best caption receives free books and zines
and perhaps a holiday poem/drawing
the winter suits me
but I need a change
-jmbg
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
some moths
Archive
worthwhile writers
contact me if you are interested in publishing my work elsewhere
PBR: for when your insides just won't come clean.
ReplyDeletestoned pipe pink lighter
ReplyDeleteplumes fumes teasing chlorine trails
sad-eyed kitten skin
Pictured: a mid-20th century porcelain bathtub, standard soap arrangement, slight ovalin influence. Oh, also, naked Jordan.
ReplyDeleteRecently it was argued that the selfie, despite being the bane of everyone over 35, is in fact a very modern and promising form of art. Captured in every selfie is a chaotic self-portrait: the auteur has control of the image until certain points, i.e. the actual moment of capture, the capitulation of ocular dominance, the introduction of unanticipated background action, etc. Given this central thesis, the components of a selfie can inform us of such information as the socioeconomic status of the subject, value judgments, and fetishes, sexual and otherwise. Nude selfies are inherently more risque: they indulge in randomness as equally as other selfies but are also complicated by their explicit subject matter. The degree of explicitness ends up playing a much larger role in the merit of the picture than any other factor because it establishes almost all visual cues. Playful nudity, for example, establishes a light, inviting tone, whereas actual in depth exploration of anatomy demands a weight which is simply not aided by the aesthetic noise so many selfies capture. In the above image, for example, nudity simply provides a canvas of skin, allowing shadows and the girl's expression to take center stage. Indeed, the play of the shadows against the girl's composed but serious face undercuts all playfulness. As if to embrace the form in which she is creating her art the girl's arm extends offscreen to the camera. And, while we can logically deduce that she is holding a camera (or, more likely, a camera phone), visually it is a mystery, one that works well with the shadows of the piece. Wonderful light play can be observed above the subject's breasts: her pony tail is an a jaggedly cut section of blocked light. To call the shadow's work playfulness is misleading, however: they are playful in comparison to the shapes they could take in creating a darker and more daunting image. The subject's face, for example, avoids distortion at the cost of dramatics. There is little, if any, gesture towards duality. Instead, the image feels "plain:" consciously simple, enforced by the limited nudity motif and the bathing reference. The theme of the image is rebirth and renewal, and it portrays an underlying optimism; that is, a basic belief in change, rather than transformation.
ReplyDeleteYet... does this picture really tell us anything? Anything at all?
...and now to go "selfie" myself in the bathtub...
ReplyDeleteI try.
ReplyDeleteUsually fail. In that kind of glorious failing way of mine.
This has really nice form, btw:
http://novicember.blogspot.com/2013/11/you-murderous-sluts.html
Heh, kind of awful as is, but great form. Very promising.
anon:
ReplyDeletehappy christmas.
the winner is a tie I think, between 'PBR' and the DFW one.
email me your address.