Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Looking up...

[fahim mohammed]

 

[Asher Kelman]

Fahim Mohammed: Looking Up
​

Fahim,

Is would be easy to flick this off as a fun gimmick to make a picture seem important. Well I cannot do this as the form of the book, the black outside it and the quality of the windows and flowered window boxes, makes this picture demand more from me.

The graphic techniques of limiting interest in the periphery is well know, We do that in the darkroom, darkening corners and the sides while we sharpen and increase contrast in the center. Here we have all that too. But the choice of the open book adds a central controlling but flexible element. In general an open book can change what story it tells. The pages that might blow from one to the next, frames the simple prettiness into a powerful metaphor. This simple ploy, adds an opening to many levels of meaning. We can enjoy mere fleeting entertainment. Then again it may pose questions about our own story in life. What is the account we give for ourselves?

Unlike your previous use of this idea in the street with row of bicycles, where the pages could turn at any moment, here, it's more stable and the shadowy cleft between the pages are either palatial or anatomical but not unstable.

I'm intrigued, now, as you have two in the series. As you go on, we'll see whether this might be far more interesting than a fun gimmick!

Asher

 

[Joe Thomas]

This is gorgeous. I really love this technique Fahim! I would love to see other examples of how you would use this.

 

[fahim mohammed]

Joe, thank you so much for your kind words.

Much appreciated sir.