The Late

Few people stop to put surrealistic concepts or ideas that exist in the mind onto a medium for others to see. The rationale behind this is because it’s generally more difficult to create something from bits and pieces then to just walk up, compose the image and click the shutter. The creative Maggie Taylor decided to do things the hard way and let her imagination run wild. Her work usually is composed of individuals acting out situations or posing in human form. Some of the forms have bird or mammal elements such as heads. What Maggie creates is usually from a vantage point looking dead on, and rarely has any dynamic angles that pop out or draw attention. Taylor’s creation titled the Late is read from right to left and hosts a childlike figure with a bird’s head traversing the mystic blue skied night on a bicycle with a light shining onward attached to the handlebars. The bird child has wings that look as if they were crafted with bright blue butterfly wings. While the ground is green the horizon fades away into a mountainous background. The green area in the foreground is sprawling with small lavender flowers. In the composition the creature has a hurried expression. This coupled with the night solidifies the title of the image which was created in 2000 with an ink jet printer.

New York #56

In our semiotic world littered with advertisements in every avenue of our life, few people actually stop to look notably at the aesthetics and compositional elements. Over time, most advertisements are left neglected and decompose which is considered to be an eye sore by most people’s standards. While in New York Aaron Siskind went against this grain and stopped to notice the decay of forms in the city. He then went on to make compositions in New York. A brilliant work of his named New York #56 hosts a sign that without a close look would be next to unidentifiable. He chose to compose this image in an abstract way; while it is balanced it creates tension because you cannot read what the sign says. Beyond the decay with time you can distinguish an element that says “AREA”; directly above it you notice bits and pieces of a word but it is undistinguishable. Above that word a line exists then another word in a lighter shade ending with the letter “R”. The decay in the photograph is composed of organic shapes and under the decay the sign is composed in organic lines and letters. This silver gelatin print was created in 1951 with a series of many other abstract images that focus on elements and decay.