On to the fifth image of my abstract architecture series (see THIS post for the series introduction) I am calling this one Sky Diving Board. Why? My friend and co-worker, Denise was telling me that she liked one of my images and was describing it to me as “the one with the diving board sticking out between two french doors,” after which she asked, “How did you do that?” I had no clue what she was talking about! We pulled up the images on my mobile phone and she showed me which one she was referring to. Only then was I able to connect with the imagery she was describing to me. I thought the diving board bit was funny and since this shot is actually looking up into the sky I thought the play on words was fun (it is actually looking up a vertical support beam surrounded by two stories of walkways between buildings).
That is why I love abstract photography; we already know the medium of photography is capable of reproducing reality so why not use it to distort reality and make the viewer question what they’re seeing, or just interpret it however their past experiences and associations dictate. Since I was there when the shot was made I only see a support beam surrounded by bridges (well, actually what drew me to it was the angles of the lines, the trapezoidal shape cut out of the bottom walkway and the drastic contrast between the dark sky, white beam and everything in-between). Denise had no idea what she was actually looking at so her brain interpreted it as a diving board surrounded by french doors. Just wonderful!
5D Mk III with 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens. ISO 100, f/8, 1/100 sec.
© 2013 Johnny Kerr Photography