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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 91 - In the Style of Art (hosted by Traveller) >> Eligible > A Life Well Lived * Traveller
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4/7/07 Traveller

A Life Well Lived * Traveller


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Canon DSLR Challenge11-Apr-2007 15:17
WoW!
What lengths folks would go for art!! (In other words: This is wonderful! )
-Cat
jnconradie09-Apr-2007 17:13
The commentary makes fantastic reading! Compliments to photographer and to the enquiring minds! :-) Regards jnconradie
Canon DSLR Challenge09-Apr-2007 03:26
Thanks for the feed back...I sincerely thing that Detrius, still titled a Life Well Lived would have been...Art. The primary tension here is the subject and the Title....I think it was a guy that did himself in...He was loved...and so it was a life well lived.

But, apparently, he lost love also...for whatever stupid reasons, it is always over something stupid, and thus was it really...A Life Well Lived?

I would hang this in a smaller gallery, (if asked...lol)...the OCCAC for example.

It is not like I'm ashamed of this...but I like the creative process as a thing in and of itself...so I ran with it, I allowed the process to take ahold of me, and that's always a thing for the good.

I think that the image grabs you on several levels when first seen...the fact that you have to actually "read," words in the image to understand the image...is...kind of unique and adds to its allure...this picture, by definition, is not just a visual experence...there is an intellectual component that also demands your engagement.

(Oh and Victor, the ice cubes were destroyed in the process making the image...alas...grin, there was nothing left to return)

~Author~
Canon DSLR Challenge09-Apr-2007 02:34
Enjoyed the explainations - funny. Oh, so it was Vivian that wrote the note and offed herself. I thought it was her lover whom had done so, after receiving the note. Ok, so you're excused on some of them, but then a whole similar bunch of complaints crop up, like why did she type the note, etc. ;) ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge09-Apr-2007 01:31
Was Vivian satisfied with the condition of the borrowed ice cubes when you returned them? -- Victor
Guest 09-Apr-2007 01:07
I agree with Lonnit's comments and love your response to them. The only thing I'd like to add is I think a much tighter crop, cutting off part of the glass, ashtray, knife and bottom of the letter, might (but might not! LOL) make this a bit more dramatic. Besides it would be a high crime to get watermarks, ashes and crud on that beautiful table top! It looks just like my dinning room table!
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Apr-2007 21:47
Such congent arguments! Lonnit you do have a steel trap mind. The school or style has been changed due to your analysis.

Yet...

1. Cigarettes are ugly, as are full ashtarys. I wanted to have ciggie smoke waffing up...I couldn't catch the smoke right, (I think cig smoke is too light in this context), so it was shot without the cig...but the blood, actually a mix of vitimine E oil and Nyquill, was seeping into the paper...so this had to be done and altered quickly.

2. The conception of the original shot was Detrius of Life, simply a very, very, very messy desk...crumpled tissues, a few pill bottles, a stack of store receipts, an ugly ashtray....and oddly, a misplaced screwdriver on the desk that had been weirdly sitting there for a month and an overturned empty bottle of water.

3. But, the title shifted to, A Well Lived Life...and somehow the desk got cleaned.

4. So a story developed.

5. I don't really have any glasses...the one in the photo is actually used to hold pens and pencils...but once washed...well, there were no ice cubes. Why would anyone have a fine refrigerator with no ice cubes made? Stuff happens.

6. I borrowed the ice from a neighbor named Vivian. Thus far, a Well Lived Life only invoved a drink, an ashtray and some pill bottles...but I liked the name Vivian.

7. And so the note developed but...her signature really was kind of crappy...not feminine at all....thus the scrolly font choosen. The fonts in the note are really, really large...24, 30 and 48....they had to be readable.

8. The label had to be taken off the pill bottle, not necessarily an easy task, to remove the name.

9. Then you have pills, a drink, a cig and a love note...still no suicide....A Well Lived Life.

10. What the Hell...let's kill the Bastard...a dash of drama to what is now a well developed narative and hence the knife and blood.

11. the note had to be folded to indicate that it had been recieved....yet this still seems like purposeful ambiguity to me...maybe she was in the process of sending it and never sent?

12. I don't like the blood either, still you go with what you've got...but the big red blob was like an ancient wax seal...and there was the time factor...the stuff was being absorbed into the paper...this had to be done and done now!

So there it is...I still like the Title and overall effect....a complete story told.

~Author~
ctfchallenge08-Apr-2007 14:17
Not too realistic to me. Sorry. Here's why:

1. The clean ashtray. A smoker in this frame of mind, would undoubtedly need a cigarette to calm himself down in such an emotional moment. In fact, I believe it would have been littered with many butts because surely, he would have sat there a while, contemplating the letter, agonizing over it.
2. There appears to be condensation on neither the glass, nor the surrounding table. Had he been sitting there pondering the letter, contemplating the suicide, surely there would have been time for condensation to form.
3. Unmelted ice cubes. This person was not sitting down for a casual cocktail. Either they would have drunk the alcohol straight-up, or on-the- rocks. Straight-up, there'd be no ice to begin with; on-the-rocks, the straight alcohol would have melted the ice quickly. (The way I mix a cocktail, ice never survives! LOL!)
4. The pristine condition of the letter. As he sat and smoked, he would have read it over and over, clenching it in his hands. It might have suffered the ills of dripping tears, crinkled under the clenching, moistened by the condensation that would have been picked up on the glass and transferred by hand, moistened also by the sweat of the hands, and likely even crumpled and torn in anger or grief.
5. No label on the pill bottle - odd.
6. Mixture of pills in one bottle. Premeditated suicide? He was expecting the letter?
7. A knife too? Overkill, no? Why not also a gun, and a noose, or even a razor blade, for good measure? ;)
8. Terribly fake looking blood.
9. Impossible blood puddle on the knife. That knife was dripped upon. There is no smear, as it would be, had it been dragged along the flesh, nor if it had been plunged, then removed. The pointed tip is perfectly clean, so it couldn't have been plunged. Even the point of the lower edge is clean.
10. Why did Vivian type the note? If she were to bother going through the effort of typing, it'd likely be a much longer letter. This would have been hand written.
11. Where's the body? If he were sitting here, surely he'd have been leaning more forward than back, likely not keenly aware of keeping good posture in his depressed state. Once the deed was done, it'd be most likely that the body would have fallen forward, over these items.

Sorry, but I can't resist the fun of nit-picking these! :) Hope you take it all in the fun spirit of the challenge. ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Apr-2007 05:35
PS Clean & a Nice Balance of elements. Best Wishes, T
Canon DSLR Challenge08-Apr-2007 05:31
The letter is folded, has it just been received? Or....Who's Vivian? Are you telling a story here...Everything looks masquline, and yet....

Are you trying to get a viseral response from a difficult question and image?

Nevertheless, interesting.

Best Wishes, Traveller