At first glance it's as if we've seen it all before. Just another picture of what we have been looking at all of our lives. Wow, a tree. Look, a rock. Now it's just some highly contrasted close up portrait of an old man's weathered face. Probably taken under harsh mid-day sunlight and under a cloudless sky. Somewhere in a desert.
But there's no color.
It's like we're seeing it for the first time, and we hesitate. For once, the same old scene makes a new impression on us.
We've seen a sunset like that before. But wait a minute, somethings different. It's a new and fresh appreciation of the same old scene.
Life is full of what's called memory colors, and it doesn't take long for our brains to decipher these colors. The grass is always green, the sky always blue, and the inquisitive cardinal in the bush is always gonna be red. But now the rods and cones in our eyes are being tricked, our vision is becoming more focused and our brain is trying to catch up. All of this while we haven't taken our eyes off of the picture.
The grayscale image will sometimes come across as dark and gloomy, but I think this adds to our perception of the artist's intent.
We don't see the world in neutral colors, and maybe trying to envision the world that way, outside of photography, is painful for some.
But lately, not for me.
The artist has every right to mess with our reality through their interpretations. If you don't like what you see, you can look away.
But if you can accept it and allow it to work for you, ye shall be gratefully stunned.
Photography and text by T. Michael Smith (Todd Smith for those of you who may know me)
©Earthshine Studios
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