I've taken photos of art I've found along the way while travelling for years. This weekend while going through my folders, I found some again and remembered the weird conversations that came about from me taking the photos.
This first one I just liked because it was so colourful but also held a rather sinister side as well. Everyone at the table that I showed it to said something along the lines of "oh that's so pretty" but the teardrop and darker face were completely overlooked. It is fascinating to me that people only see what they want to and sometimes don't take the time to look closer.
This one I showed to a friend who asked "Why would you have a shovel on the wall?" I replied it's for when you're at dinner and you say something really stupid in a half drunken slur and then you take it off the wall and dig your own grave.
The interesting thing for me is that they've wound barbed wire around the it and made flowers to decorate it. It's a strange choice of material but works well overall. What do you think of it? How would you interpret it?
I've never been one for high heels but I fell in like with these when I saw them. The artistry is impressive, they got the reflections and shadows so perfect but they aren't so hyper realistic that you can't tell they're painted. I had to take photos just for the sake of the fact that I liked them. Nobody else even noticed they were there. Strange how some things make an impression on some and absolute no impact on others.
This next one was also a discussion point at dinner one evening while with a client overseas. I loved how retro this photo is.
We were talking about how cool the image is and then she piped up and said "Did you notice the dirt on her shoe? It was the first thing I saw"
I hadn't noticed. But after she had said it, I couldn't un-see it. It's like a Rick Ashley song that you just can't remove from your brain. Did you notice it before you read this? Has it changed the way you see the image now?
This last one is by far my favourite. I took the photo and then my friend asked me why. I explained that it sends a good message and that I'd like to keep it.
He looked at me quizzically and said "Courage divided by Fear? That doesn't even make sense". I laughed and had to give it to his mathematically inclined mind. "Another way to interpret it is Courage Over Fear". His expression changed and he said "Oh yeah, now I get it". How would you have read it?
Let me know what you think of these and if you have any other perspectives, I'm always interested to read them.