054: Helping Me To See Clearly

Helping Me To See Clearly, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

Peek a Boo

Having a partner helps you to see the world in a different way, and Ania gives me the best vision possible. She is still a bit jet-lagged after flying back from New York to here in Poland on Tuesday, but she was quite happy to participate in today's picture.

I gave this image a border as I was a bit worried that the image itself would look a little washed out when viewed against a white background, but it also helps to make a strong image.

I like to include her in my pictures, as without her it would give a distorted image of me and my life. The question is how often to show her, and the answer is whenever the idea needs her. I don't have props, and I don't use people as props - everything is simply waiting for an opportunity to show off some aspect of itself. The strongest relationships are with those things closest to me, and by going out to seek photo opportunities means creating what may look like a strong image, but one's art or relationship with it is in reality weak.

22: AGD (anti-goth descrimination)

Playing the Other Side, originally uploaded by gingerpig2000.

In our excitement to get on the road we left an area rich in Gothic and entered one where it was almost none existent. Luckily, as we sat waiting for dinner while they dealt with some disaster in the kitchen of our hotel, I spotted this superb silver candelabra. Having a desk to work from, I did some significant editing using Microsoft Paint, including a colour inversion to get the green, which was lucky as the original shot was not at all inspiring.

The message here is that while a total subject may not be what you need, shaving away excess can reveal a number of inner ideas that you had not noticed because the total picture was swamping your ability to analyse. I also composed the following to go with the picture: "Our darker counterpart resides as far away as the other side of our eye, and there are not enough candles in the whole world to illuminate the darker corners of our soul." Here, words are combined with the image, just as the other day I combined a cartoon format, linking concepts so that each helps define your idea.