Raw Images Photo & Design

New Post has been published on http://rawimagesdesign.com/jesus.html

Jesus

There he is again, we all know him know him when we see him, it’s Jesus. This image, like so many paintings and photos through the ages is dominated by Jesus in his familiar place on the crucifix. And yet, this photo doesn’t seem to be about Him at all. This isn’t an image that asks us to ponder the mysteries of salvation or even to revolt against the perceived hypocrisies of organized religion. Here, the rapture of the artist in a creative frenzy is paramount to anything else.

This image is not about religious response, it is about the moment of excitement we all feel when we witness a rare moment of creation. It is what the devine and the artist have in common: creation. We marvel not only at the end result, but at the process, a sort of magical voodoo that defies most of our understandings. Here we glimpse the ecstasy of that moment, when blank wall becomes living canvas and tells our psyche a story. But it’s a story told in code, and each viewer must decipher it  for himself. Our reaction to the iconography is temporarily irrelevant, it can’t compare to the rush of watching the artist’s vision come to life before our eyes.

When I look at this image I get a lot of mixed messages: there are so many cues telling my mind different insinuations that it makes me a little crazy. It reminds me of when I was younger, and I had a crush on a boy (or girl, for that matter) and I simultaneously gave the object of my affection signals of “come get and get me,” and “what? I hardly noticed you are alive.” It is an age-old game, a tug-of-war we all love. I think we get a thrill out of it, for the very same reasons we hate it; the butterflies in the stomach, the adrenaline to the heart, the racing mind that loves to play out the possibilities and scenarios of a hook-up or intimate moment.

            So, when I look at this picture I recall my teenage years of teasing and ever-changing, ever-contradicting signals. Here is why: in one picture we are getting a bombardment of things that tell the viewer “yes” and things that argue, “no.” For example, the silky sexy negligee the model is wearing, it is obviously playing up her natural sex appeal, this not a garment for business or workouts at the gym… this slip of skin grazing fabric is something that is meant for the bedroom, not intended to stay on the body for long. Yet she sits on a hard plywood box, hardly the comfortable bed or inviting sofa that beckons to lovers, it reminds me more of a coffin, a cruel contrast to the softness of the lingerie, or seductive makeup highlighted by the vampy red lip.

New Post has been published on http://rawimagesdesign.com/home.html

  There he is again, we all know him know him when we see him, it's Jesus. This image, like so many paintings and photos through the ages is dominated by Jesus in his familiar place on the crucifix. And yet, this photo doesn't seem to be about Him at all. This isn't an image that asks us to ponder the mysteries of salvation or even to revolt against the perceived hypocrisies of organized religion. Here, the rapture of the artist in a creative frenzy is paramount to anything else.  

  This image is not about religious response, it is about the moment of excitement we all feel when we witness a rare moment of creation. It is what the devine and the artist have in common: creation. We marvel not only at the end result, but at the process, a sort of magical voodoo that defies most of our understandings. Here we glimpse the ecstasy of that moment, when blank wall becomes living canvas and tells our psyche a story. But it's a story told in code, and each viewer must decipher it  for himself. Our reaction to the iconography is temporarily irrelevant, it can't compare to the rush of watching the artist's vision come to life before our eyes.