My last photo was inspired by Francis Bacon’s image ”Paralytic Child Walking on All Fours (from Muybridge)”:
I showed this painting to three people yesterday, and their reactions were all the same. They said, “Well, I can see whyyou like it…”. Okay, fine, no one else likes the painting. I tell myself that doesn’t matter, I’m going to recreate it anyway.
I am not drawn to the artistic style of painting, but I am drawn to the idea behind why this painting is so grotesque. I too look at this painting and want to turn away, or at least that is my instant reaction. But the reason why this painting is so captivating is because it forces you to ask yourself the question of “why can’t I look at it?” There is a fundamental force in this painting that challenges how we see it. We do not want to see what is utterly unfamiliar. And yet, it stares us in the face.
One could say that the painting is perverse because of the pose. There is a basic sexuality to the photo that only enhances the animalistic quality to the figure. Is the figure human? Is it a dog, some other sort of animal, or an alien? There is no clear answer to this question. And in fact, the very fact that the painting poses this question allows us to break free of our typical way of viewing images. If we allow ourselves to look at this painting long enough, questions continue to crop up, and that is what makes a good image to me.
When we move beyond what the “figure” is (or rather, what it is representational of) we can focus on the surroundings. The painting (and my photo) has very minimal surroundings, leaving the mystery even further unsolved because there is no context in which to place the figure. Sometimes the absence of a definition in an image reminds us that we need not see the meaning, but find it for ourselves.
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