When I do not fully understand what I am looking at, I feel more
intrigued by the image. It allows me speculate, it gives me the
opportunity to be creative with the possible interpretations of
what the photograph is all about.
I have always felt that photographic images were multifaceted
in their possible interpretations, even those of a photo-journalistic
nature, which is the main reason why photography is such a poor
medium to deliver specific information. How else to explain that
a photo-journalistic image always requires captions in order to
anchor the image to a specific interpretation of its content.
For the viewer the story telling abilities of an image are open
ended, and when the story is presented well, we become intrigued
by the information we are given. What am I looking at? is never
a bad question to provoke in the mind of a viewer.
Pictures that are so easily decoded that the moment I look at
them I've already answered the question "what I am looking
at?", are usually quite uninteresting images. They are the
equivalent of "one liners". Before a dialogue is established
between the viewer and the creator of the image, the photograph
has ceased to raise interest.
While having a conversation with a friend of mine, we were discussing
what it must have been like to be aboard a nudist flight. We came
to the conslusion that all those naked bodies elicited absolutely
no erotic emotions in us. I was very understanding of this situation
remembering a time when I had taken pictures in a nudist colony.
I feel that complete exposure with nothing left to the imagination
would be the equivalent to pictures that have no veil of unanswered
questions. They become so explicit that one is left with no particular
interest in the imagery.
We at ZoneZero, wish you the very best for the Holidays. I am
leaving for a month long journey with my ten year old son, Julio.
We are going fishing. Fishing, not as in fish, but as in explorations
and the capture of images, hopefully with plenty of room for the
imagination. We will be going to China, which has all the enigmas
one can imagine, especially for the outsider. There is nothing
there that is so explicit that you loose interest in the dialogue
with their reality. Hopefully we will have some interesting things
to report back to you next year, in the year 2006.
Pedro
Meyer
