08-JUN-2005
Ancestor, Place du Jeu de Balle Flea Market, Brussels, Belgium, 2005
When I saw this framed portrait and the old china resting on the ground of a Brussels flea market stall, I immediately regarded them as symbols. I also saw symbols within symbols, which could be compared and contrasted to each other in a photographic image to trigger the imaginations of those who will view it. The old photograph itself functions as a symbol. All photographs are actually symbolic representations of actuality. The picture is not the woman. It symbolizes her. She is long gone, but she lives on as a symbol in the old photograph, and in this one as well. Her demeanor is symbolic as well. For most of her generation, photography was a serious event, and her expression stands for the solemnity and gravity appropriate to such an occasion. It might represent her general state of mind as well. She appears to have been a stern, resolute person. The golden frame can also be seen as metaphorical, a gilded enclosure representing wealth, importance, and formality. The reflections of objects and trees on the frame’s glass can symbolize the intrusion of the present upon the past, or vice versa. It might also symbolize the natural world’s presence in human affairs. The china also becomes a metaphor when viewed next to the old photograph. These objects might have belonged to this woman, and now that she is gone, they seem abandoned and forlorn, particularly the cups that have been knocked over. Even the darkness that invades the frame can be seen as symbolic of the mysterious tone that pervades this image. Darkness represents the unknown, and there is much here that is just that. How we read, or fail to read, these symbols and metaphors will determine what this image will express to each of us.
11-JUN-2005
When day is night and night is day, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
The streets of Bruges are still lined with the 500-year-old mansions of cloth merchants. We can see those houses here as a metaphor for another time and place, a way of life that is no more. The sun struggles to break through the dark clouds overhead, which cast darkly symbolic shadows upon those houses. The eerie light is symbolically haunting. Day leans towards night, because a golden moon, symbolic of the night, dominates the image. Yet the sun, symbolic of the day, is clearly struggling to break through those clouds. This is why I took this camera position, and why I used a wideangle lens to carefully juxtapose all of these symbols within a single frame.
11-JUN-2005
Clouds as shrouds, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
Clouds are among the most common photographic metaphors. As far back as the 1920s, Alfred Stieglitz, the man responsible for establishing photography as a fine art, was making images of clouds as representations of the feelings within us. I saw this image of strange clouds hovering over a Bruges sunset as a metaphor for the perpetual interplay between life and death. I abstracted the old Flemish buildings, with their quaint embellishments outlined against the sky, by underexposing them. They represent the homes of those who are no longer with us. The golden sunset is a metaphor of sheer energy and vitality – symbolic of life. The clouds, particularly the largest one, are the keys to the image. They are actually not clouds at all, but contrails from jet aircraft in various stages of dissolution. They appear haunted, wispy, insubstantial and shroud-like, almost transparent. To me, they represent the dead of Bruges, particularly when juxtaposed with the blackened hulks of the houses they once lived in.
11-JUN-2005
Swan vibes, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
It’s not the swan itself that is the primary symbol here. It’s the waves of concentric circles that ripple through the water around it that provides the metaphor. I see those ripples as symbolizing a form of communication. This swan is sending out vibes, letting the world know it is there and seeking a response in return. All of us have taken, or are in the process of taking, such a journey -- relating to others, tentatively sending out feelers, testing the waters of life. The swan is also metaphorical in itself. It is an elegant bird, rich in mythological connotations, and a graceful ornament to any body of water. Its posture at the moment I made the shot was perfect – it seems to be looking directly at the circles that expand around it. It represents an explorer. The darkness in the upper left hand corner of the image works as another symbol. It suggests the world of the unknown – the perfect place to launch a voyage of discovery. My vantage point was critical. I was shooting from a bridge over a Bruges canal, positioned almost directly above the swan. I made twenty or thirty images of this swan and its colleague. This was the one that was richest in symbolic terms.
18-JUN-2005
Mural, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005
In Leiden, the town that gave us a Rembrandt, I noticed a large symbolic wall painting on the side of a building next to a construction site. Painted puppets joylessly glide across the huge wall -- a metaphor for thankless work. I see it as a group of indifferent people, dancing to the tune of their boss. They may raise their hands to their heads, but not in joy. Perhaps in confusion. The blue color symbolized the attitude they bring to their tasks. It is a somber dance, performed on an enormous scale. The fact that someone has painted it next to a construction site was not lost on me. It is a comment on work in the midst of a work place. That’s why I included the structures in my own image of it, and why I made sure those sticks of building materials are symbolically skewering the hearts of both the mural and my own photograph. I wanted my image to work as a metaphor for joyless work as well. Our time here is too precious to waste as a slave to mindless duty. The muralist seems to be asking us to reconsider how we spend our time and lives. I made my own dark-toned, semi-abstracted image to symbolically extend that message.
