building near Lloyd Center, Portland
I snapped this lomo on a dim, gray afternoon, not long before sunset. I wanted to capture the airy quality of this building, how it seems to dissolve when you stare at it long enough, how the smooth, clean glass transforms into sky, taking on the colors of clouds and pollution and impending rain, like a chameleon.
When the picture was developed, I could not help but notice something distinctly patriotic about it - the flags, the colors, the misty, dream-like quality of the print.
The question is why. Why does this look patriotic? Why does it look like patriotism? I do not believe it is the flag, but rather, something more complicated - something to do with all the patriotic imagery I have ever seen, the mood it evokes, the architecture, the angle of my camera.
This picture is also a chameleon, however. When I stare at it long enough, it begins to dissolve. It takes on a kind of urgency, as if the image will disappear, the colors fade. And then it seems like a piece of history, a postcard from the future, a warning.
Comments (5)
Amazing the difference in black and white. Ghostly.
Posted by dewi | March 1, 2005 2:38 PM
Posted on March 1, 2005 14:38
I kept finding my eye returning to the other flag. What is it a flag of/for? It looks even better in black and white--the way it looks black, and larger than the american flag, as though it means something more. Fantastic.
Posted by Wendy C. Ortiz | March 1, 2005 5:10 PM
Posted on March 1, 2005 17:10
Well, two contributors are:
1) the way the cloud forms a sort of nimbus in the background, pretty nearly centered on the flag, and
2) the angle -- looking steeply up -- which is conventionally used to express devotion or rapture.
But there's more to it than that, something I can't quite get a handle on.
Posted by Dale | March 3, 2005 3:38 PM
Posted on March 3, 2005 15:38
Just a venture but skyscrapers seem to me to be a very potent symbol of americana. The height, towering over the rest, the pride and presence of the thing. Just look at the frequency of WTC bombings in the past decade. It also looks like one of the shots from King Vidor's The Fountainhead. Gorgeous.
Posted by E. Raquel Hill | March 4, 2005 7:46 AM
Posted on March 4, 2005 07:46
Just a venture but skyscrapers seem to me to be a very potent symbol of americana. The height, towering over the rest, the pride and presence of the thing. Just look at the frequency of WTC bombings in the past decade due to anti-american sentiment.
It also looks like one of the shots from King Vidor's The Fountainhead. Gorgeous.
Posted by E. Raquel Hill | March 4, 2005 7:50 AM
Posted on March 4, 2005 07:50