I'm not sure which happened first, Photo Friday's topic "Baby" or the idea of combining an abacus with some of the paperwork associated with our adoption of Li Mei. I've not a lot of experience with still life, though I feel like I'm finally gaining an intuition about composition. This was a hard picture to take -- three, four sessions, arranging and re-arranging, experimenting and so forth.
Generally, I take a picture when something catches my magpie-eyes and I think, "Now that's neat." This time, I did feel the need to communicate, not unlike when I write fiction or poetry. It is artificial, it is a creation, a reflection of a mind's eye emotion, a concrete representation of an amorphous ache. That sounds a bit melodramatic and sentimental which ordinarily I try to avoid -- but as long as I'm not avoiding it, I might as well share and hope it was a successful effort.
Adoption and pregnancy have a lot in common.
3 comments:
Your efforts have been rewarded with an excellent image. I also appreciate the way the back story informs your work.
I like things that are pretty for the sake of being pretty, but this image also has emotional content, which I think is an evolution of your work.
Thanks Ken, thanks Josh. I'm not sure why I put off answering your comments until now. I suppose I felt a bit self conscious. I'm glad this one worked.
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