just a little bit of highway up north east to Fort Morgan. This amazing tank was standing in a field. We both loved the color with its intense yellow green and bold rusty orange. Tom saw it as its whole entity, I saw it as a series of circles.He photographed it how he saw it then let me orchestrate the shooting, angles etc. while he took the photos that I wanted. As soon as I saw it, I imagined mixing the images of the circles, transferred to canvas with lots of thread painting, thread sketching and rusted metal.
Here's the photo that I love best. It was taken on the backside of the white and red tank. I love the rust and the wear and the blue shadow. But mostly I love the circle. It's an opening or a valve shut off or something useful like that. To me, like all circles, it signifies the powerful female. The continuous world. The whole shebang! I will print the large circle, work on it with the machine and thread then probably add metal.
Maybe this will work it's way into a new series!
How do you see? Can you look past the whole and see just the parts? Can you look past the color and see the texture? Can you look past the meaning of the thing and just see it's essence? Can you break something down and see it's value?
Heather
