Discuss a Matt Miller Photograph (APUG member!)

[Jim Chinn]

It reminds me of a Jackson Pollock painting (in a complimentary sense). Normally a photograph easily lets me grasp onto something concrete. This image forces me to look more abstractly and let go of reality. Very effective.

It's intersting that the ratio of cropping looks close to a lot of Pollock's big drip paintings like Autumn Rhythm (no.30) http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Ar...1&item=57%2E92

I could see this as big as 7'x18' on a wall in a Abstract Expressionist show.

[Jerevan]

I have looked at it several times now - and it feels like one I will come back to.

It has a, for want of better words, "painterly feel". It has a subtle, low-key abstractness. I think it would have had a different impact if it had been in colour. This photograph leaves some space for thinking about and exploring the relationship between different parts and tonal values within it. Well seen.

[copake_ham]

If you flip the image it has a different feel. It makes for an interesting comparison.

I can flip it in windows but can't seem to be able to then save it to repost. Can someone possibly post the image again but rotate it 180 degrees?

I'm working with limited tools here in the office (MS Office Picture Manager) but here's your flipped image:

[Q17]

Very reminiscent of Carl Chiarenza for me...



=michelle=

[matt miller]

It’s very interesting to me to read all of the different takes on this photograph. I found this old hunk of metal (can’t for the life of me figure out what it used to be) on a walk through a park that I visit frequently. I was immediately drawn to its randomness; the folds in the metal, the scratches, the tonalities in the discoloration and wear. Manmade in part, but not with design or intention. I found myself getting lost in it.

When I set up my camera I had a hard time picking a composition out the whole, one that felt right. I decided to back up and photograph the entire object, just as I had encountered it. The finished photograph has, for me, that same lost feeling.

[John McCallum]

Very reminiscent of Carl Chiarenza for me...

=michelle=

I was going to say that too ...

[MurrayMinchin]

I know it's a piece of metal, I've read Matt's story about how he found and photographed it, but that still hasn't changed how I look at it.

I see the skull of a bird, like a Sandhill Crane, encased in fractured ice and frost. The light areas cringe against the edges of the print creating tension and leaving a dark abyss. This image, to me, is about death...or...being frozen in the moment of death.

Everybody interprets the world, and art, through their own accumulated life experiences, which of course is unique for each of us. I don't think there can be right or wrong answers when interpreting art, even if it completely contradicts what the artist, gallery owner, or curator say it should say.

Maybe it reminds me of the series of thoughts and sensations I got as a kid when I found dead animals frozen in ice while snowshoeing. First you see a dark area in the ice, then you stoop down to look closer, then you have to get on your knees to see through the ice just to be sure it's not what you are dreading to see, then, with your face just above the ice you recognise it as a bird, or a skunk. That makes a big impact on a 10 year old...this print reminds me of that.

Murray

[chiller]

Jim my one comment about this post is that many people are saying such things as "like so and so ...." or in the style of ----

To me that actually defeats the purpose of discussing the image.

It almost reduces the image to something with little or no merit of its own. A comparison with another photographer suggests [to me] that the photographer was influenced and as such has little ability other than to copy another theme or idea.

It is a wonderful image. Regardless of the time it was taken or who by.

Because Matt is an "unknown" -- his work to me has a power that isn't influenced by the hype attributed to the greats of the past -- and they definately were.

Personally I would prefer in this thread to look at images from past photographers.

Nice image Matt it has a Sci Fi feel for me but I don't know why.