Photography: Conveying Thoughts Inside One's head: Challenge! Have a try!?

[Michael_Stones]

Inside her head

Hi Michael,

I have moved this picture of yours as here to Photography as art, from "Portraits" since this is a task that is worth addressing more as art. How do we do it? How do we convery thoughts inside someone's head? So here it is and we'd like to see how other's look at this.

• The person in the picture
  
• The mind of the viewer: something that forces us to deal with a subject we might like, that's tempting (or even detest, perhaps), but normally avoid.

Can we do it by the photograph itself?

What might we need to do to the image we are making? Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Michael,

This is an interesting concept, expressing thoughts in someone's head. How did you get the idea for this particular picture? Walking through a gallery with religious pictures? Perhaps you just took the portrait and this relates to her life in some way?

Anyway this is a hard thing to do but I do get that sense you have tried for. I like the woman and the basic technical approach using alterations in light intensity. For sure, the images on the right cannot be on a wall unless they were reflections on a glass door through which we are seeing the woman. The figures on the left might or might not still be on a wall behind her.

Asher

 

[Michael_Stones]

You are always kind, thoughtful, and insightful in your comments, Asher. The picture is an older one that got rekindled interest after reading Tom Wolfe's "Hooking Up" book of essays and fiction this past week. Wolfe compared literature with movies, concluding that despite the many advantages of movies, they portray what goes on inside peoples' heads in an poor way. It's hard to disagee and that is the main reason I prefer to read books. Wolfe's argument also applies to still photos. Although some photos capture a transient state very well, words provide a context and interpretation. For example, in Lange's "Migrant Mother" series, the iconic image is so at odds with the person her family reported her to be. Lange's photo is more about the inside of her own head than that of the woman she portrayed. The posted image tried to show something about the perceptions and thoughts of the woman depicted. It's an attempt to play catch up with scribblers and show something beneath the surface.

 

[Marian Howell]

heron dreams

this shot in no way compares to michael's incredible portrait...but it came to my mind immediately as i read this thread. like michael's though this is an older image that i come back to time and again. all the images in the sequence are shot from just after the heron took off, so to me this represents his vision of the future and his dream of flight.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Now that's a fascinating concept: portraying thoughts/feelings using more than expression and posture.

 

[Annie James]