Playing Catch - Lake Calhoun April 2006

Playing Catch - Obscured by annoying in-line skater

Okay, so... Now you're asking why I threw a photo up here, that is OBVIOUSLY obscured in some manner.

I've been going over the past few months of photographs, that I've been posting, and have come to a slight realisation.

What is it, you ask?

Surrealistic photos seem to get the best response.

I'm not sure why, exactly... But I feel that as an artist, it's my job to "lean" towards an audience's tastes a the whilst, not compromising my own artistic integrity. (Yeah, artistic integrity I have... Personal integrity? Shite, I'd sell my soul for a chocolate-chip cookie. I digress.) Therefore, I am going to start "aiming" at the surreal. Perhaps this will be a new beginning for my work, who knows? But what I'm sort of excited about, is that I started this photo-blog as a bit of an experiment, and a way to FORCE myself to get out of the studio, and go make photographs. It's been doing that much anyway, so... Goodness. But something that I wasn't even going to allow myself to hope for, has also happened. I've begun getting ideas, just based on this blog. Ideas that are starting to creep their way from my subconscious to my conscious mind... Ideas that I find exciting, and fun.

I hope you all enjoy my weird little side trips, occasionally... Or, if you don't like them... I hope you're willing to put up with a brief "artistic-spew" of ideas, every now and again.

Anyhoo... Why THIS photo, you ask?

Like most photographers doing basic urban/street/cultural photography... I make a thousand photos for every 10 that I actually end up showing to people. Things go WRONG when one is making a photo... The focus gets messed up... A car/bus/human will come banging into your frame of view, blocking your original composition... All sorts of strange things happen. Anyhoo... With this particular photograph, I was attempting to make a photo of a mother and daughter playing some sort of "paddle-catch" game thing... And an in-line skater (Rollerblader) came shooting across the composition, just as the shutter was going off. This sort of thing tends to ruin a photograph. However, I got to thinking (whilst on this "surreal" kick,) "Wait a minute." I said, "Just what's 'good' about this photo?"

• Asymmetrical composition. (all the rage)
• Action. (the floating ball, and the skater)
• The Moment is captured. (Quite obviously)

By taking a moment, I was able to embrace the "shite" of the photo, and capitalise on the "good" of the photo. Perhaps, you the viewer, won't actually like this photo. That's okay... I'm not too sure about it myself. But it had something... Something intangible that speaks to my inner surrealist-photographer.

Anyhoo... I'll stop now. Cheerio!

-- Tucker