Thursday, January 26, 2012

Concrete Statues


I walk past these giant concrete slabs every week and today it just struck me that they are reminiscent of the famous Easter Island statues.  I liked them the moment I saw them because I'm obsessed with line and form anyway and I've been planning a shoot at this location but it's really fun to compare these eyesores with something incredible and larger than life...makes them even more appealing.  This is akin to comparing a pepper to a nude body (thinking about Edward Weston), what it is about this phenomenon that intrigues us?  I often look at trees and imagine them as human figures (I'm sure that comes from a childhood fear of the evil trees in the Wizard of Oz) but lately I've been wanting to shoot curvy bodies among trees to show the relationship between humans and nature.  I'm not sure if there's a name for this genre of work but it really appeals to me and it can make something as ugly as a row of concrete look like something beautiful.  Take a look at your surroundings and see if you can compare something very average to something wonderful.  Then smile.

note:  I pulled the Easter Island image from google images, don't know who took it, sorry!

2 comments:

  1. Kristin...are those concrete slabs from one of the water runoff channels all thru Vegas? If so...I've never looked at them the way you photographed them. Cool.....Laura

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  2. Hi Laura! Thank you so much for visiting my blog! :D Yes, they are the water overflow thingies...and they can be seen as eyesores but I think they are a canvas for the mind and camera! It's fun to change the shapes of things into something more pleasing. I can't figure out how to do this with many things but for these, it was effortless.
    Thanks for your post!
    smooches,
    k

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