09-JUN-2005
Touching the hero, The Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium, 2005
Everard 't Serclaes was killed defending Brussels in the 14th century. For the last few hundred years visitors to the city's Grand Place have touched the shiny bronze arm and hand of his recumbent statue for good luck. I photographed numerous visitors touching the monument, but all of the images were more descriptive than expressive. The reason: lack of symbolization. Finally a couple of kids reached for that bronze hand simultaneously, clasping them all together on the monuments hand in a virtual embrace. I abstracted this scene by lifting my camera to include just the wrists and hands of the kids, and cropping out the rest of them. Abstraction often produces symbolism and metaphor. The laying on of hands is an ancient symbol of blessing, faith, and luck. The flowing bronze corpse of Everard’t Serclaes symbolizes mourning, the eager hands of young children express enthusiasm and camaraderie. A contradiction? Perhaps. But also a union of opposites: past and present, life and death, a bad break and the prospect of good fortune.
08-JUN-2005
Tempus Fugit, Parc de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 2005
Under the distant gaze of a Roman dignitary, a woman checks her watch. An instant later, she left the park. The Old Roman remained. His countrymen once lived in this region. They called it Gallia Belgica. This image is all about time itself. The Roman statue symbolizes the past, the woman the present, the glance at the watch, the future. The dark forest is a metaphor for eternity, time unending. The glow of light on the ground before the woman symbolizes vitality, energy, a life to be lived and enjoyed. Her position at the end of the bench creates tension – all that space was available to her, yet she chooses a position most appropriate to a quick exit. Tension can often work as symbolism. Her body language provides a metaphor for everyday life – one arm appears to be relaxed, yet she seems to sense an obligation with the other. Some will look at this image and see only a woman in the park. But others will be willing and able to read the elements of this image as symbol and metaphor, and will supply their own interpretation of them.
13-JUN-2005
Redundancy, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
I photographed a huge commercial barge bearing down on our small passenger barge from behind and was struck by the power of its redundancy. I abstract it down to a massive set of glowing mirror images in steel, symbolizing the nature of its function and operation in the process. By isolating and thereby stressing the double anchors, I am symbolically suggesting that two of them are better than one. The huge barge either needs twice as much stability when it rides at anchor, or else it’s owners and sailors must feel that it’s always important to have an extra one on hand, just in case! Not only are the two anchors mirror images of each other, so is the name of barge itself. We see it twice, because the people who own and operate this barge have made sure that it could be seen from either side. The redundancy of the name is also a symbol. It represents the sense of pride the owners must have in their barge. Redundancy represents things that can be omitted without loss of function. It also represents things that may not be always needed but are nice to have around in case something goes wrong. This barge image offers an ideal metaphor for such a concept.
09-JUN-2005
Butte de Lion, Waterloo Battlefield, Belgium, 2005
The most prominent sight on the battlefield of Waterloo is a 148-foot high earthen mound topped by a huge cast iron lion. It marks the spot where the Prince of Orange, a Dutch general who was on the staff of England's Duke of Wellington, was wounded during the battle. He was but one of the nearly 50,000 who were injured or killed here on June 18, 1815. Nearly 200 years later, the Battle of Waterloo still holds a terrible fascination. This, the battle’s most prominent monument, symbolizes an extreme moment in time – a remembrance of a single day when 200,000 men dressed in a gaudy costumes, and massed in enormous ranks, marched to the beat of drums and the blare of trumpets into a hail of bullets, exploding cannon balls, flailing swords and stabbing bayonets. After this day, the political, social, and economic history of Europe would never be the same again. I intend this to be more than just a post card picture of a monument. It is also an image metaphorically representing sadness, mourning, yet also the possibility of renewal. Waterloo was a turning point in history. To create this metaphor, I waited for a huge rain cloud to nearly cover the sun so I could abstract and subdue the symbolic power of the great lion, and replace it with this dark, brooding symbol of overwhelming loss. The size of the massive rain cloud dwarfs the lion and the hill upon which it stands. Meanwhile, the sun continues to work free of the cloud cover, symbolizing the two centuries of revitalization that followed the Napoleonic wars. On steps leading to the top are two tiny figures, incongruously small as they halt for a moment of respite on their long climb to the summit. To me, they symbolize the common man, small in size yet eventually destined to rise above the servitude and tyranny of the past. In the years following the Battle of Waterloo, it would be ordinary people who would ultimately drive the engine of history, instead of the kings, bishops, nobles, and emperors.
12-JUN-2005
Sculpture in the grass, Bruges, Belgium, 2005
It was a pleasant surprise to discover this contemporary work of sculpture lying face down in high green and purple grasses along the edge of a medieval canal. It is intended to seen from the water – where it is viewed purely as sculpture. I approached it from the landside, so I could place it within the context of nature, rich with the symbols life and vitality. My low vantage point merges the figure with the grass, and uses the canal only as secondary background. The figure does not appear to be at rest – one of its knees is bent, and a foot is raised. I see the body retreating into the earth, a metaphor for the cycle of life itself. By filling my image with swirling grasses, and making sure the tips of the grass are clearly outlined against the body, I symbolically suggest that man springs from nature and nature eventually reclaims man. I am interpreting another artist’s work, which is a symbol in itself, with my own symbolization process. I don’t know if the sculptor intended to express this idea with this sculpture or not, but all art is open to interpretation, including my own. Symbols are not fixed entities. They are a product of the human intellect and imagination, both of which are infinitely variable. Perhaps the sculptor was just depicting a resting sunbather here. Yet from my photographic perspective, it is a metaphor for man’s existence as part a natural process. An effective symbol can be appreciated in many ways, but to me it works best as a catalyst for the human imagination.