November 14, 2006
Photo Feature II
I always encounter a problem when I stumble across an artist like Gilad Benari of Israel. His work is so consistently and utterly breathtaking that I am forced to spend far too much time enjoying his gallery. I can easily lose an hour studying photo after photo after photo. Benari is easily one of my favorite photographers on Deviant Art. I've got several of his photos stored away among my favorites.
Though I'll probably share another of his photos at a later date, it was "A Touch of Crayon" that introduced me to his work:
(Follow the photo link and click the photo for an enlarged version.)
I don't remember how I first saw this photo. I was probably browsing through popular "conceptual" photos, but it doesn't matter. I do, however, remember seeing it for the first time. My first thought was that it didn't look real. I didn't think it was a photograph.
Once I accepted it as real, I began to delve into the beauty of the piece. The blinds and the window look ancient. They are cracked and rusted. The wooden pieces show their age, and you get the feeling that if you blew quite a bit of dust would fly off the edge. The colors are drab. The eye finds hints of color toward the back edge, but even it appears faded.
In the midst of this barren wasteland, a vivid splash of color commands the attention of the eye. It takes effort to look away from that red crayon. The strength of the color almost seems to mock the bland redness of the rust. In contrast to the aged window, the crayon appears brand new and unspoiled. The "point" of the crayon rests on a crack of the sill, subtly emphasizing the contrast of age.
The strangeness of finding a new crayon on the leaning against an old window sparks numerous questions. The most obvious, of course, would be "How did it get there?" However, I'm more interested in why it was left. Was it a child's crayon? Did he or she plan to add some color to the window or the drab wall? Where are the rest of the crayons, and does the owner even realize the red one is missing? One could easily create a story to answer these questions, and that is probably the main reason I enjoy this photo so much.
Posted by Randy at November 14, 2006 07:30 AM | TrackBack