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5/19/12

Architectonic

Inserting nature on the structural...

These are not my usual style of photographs and I'm uncomfortable with them for several reasons although I think their composition is somewhat decent. My discomfort lies in I have always disliked the architecture of this building finding it rather cold, fortress like and foreboding especially since it is a hospital. Also I am not drawn to photograph direct line structures preferring irregular buildings that have been grooved and changed by time and that have some landscape intertwined lending an element of nature. Here is an image with blemishes, flaws and all, of the best I can imagine a minimalist black and white photographer might take that is definitely not my customary photograph.

Fundamentally with the exception of utility poles and wires I much prefer to have natural objects as the subject of my pictures that I then post process into visual art. Most of all I suppose the real reason I am not comfortable with these photos is I have spent a good part of the week at this hospital visiting my sister who is a patient there. It is normal for me to always take pictures of what catches my eye around me but this time it was very often a mechanism of stress relief. Nonetheless here is the image of a cold stark building that I felt compelled to insert an element of nature to somehow make it seem a little more earthly with some sense of humanity.

4 comments:

  1. I understand not only your aesthetic dislike but also the very personal and emotional situation involved as well. Keeping your sister and yourself in positive thought,

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  2. Thanks Jacob, I'm sure we're in synch on the aesthetics here and appreciate your expressing understanding on the personal and emotional issues involved. Thanks for the positive thoughts as well.

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  3. Just as a gut-instinct response, I can't imagine anyone could have designed a building which appeared less likely to contain caring, nurturing people than this one. "Abandon all hope, ye who even SEE this" goes through my mind.

    And yet from what I gather, your sister (and you, and the rest of your family) must view some of the people who work there as nothing short of godsends right now. I'm very happy to be able to say that and I hope it continues to be the case. Pleasant surprises are very, very good things.

    I think you've invented a new "school" of visual art: Architectural Ironic. Because even with the trees (and don't think I didn't notice the sparse foliage) all I can say is, damn, that's a cold-looking place. I'm glad it's not quite the same on the inside.

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  4. That's an interesting observation Mike since my sister for the last year has been treated in the small city regional hospital where she lives and has been steadily declining in the worse way. I'm not saying the people in the regional hospital don't care but I've been challenging their ability and understanding to cope with a rare disease for quite awhile now. This past week all the staff in this "big city" hospital have been very attentive and nurturing really focusing on what the core problems are. She has made quite a turnaround that has given me hope when a week ago I was despairing and on hearing the news she was being medically evacuated here on an emergency basis my heart sunk. I wasn't sure what to expect when meeting her on arrival from there and at that moment it didn't look good at all.

    The building itself looks like a prison to me actually and that was a common reaction when it was first built to replace the aging old buildings. At the time I actually wondered if they'd hired the architects that built high rise jails and prisons I've seen. I had a good laugh at "Architectural Ironic" since I almost titled this "Architectude."

    Thanks for reading and commenting!

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