W.M. Hunt

 #somereallygoodones, #alecsoth, #flyawaymetaphor

This is a pleasant, pleasing image, sunlit with its soothing yellows and greens; the corner is well sighted. It has a nice looking bird. Without an ounce of edge from the writer, I declare the photograph to be lovely.  

It unpacks slowly. Does Cammy, the bird — the title suggests that’s its name — long for freedom, to be outside? Is Cammy trapped or content to be loose and out of its cage? Do the members of this household proselytize their Mormonism indicated by the black volumes on the window ledge?  

Is it free?

The various elements, graphic and symbolic, seep melancholy. How has the photographer found himself here and then determined that this is a small and worthy drama. This viewer senses loss or, at least, limits. The bird doesn’t evidence frustration or longing or despair, it is simply inside next to the glass pane.  

A picture doesn’t have to be loud to be great. Fly Away, Fly Away little metaphor.

Mr. Soth is particularly skillful with quiet or silence as evidenced also in his “Stuart, Pittsburg, 2021”. The young man and our focus is on the flower. The artist’s ingenuity is in finding “Stuart” surrounded by waist high greenery and visible fencing, What is almost imperceptible is how the artist uses depth of field to narrow our focus, employing incredibly subtle story telling that offers delicacy and empathy in the scene.

Ultimately, Soth is a picture maker is “if they are about anything other than their shimmering surfaces … they are about the process of their own making”.1

©2021

1 Press release for a “Pound of Pictures” Sean Kelly Gallery 2002

#somereallygoodones, #theunseeneye, #wmhunt, #collectiondancingbear, #collectionblindpirate, #greatphotographs, #howilookatphotographs, #photographsfromtheunconsicous, #collectingislikerunningaroundinathunderstormhopingyoullbehitbylightning, #aphotographsogooditmakesyoufartlighting, #photographschangedmylifetheygavemeone, #alecsoth, #flyawaymetaphor