extremism

Going to Extremes

I liked the pattern of the big square window grid versus the organic shapes of the people, so I took a series of images, quickly, with a point and shoot camera. (Working with a big DSLR in an airport is a good way to meet the local security officers.)

Later I decided to pursue what caused me to take the photo — the grid and the people. I found that the more I pushed the contrast, the more powerful the image became for me. I ended up pushing it to nearly pure blacks and whites.

Many people won't like this approach — I have pushed the photo to such an extreme that all highlight and shadow detail are gone. It is perhaps a photo-illustration now, not a true photograph.

But I really don't care about the labels or criticisms. The highly processed image touches something in me, something about people and isolation, about how we seem to love order, despite our organic nature.

The original photo is one of those dreary images that we all tend to delete, unless we remember what it was that prompted us to take it in the first place, and then pursue that essence in the computer, to any extreme.