A beautiful photograph, yes?
Due to the raging political climate these days I thought I would show this work by
Donald Weber. Maybe you have seen it before, maybe you haven't, but it is breathtaking. As I have been doing some reading about the intent behind it and the "message" it is delivering I came to a conclusion that I often come to. It is really just about people, perhaps it is the perpetrators-- those who hold the gun or raise their hand in attack, the searing questions and mind-numbing hours of mental penetration. But what I am truly caught by is the feeling of being under siege. The moment where their words will decide their fate and define the outcome of their future. What has been captured is the despair of the turning point, the climax, the caged animal. Perhaps they are guilty, perhaps they are innocent but to me it doesn't matter, it becomes irrelevant in the face of pure emotion, of numb withdrawal.
Photography captures a split second and makes it something new, something monumental. This is a photograph of a mere moment in someones life but it feels like an eternity, it feels surreal, it is a moment that will sting their conscience and burrow deep inside. It will curl up and eat and breath and sleep with someone... we get to partake as viewers the permanency of another world.
xoxo,
Charlie