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Kal Khogali | all galleries >> Transition >> New Images > World Collapsing, Shanghai 2005

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World Collapsing, Shanghai 2005

Perception is 90% of judgement. An image for debate....

Canon EOS 20D
1/13s f/4.0 at 17.0mm iso3200 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Copyright Kal Khogali Š2004-2009. www.kal-khogali.com

Kal Khogali		29-Nov-2005 22:50
Point taken Alem ;-) I actually was going to use "world collapsing" then I thought of you and your "urban" thing ;-) I've changed it....thx K

Guest		29-Nov-2005 16:49
my opinion, which has not much to do probably with your purposes here Kal, is that there is something wrong with the title. I personally don't see any "urban" pressure on his shoulders.... I am not able to see the "accident" as something typical of the city environment.... as a "consequence" if you want of playing/living in the city...... respect, as always... alem

Guest		29-Nov-2005 07:39
Without reading the comments below: I think this child is playing. He seems to be scared, but I think he's not. I think Kal's tricking us into believing he captured a terrified boy. Whatever he is, happy or not, it's a VERY expressive image.

Kal Khogali		29-Nov-2005 05:58
This post came from a written converstaion I had with someone. You see, it is not just that camera lies, but I have four other images where the child is happy. In fact relative to many other children he is doing OK, all that happened was while he was messing around the cardboard box fell on him. What was an "amusing moment" became sad or heartbreaking, simply becasue I chose that image (i.e. I lied). Nobody gets the whole story, only the one we choose to tell. In a way this thought is new to me. Everytime we look at a picture we need to question the intention, because we are only seeing a split seconfd of life.

Phil Douglis		29-Nov-2005 02:03
I keep wanting to rotate this image -- it seems so wrong that a child should be caught in this space and in this orientation. But yet he is there, and there is nothing we can do about it but to suffer a bit with him. The camera does indeed lie. As well it should. Picasso said "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." And so to with this image.

Marisa Livet		28-Nov-2005 17:24
I fully agree. The camera does lie, but it’s not necessarily its task to tell the truth, then the truth is rarely pure and never simple, as Oscar said. But what is really important, I suppose, is what we try to communicate with an image, it’s the image itself, which speaks by its own silent and powerful voice. I think that if we use an image as support to transmit a concept, a sensation, an idea or, simply, a genuine emotion, then the image is worthwhile. We are all different and we can perceive very different meanings from the same pictures. Our own temper and personal sensitiveness make us notice one detail instead of one other and then we create our own links, which suggest to us one interpretation , which is not necessarily the reality or what the photographer felt when he too the picture. Coming to this specific picture, there is something that I cannot fully grasp, as if there was a kind of mirror game, as if the image wanted to lead me to a wrong direction. Of course I can perceived the interpretation at the first degree, the one suggested by the title…But I’m not sure it’s really what the picture represents… The little boy seems to be smashed down in a symbolic way at the first sight, but I’m not sure, at a second sight he’s scared or troubled… Of course we can see the picture as a metaphor. It’s very intriguing. I’ll come back on that. Marisa

Kal Khogali		28-Nov-2005 14:12
I posted this image for a reason. What we perceive in an image, is not always the truth. 1/13th of a second of life, captured as light, and perceptions are formed and judgements are made. The power of photography, in a way that exceeds and is not possible with film or any other media in my opinion. The camera lies. I wonder, is a white lie lasting 1/13s justified, to tell a hard truth of another reality?

Guest		28-Nov-2005 12:10
heartbreaking