Saturday, August 22, 2009

Smoke gets in your eyes.


I love this photo. I love its ambiguity. It is timeless and genderless . It tells you things that may not be true.
What do you see? What is being looked at? Really?
Do you ever doubt your reality? If I am right, does that make you wrong? Can we both 'know' different 'facts' about the same thing?
How can we both be so convinced we are 'right' when we stand on opposite sides of the room?
Why don't you also see that what I tell you is the 'truth'.
If only you could see that I am right, we wouldn't be having this argument. How can you think that when clearly it is something different? If I know black is black, how can you think it is white? Why can't you just see sense?

We can only see the world from our own perspective. We filter what we see through the sieve of our culture, our upbringing, our beliefs and what we saw on TV last night. It is the filters that confuse us, not our eyes.

It is other people who make us see evil were there is no threat; who blind us to the evils they perpetrate and the hate they peddle; who create moral panic when there is just human existence in all its messy glory. They are threatened by mess, by ambiguity. What are they really afraid of? Themselves.

I love the ambiguity in this photo even though I know exactly its who, what, where, where and why. Suspending your reality opens your eyes to the possibilities. Embrace the mess.

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