Kat Eye Studio

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Share Your View: Visual Contrast

The Athens flea market is, for some reason, full of chairs. Lots and lots of shops selling piles of chairs. No tables, just chairs. I was drawn to this scene for the contrast of the nicely restored chairs against the graffiti. (Athens is also quite full of graffiti, more of that later.) I’m not sure how I would describe the contrast, but it makes a striking statement to me.

I’m off in England right now, so no sharing from the Flickr pool today, but let’s check in on our Exploring with a Camera theme of Visual Contrast. Have you found contrasts in your archive? How about when you go out with your camera? I’m betting that you are finding more contrasts than you ever expected, so come and share. We already have a number of great images in the link up and Flick pool. Do some exploring of other’s images and see what cool interpretations have been found.

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The Next Destination

You never know what you are going to find, as you wander around a city. This photo is from Turin, and is one that is hanging on my living room wall. At the time I was looking for photos I could do a “spot of red” processing to match my decor scheme, so that’s what I saw. Today I look at it and find it more humorous… these stately buildings and this proud statue, looking down on the red plastic chairs and umbrella. What must his stone lordship think, to have these plastic things mucking up his piazza? The blend of modern and historic in one place provides plenty of opportunity for these types of photographs here in Europe.

We are off to visit a new destination, for the next week, and I will be absent here. We are travelling further south in Italy, to Naples and Sorrento. We plan to visit the Amalfi Coast, Capri, and hopefully, if it hasn’t all collapsed yet, Pompeii. That is quite the scandal here, what is happening with the ruins in Pompeii.

I’ll see you in a week or so, with photos from a new area. In the meantime, I have a couple of posts scheduled for you, including the Share Your View on Holiday Lights. Please come by and link in, I can’t wait to come visit all of your photos when I get home. Have a great week!

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The World is a Canvas

Wandering the back alleys of Burano, I found this. Sometimes I wonder, do the people who leave these things out, for me to see, know what they are doing? Do they see what I see in them? The fusion of textures, the contrasts, the repetition of color? Sometimes I think they do, and I am lucky enough to see it with them. Sometimes I think no, this may just be a chair someone set here, to sit outside their house on a summer evening. I wonder.

This morning I picked up Eric Booth’s book, The Everday Work of Art, for the first time in a long while. Here is something I read on this topic:

The moment we see that the world we inhabit is not just a sequence of hard, dead surfaces with fixed absolutes, but that it also can be seen “as if” it contains many non-logical truths, many mysteries, we head into a better future. The “as if” transforms artifacts into live media for the work of art.

I don’t quite know if that makes sense outside of the context of the book, but I see it in this photo. This chair, in this location can be a place to sit, or it can be seen as a work of art. How do you see the world?

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Real Life Still Life

Everyday, we walk by countless places that people live in, work in, shop in, play in. We don’t even see these places most of the time, they are just part of the background noise of our every day lives. The good thing about travel is that it makes you more aware of what’s around you, you are open, receptive and seeking. You are actively seeing what is someone else’s background noise, what they don’t even notice anymore. The little details of real life that are fantastic still life compositions, if we just notice them.

This real life still life was found in a back alley in Murten, Switzerland. My son and I were wandering around the town on our guidebook walking tour, and I caught this flash of blue in the corner of my eye. Not one to miss out on a possible color photo opportunity, we headed down the alley to investigate and found this wonderful little place, where someone had clearly set this scene up with artistic intent. I loved taking pictures here, but this is my favorite of them all, because it just shows the whole scene as created by the artist.

How many people do you think see this, being tucked into a back alley? How many of those people don’t even notice it anymore, as part of the background noise in their everday life? It’s a good thought to ponder as we go through our everyday. See if you can find a real life still life, accidental or intentional, in your background noise. You don’t have to take a picture, just notice it. It takes active looking, an awareness that requires to you be in the moment. You can’t be thinking about where you are going, what tasks you need to get done next.

I think you might find it a refreshing, positive experience. And you may find you enjoy the places you go, the things you see every day, just a little bit more. Let me know how it goes.

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So excited, today is my first post over at Mortal Muses! We are currently musing on Reflections. You all know that’s a favorite subject of mine. 🙂  And come back tomorrow for a new Exploring with a Camera –  I can’t wait to share it with you! It’s a good week, all around.

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