Little Child Wonder
Dear Eugene,
Last night I was explaining to my wife why without a doubt this is my favorite picture from this past weekend, probably one of my faves ever.
Now of course she asked why. Not that she didn't agree it looks fine, but she just didn't share my enthusiasm.
I suggested, "Look at it as if it's the first time, that you don't really know what was happening. Take a fresh look. Wonder about things, as a child would."
And it was hard. Because she knew the context of the picture.
Maybe.
But does she know the full context of the picture? Even if she does know some context, is there nothing more to discover?
"Offscreen Space," the most special effect in the movies (moving, story-telling pictures). Reach out to the Offscreen Space, I said.
"Offscreen Space" refers to the six areas blocked from being visible on a movie frame, but still part of the space of the scene: to the left and right, above and below the frame, behind the set, and behind the camera. Part of the screen action takes place unseen in these areas. According to master Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, "...what is important frequently takes place outside the frame."
In this particular photo, there are three layers of action: that of the onlookers, the person working at the foreground, and...yours truly, the dude holding his phone taking picture, who was "offscreen."
If a person knows no context of this snapshot, what sort of question would she ask to understand what's happening? I can think of a few.
What was the worker working on? Can we be sure? Whatever he was holding we don't get to see. We see sparks and we can assume, but we cannot say for sure. Faith we need. Imagination a must. If we are into science and understand, for example, that steel grinding produces sparks but aluminium grinding does not, then we might be in a position to make better guesses. Conjectures still.
We see the little dark hole at the tail end of the sparks going from right to left, the power cord going across from left to right, some sort of cage-shaped metal pieces in the trailer...a picture begins to emerge. But still, is the person building something or dismantling stuffs?
What were the onlookers looking at? The camera man? The building behind him? The building sign? Someone else behind or around the camera? Some even more interesting things happening behind the camera man?
And what were they thinking? That people were tearing down the building, or expanding its frontage, or altering it to suit the needs of its new owner? Maybe the building got broken into too many times and now people are putting up higher and stronger barrier?
What is this building anyway? Or are we making too big a leap of imagination to assume there was a building behind the camera? (Poirot says no for he noticed the mirror between the two onlookers...)
I touched up the picture to call attention to the "materialness" of its content, making the texture of things hyper-real and human faces almost surreal. Notice the details of the plank leaning on the trailer wheel, crease on shirt and jeans, rust on pole. Why the artifice? What does this creator have in mind?
Tonight I am leading a church Small Group to talk about Reformation at its 500th anniversary. I pray for strength and wisdom to engage people to take fresh looks, to wonder anew, to see the foreground and background of the Good News, to "go firmly to the window, drink it in."
Christmas is coming. The little baby in the manger certainly ain't doing no talking in the Nativity scene. We look to the Offscreen Space for answers to our question, "What Child is This?" We wonder about the little child as only a little child would.
Yours, Alex
Last night I was explaining to my wife why without a doubt this is my favorite picture from this past weekend, probably one of my faves ever.
Now of course she asked why. Not that she didn't agree it looks fine, but she just didn't share my enthusiasm.
I suggested, "Look at it as if it's the first time, that you don't really know what was happening. Take a fresh look. Wonder about things, as a child would."
And it was hard. Because she knew the context of the picture.
Maybe.
But does she know the full context of the picture? Even if she does know some context, is there nothing more to discover?
"Offscreen Space," the most special effect in the movies (moving, story-telling pictures). Reach out to the Offscreen Space, I said.
"Offscreen Space" refers to the six areas blocked from being visible on a movie frame, but still part of the space of the scene: to the left and right, above and below the frame, behind the set, and behind the camera. Part of the screen action takes place unseen in these areas. According to master Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, "...what is important frequently takes place outside the frame."
In this particular photo, there are three layers of action: that of the onlookers, the person working at the foreground, and...yours truly, the dude holding his phone taking picture, who was "offscreen."
If a person knows no context of this snapshot, what sort of question would she ask to understand what's happening? I can think of a few.
What was the worker working on? Can we be sure? Whatever he was holding we don't get to see. We see sparks and we can assume, but we cannot say for sure. Faith we need. Imagination a must. If we are into science and understand, for example, that steel grinding produces sparks but aluminium grinding does not, then we might be in a position to make better guesses. Conjectures still.
We see the little dark hole at the tail end of the sparks going from right to left, the power cord going across from left to right, some sort of cage-shaped metal pieces in the trailer...a picture begins to emerge. But still, is the person building something or dismantling stuffs?
What were the onlookers looking at? The camera man? The building behind him? The building sign? Someone else behind or around the camera? Some even more interesting things happening behind the camera man?
And what were they thinking? That people were tearing down the building, or expanding its frontage, or altering it to suit the needs of its new owner? Maybe the building got broken into too many times and now people are putting up higher and stronger barrier?
What is this building anyway? Or are we making too big a leap of imagination to assume there was a building behind the camera? (Poirot says no for he noticed the mirror between the two onlookers...)
I touched up the picture to call attention to the "materialness" of its content, making the texture of things hyper-real and human faces almost surreal. Notice the details of the plank leaning on the trailer wheel, crease on shirt and jeans, rust on pole. Why the artifice? What does this creator have in mind?
Tonight I am leading a church Small Group to talk about Reformation at its 500th anniversary. I pray for strength and wisdom to engage people to take fresh looks, to wonder anew, to see the foreground and background of the Good News, to "go firmly to the window, drink it in."
Christmas is coming. The little baby in the manger certainly ain't doing no talking in the Nativity scene. We look to the Offscreen Space for answers to our question, "What Child is This?" We wonder about the little child as only a little child would.
Yours, Alex
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