Some pictures are mere snapshots that are taken quickly, viewed quickly, then added to the growing visual anthology of my photographic life.
Others are decidedly different in that they kind of evolve over time. It's not that the photographs themselves actually change. Rather, they might be inherently complex or initially cryptic in their composition, and as such do not fully reveal themselves on first viewing.
So I set them aside and come back to them periodically in the hope that time will give me a somewhat different perspective on the original result.
Most of the time it just gives me an excuse to look at older work and enjoy it again. Sometimes, I see things that I totally missed soon after I first took the shot.
I captured this image three months ago. Initially, I wanted a picture of bricks. I took a bunch, and they didn't do anything for me. But now that I look at this particular composition, I swear I'm seeing faces in the crumbling facade. There's something about the surfaces to the immediate right of the big crack, toward the top of the middle brick. I can't quite put my finger on it...
Your turn: Can you see anything in this picture? (Click on the photo to load the high-resolution version.)
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54 comments:
there's a dog there, looks like a labrador I think.
Sure I see it, Carmi, it is a face with no features, and the silouhette of a bouffant hairdo!
Michele sent me back.
Hi Carmi...I can barely see or read those letters and numbers we have to do now on Michele's..it took me 5 try's to get here just now..HELP ME, OH NURSE! (lol)
So....I'm not seeing anything specific in your photo though I find it deeply interesting..the crvices and cracks and shadows...VERY interesting and as always, your photo's are arresting!
I see some kind of animal over to the left. This is way cool! Reminds me of an artist that I met while I was in Egypt. He took stone and looked for the natural picture in it, then he would carve it out a bit more to REALLY bring it out. I bought a couple of small pieces from him. I'm glad I did! Michele sent me today. Hope you are having a great weekend so far!
HI! I think there is some kind of head hidden in the recesses of the first horizontal recess. And I can see the arms and a large, round body in the brick below, attached to said head!
BTW, Michele sent me!
I thought I saw a lion, reminded me of Aslan (can't wait to see Chronicles of Narnia). And in the middle, I see a skull. That made me think of the trip I took to Portugal, seeing the Chapel of Bones in Evora. Cool but creepy - a church made completely out of skulls and femurs.
Yup...definitely a face.
And just below it and to the left of the crack there's a man missing his left arm and making out with a wall (his face is obscured).
This sort of meta-perspective shift in art is a phenomenon I like to call "The 'Top Gun' Effect". The first time I saw "Top Gun" I was 8, so it was all about the planes and explosions and really cool high fives. On each revisit, however, I bring away something new. For instance, the love story between Mav and Charlie is something on which I would never have focused as a child. Now, however, I can appreciate it for how hot it is.
Oh thank goodness that Tommy saw a dog...I thought I was crazy.
Of course, maybe it's just that Tommy and I are both crazy. That's highly possible.
Off subject...what year did you and your wife graduate, Carmi? Ben did indeed go to Chomedey Polyvalent High School. :) 'Course, we're oollldddd....so it probably was before you!
I'm South American. We see divine faces on everything from tortillas to dented refrigerators. Yes. I believe I see the profile of Frank Lloyd Wright in the upper left quadrant.
Here from Michele again, Carm... but you know you're my boy.
re: "Visiting from Michele's again. I hope you're not sick of me yet."
Sick of you??? I LOVE when you visit my blog! Your's is one of my favorite blogs out there!! :)
ok i can see the faces sort of, but what i see is the crumbly bit in the middle looks like a rubber ducky.
i forgot to tell you... michele sent me.
uh the virgin of Guadeloupe?
A dog with big floppy ears.
Absolutely see a face, no puppy but a face with an ear and nose and chin. Neat. Oh and hi Carni - long time not here. And Michele says hi.
the very center reminds me of my puppy curled up asleep!
no guys. that looks more like me.
I see a floppy-eared doggie too.
Michele sent me.
