When pictures are more than a frozen moment in time and you can construct your story from just it
You build the story from one frame, from many small details captured in the picture. It is rare, because we, as humans, probably more in these days than before, crave for simplicity, for design, for simple forms/shapes/compositions. Maybe that is the reason that we buy industrial canvases that are just simple decorative objects.
The pictures I will refer to are not decorative, they convey a story that is your to build it if you have the sensibility to be moved by the elements present there. In general, as humans, we are moved by humans captured in pictures rather than landscapes or still compositions or abstract representations.
I will start with a picture of Cristina Mittermeier, “Last hunters of the North". It shows an Inuit hunter looking at the sky with a resigned face. It tells you the eternal problem of his people , for generations, to survive in the North landscape. The feeling of overwhelming burden is transmissible in a direct way, is universal and millenniums from now, people will get the picture and be moved by it. It does help the craft in the picture is astounding.
The second picture I want to talk is of Vivian Mayer. If you don't know about her, I suggest to look it up. Her pictures are mostly of city people, captured in their daily life. The photo is of a contorted man crouched in front of a building. It reminds me of 1930s pictures when people were desperate due to the hardship of times. The line of the body, the hands and legs twisted as of a broken puppet is a such powerful expression that the internal moral collapse is manifesting through body's position. I have the feeling the body is frozen in a spasm of fear and desperation that anybody can relate to. Humans start withering from inside and project the pain in such an empathetic way, that you don't need words. Vivian Mayer had an eye for human misery/comedy that cannot be forgotten.
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