8/16 - Photo Collection 1 - Jumping at Shadows

Between my phone and my camera, I have over 3000 pictures from Greece. So going through those has been really enjoyable. One type of picture I have noticed I have a lot of are these silhouette pictures. I took the first one early in the trip at Aptera on Crete.

Overlooking the baths at Aptera.

And then really liked it, and so looked for more opportunities to take these pictures. I also kept taking them as a joke with Luke, who detests them. I love them for a variety of reasons, so now I'm going to talk about weird art things that I enjoy, so skip this next bit if you just want to see the pictures. 

The imagery created by body language is fascinating. You can learn so much based on how people stand and what they do with their arms. But I think frequently those cues sort of disappear in pictures where we look at what the people are wearing or where they are instead of their stance. Shadows remove that distraction from the picture. The way that the shadows interact with the landscape around them is also interesting. They're less intrusive than a person wearing a lot of color, but they still show you were there. In a lot of the following shots, you can see my shadow taking a picture of the field in front of me. It emphasizes that these ruins and places are not dead but still of interest to people coming to see them. In a way, the sites are the shadows of the people left behind. Their imprint on the face of the earth harmonizes well with how we perceive and talk about the fleeting nature of our shadows. The shadow of the modern overlaid on the shadow of the ancient, if you will.

Plus, and most importantly with art, it just looks cool. Alright, I'm done for now. Enjoy the pictures.

This one and the one above it emphasize the presence of the camera documenting the scene.

You can identify people by their shadows. In this one, because of the hats. 

Left to right Melanie, Asia, me, Luke. 

You can also do goofy stuff like make shadow puppets. Abi has joined on the left. 

These two emphasize the size of the group. For some reason the line ups of silhouettes remind me 

of Lord of the Rings, particularly when the Fellowship is hiking and seen from afar on a ridge.

Three final pictures with the camera again present. 

Hope you enjoyed. There will be a couple more photo posts coming in the next couple days.