Point/Counterpoint

Occasionally things can happen in a sequence whereby a meeting of matter occurs one might not have predicted, so simple and valuable, that we wish we'd designed that ourselves!

Fahim posted a B&W harshly-framed street picture in his wonderful collection of colored landscape pictures.



Mark was moved by this snap far beyond, "Nice picture!":

Mark Hampton said:

Fahim,

Scotland is not a place - its a state of mind!

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Well, being rather interfering, I asked if I could place this very different B&W image with his street pictures. That I did and thought no more of it, except I was pleased as Punch to see the street collection growing nicely.


To my our surprise Fahim quickly added yet another equally remarkable street picture, this time with no border; and I missed it.




The contrast between the two street pictures caught Mark's eye and he quipped:

Mark Hampton said:

Fahim,

This last.

What a great counterpoint!

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"Counterpoint", I thought to myself; "I wish I'd thought of that!" as it's obvious now that not only is Fahim's work maturing, but we also now have a valuable, stimulating and fun concept to explore further, "Point & Counterpoint!"

So here's the challenge: let's look through our own work for :

Images that are related but present opposing, complementary or reflective views of a person or subject.

Thanks Fahim and Mike and happy hunting!

Asher

Fahim,

Let me kick off first with my take on these two pictures as the archetype of hopefully a series of pictures set to follow by various contributors.



Your two pictures side by side contrast in so many aspects.

The first is limited by a dark thick black frame which forces us to look deeply within the image for what's going on. There we find a man, perhaps a performer, perhaps begging or even praying, his audience being either passers by or the heavens. There's a demand for the outside world to relate to him. He's young, so we think of his appeal to others; his future or perhaps ours too!

The second, by contrast is open and unfocused. The man is occupied with inner thoughts and just waiting or perhaps about to cross the road. There are no other people there for him. His back is slightly bent. Maybe he had a desk job. Much of his life is already behind him and his story is largely written. We don't ask "What will become of hi?", rather "Who is he and perhaps what did he do with his life?" The picture, when hung, will spread it's vagueness over an entire wall. We'll be puzzled about the past, not the years to come.

These are my merely thoughts, that, and no more, not any exact interpretation. So, Mike, I wonder what made you feel that the second was a counterpoint to the first?

Meanwhile, let's see if other sets of equally contrasting pictures of the same subject can be found.

Asher