I see a woman with long hair looking over her right shoulder. Is that weird?
i'm back and still i dont see anything but the small doggy curled up in the middle
btw, here via michele both times :)
I had to go back to look for the dog so many has seen. I still can't find it. ;) To the right of the one crack - perhaps between major faults? - I see what looks to me to be a large bulbous nose and squinty eyes.
What a fun excercise!
Stopping in tonight via Michele's.
I don't see anything, Carmi, but I think my hangover is affecting my creativity, or at the very least my vision!
Hi Michele told me to come back and visit. She wanted me to tell you that I wasn't planning on responding to anyone's Non Memories on my blog, but I have answered YOUR non memory because it was so funny, and appropriate for the times! Check it out!
A spaniel, definitely a spaniel with ears soft as velvet and big, doggy, brown eyes just begging for a walk..
It is SO past my bedtime...and I LOVE your blog..
Minerva
By the way... I was never able to see the 3D image on those posters that were all the rage eight or so years back.
Speaking of the past, I was trying to read your "Hockey Lockout Perspective" column in your archives, but I can't dig it up. Do you have that around somewhere? Send me a link.
- granted, the lockout's long over, but I'm curious to see what you wrote about it.
Hi Prego. I just posted the text of the column directly to the blog.
I originally included only the links on my blog, but then Canoe (the newspaper chain's web site) changed its archiving structure and removed the original text. I've been slowly moving the content back to the site ever since...it's a big process!
Anyway, here's the link:
http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2004/09/publish-day-hockey-silliness.html
I hope you'll share your thoughts on it.
Thanks!
czl
Oops, looks like the URL was cut off.
I'll post it in pieces...just reassemble:
http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2004/09/
publish-day-hockey-silliness.html
I can definately see two faces. One looks like a dog, the other like the old man of the mountain (Z"L) from New Hampshire.
Michele...
Yes I see that too. It looks like a prehistoric 1/2 man, 1/2 dog face.
Ah, all better now.
Michele...
I can see the face of my old geometry teacher. No, he was not attractive... LOL
I see a cartoon tiger or it might be a dog. I see things all the time actually it is a worry ;)
I see a puppy and two cavemen kissing...
Back again, Carmi dear...Michele loves to send me to you and I love getting here, too!
Still fascinated by this photo....and I do see something in there..not sure what it is, though...Hmmmmm.
Michele sent me north to Canada to visit you, Carmi.
I dunno about the picture, Carmi. I guess maybe I can see a cubist version of a face. Picasso, maybe. Maybe you have another picture of bricks...
I just love looking at other people's pictures - being a photographer myself, I appreciate the 'art' of photography.
Michele sent me.
eV
Looking at it again, it's more like my old geometry teacher is kissing a large dog...Seriously!
Here via Michele's this time!
Hi Carmi - great to drop by your blog again. I am trying to figure out what is in the image but I am a little too jet-lagged. Any hints?
Hi Carmi,
It is like finding images in clouds.
Michele sent me!
Hi Carmi,
It is like looking at the clouds.
Michele sent me.
I see a hand...
I can see the side profile of a woman with an extremely long nose! lol
Here via Michele
first glance, gives me an outline of a spaniel, then later on, it evolves into a big cat on the left resting his head against a dog's. sorry, don't think i see any human form there. :)
hi carmi! am back! upon second review, it think i spy a headless torso somewhere in the middle...but i may just be sleepy...:)
this is my third try at it and i definitely see a bust of some sort somewhere in the middle. kinda franklin roosevelt-ish..*wink*wink* but then again, it might be sleep trying to catch up with me...
i don't see any animals in the surfaces, that's for sure. Strangely, right smack in the middle i see a Madonna and child... Really!
here from Michele's! Thanks for dropping by my site! :-)
I see a kissing couple!
I'm back via michele, I see a lion this time along with smoochin cavemen and the puppy.
ooh, if you squint, there are definitely faces. I can see four! two on each side of the big crack:-)
Here from Micheles today
I see what looks like half a face.
Here via Michele.
A side view of two people kissing. So sweet.
Looks like a Spaniel to me
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