At first glance this photo may seem as simple, uncomposed and fairly meaningless. The subject matter chosen from random elements that may be found around any typical household. A child's toy, picnic table, harvest time fruit...one could easily imagine a comfortable backyard with a "lived-in" feel where the inhabitants, sat, talked, ate and drank enjoying the outdoors with one or two young offspring wandering haphazardly through the scene. But to the sensitive eye, this is the surface reality. The photo belies a much deeper message and is ripe with symbolism and rich with commentary on the world and the human condition in general.
The photographer, the unseen component, is actually the most important aspect of this visual play, as dynamic and complex as any live performance despite being fixed in time. Iconoclastic and revolutionary play writes such as Henrik Ibsen come to mind...whose plays examined the realities that lay behind many facades, possessing a revelatory nature that was disquieting to many of his time and shattered the contemporary Victorian illusion. Or more modern American story tellers such as Edward Albee whose well-crafted works framed often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. We see all these elements in this photo and through this emotional kaleidescope of the Photographer's eye. Much is revealed of the photographer, her sensuality, her almost-assaultive honesty, and stark realism
Of course it is obvious the photographer is a woman. The subject matter telegraphs this more loudly than if her X chromosome had been stamped in the lower right corner. In the photo we see both unripe and ripe and decaying tomatoes...these being fruit, are the very womb of the next generation of plants...the progression from virginal unripeness through the lush and fecund form of its ripened state to the poignant and foreboding image of the aged and decayed fruit tells a story of life, death, love, decay and the process of renewal.
It is not an accident either that this vignette is composed on a white picnic bench (is it white or is it in fact a shade of gray). The "white" table .. immediately brings to mind a clean slate, a "tabula rasa" if you will, against which the the human drama is played out. It is equivalent to a pure spiritual state, a unbodied pleromaic existence before time, undisturbed by human strivings and chaotic feelings and physical experience.
The fact this table is not really white shows the photographers deep insight into the nature of this primordial backdrop to human reality. We are not made of pure stuff...but the divine seed from which humans grow is also tinged with darkness. See also in the gaps between the slats of the table...is there pure darkness there...it is not completely black...as one can see some glow shining through the gaps revealing the more accurate and complex interplay of light and dark, and how they compliment and define each other...
It on this canvas that the energetic and vivid colors of life are displayed. Green of the earth, the mother and vessel for humanity, and blood red, the life supporting river that feeds the body and mind. Red cries out life, it is the color of passion, and of pain...orgasmic and mortal in one stroke. The fruit covered in meticulously random placed water droplets take on an even more sensual and real tone.
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Symbolic Exposition of "Tomatoes and Po"
Part I The Photo and the Photographer
At first glance this photo may seem as simple, uncomposed and fairly
meaningless. The subject matter chosen from random elements that may
be found around any typical household. A child's toy, picnic table,
harvest time fruit...one could easily imagine a comfortable backyard
with a "lived-in" feel where the inhabitants, sat, talked, ate and
drank enjoying the outdoors with one or two young offspring wandering
haphazardly through the scene. But to the sensitive eye, this is the
surface reality. The photo belies a much deeper message and is ripe
with symbolism and rich with commentary on the world and the human
condition in general.
The photographer, the unseen component, is actually the most important
aspect of this visual play, as dynamic and complex as any live
performance despite being fixed in time. Iconoclastic and
revolutionary play writes such as Henrik Ibsen come to mind...whose
plays examined the realities that lay behind many facades, possessing
a revelatory nature that was disquieting to many of his time and
shattered the contemporary Victorian illusion. Or more modern American
story tellers such as Edward Albee whose well-crafted works framed
often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. We see all
these elements in this photo and through this emotional kaleidescope of the Photographer's eye. Much is revealed of the photographer, her sensuality, her
almost-assaultive honesty, and stark realism
Of course it is obvious the photographer is a woman. The subject
matter telegraphs this more loudly than if her X chromosome had been
stamped in the lower right corner. In the photo we see both unripe and
ripe and decaying tomatoes...these being fruit, are the very womb of
the next generation of plants...the progression from virginal
unripeness through the lush and fecund form of its ripened state to
the poignant and foreboding image of the aged and decayed fruit tells
a story of life, death, love, decay and the process of renewal.
It is not an accident either that this vignette is composed on a white
picnic bench (is it white or is it in fact a shade of gray). The
"white" table .. immediately brings to mind a clean slate, a "tabula
rasa" if you will, against which the the human drama is played out. It
is equivalent to a pure spiritual state, a unbodied pleromaic
existence before time, undisturbed by human strivings and chaotic
feelings and physical experience.
The fact this table is not really white shows the photographers deep
insight into the nature of this primordial backdrop to human
reality. We are not made of pure stuff...but the divine seed from
which humans grow is also tinged with darkness. See also in the gaps
between the slats of the table...is there pure darkness there...it is
not completely black...as one can see some glow shining through the
gaps revealing the more accurate and complex interplay of light and dark, and how they
compliment and define each other...
It on this canvas that the energetic and vivid colors of life are displayed. Green of
the earth, the mother and vessel for humanity, and blood red, the life
supporting river that feeds the body and mind. Red cries out life, it
is the color of passion, and of pain...orgasmic and mortal in one
stroke. The fruit covered in meticulously random placed water droplets take on
an even more sensual and real tone.
Part II The Artifice of "Po"
< to be continued >
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