On Friday, March 3rd 2007, a bird flew against one of our windows and bounced back onto the fence. The shock was so strong that it instantly killed it. This is a sad story, and I decided to document it.
Here is the poor birdie, it was too late to do anything to resuscitate it.
A few moments later, a buddy of his (or her) came to check it out. Here is what I saw:
Nikon D50 • Nikkor 70-200 • 200 mm • 1/400s • f/3.5 • ev -1.0
3.2.2007 6:36PM
I submitted this image to the Palo Alto Camera Club digital competition on 3.14.07 in the Pictorial category. Although the image rose a strong reaction from the audience, the judge dismissed it for its lack of pictorial qualities.
To me, this photo contains some strong aspects. First, the story cannot leave the viewer neutral. The contrast between life and death, re-enforced by the space that separates the two subjects as well as the respective complementary blue and orange backgrounds, generates a strong tension, the one that separates life from death. It’s about space, it’s also about time, it’s about now, then, and the future.
When one may argue that a strong pictorial image should focus on a single subject, I believe that in this instance, the interest comes from the motion of the eye going back and forth from one subject to the other. All the lines in the composition, including the branches in the background, participate to, and support, this exchange.
The image has an additional movement from left to right that says “life moves on”. From the left you find death, darkness, blue, cold, and static elements, to the right you find warm and dynamic elements. The standing bird is oriented to the right, ready to take off, while itsthe head is turned to the left. The direction of its body says “move on” while his or her head gives a last and brief goodbye.
This image raises some questions to me. I’ll just list them below for now since I don’t have any answers:
1- Is it OK to picture death in photography, especially when the potential graphical details are avoided?
2- Can the content of an image offset or distracts from its pictorial characteristics (if the viewer is upset for example)?
3- Is this picture really without any pictorial values?
Life moves on… more later.