Believe

"Believe" implies that there's no proof and we just go on the authority and influence of someone with higher rank than ourselves. It's actually a very efficient mechanism that human society has developed for controlling people. Instead of the chief needing to commit hunters to being keeps of "Law and Order", having an ally in a shaman, priest, voodoo man or other master of the spirits, allowed exertion of discipline over vast populations with the minimum of effort and the least spilling of blood.






With education of the masses of humans, one would think that a call to belief would be scoffed at more often. However, we seem to have a great need for saints, saviors, people to follow and adore. I'd venture that there have never been in the entire history of the planet, so many "believers". Add up the devout Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Voodoo worshippers and adherents other sects alive to day. The number today is likely to be over 2 billion souls out of about 8 billion total.

The non-believers are strongest in the big cities, especially near the coasts. However, religious belief, leaping into the void with no logic, just faith, is still a dominant human condition.

There's a purpose in everything, at least; that's a hope!

Asher

My thought when shooting this was how abstract the setting was for such a strong demand to "Believe." It was the juxtapositioning of the sign, in such great clarity hanging behind a terribly scratched piece of storefront glass, a vague interior and a shadowy reflected background which did nothing to prod me into Believing or much of anything else...except take the picture. I do believe, I got that part right.

Chris Calohan said:

Click to expand...

Chris - is this a one off or part of a larger body of work?

i belive you got it right to... but then again I belive in bob...

cheers

It's the start of a revival of sorts of reflective and "off the wall" images that seem to speak more to me than to others...isn't that always the case?

There were at least thirty photographers shooting in the area where this was shot and not one of them raised a camera to this window...and to me, it held so much more interest than the traditional tourist crap they were shooting...but then, i beleive in bob, too.

This would be one such example of an "off the wall" vision...most people don't get the connection. Weird, me thinks.

"Practicing One's Penmanship"

This image is what started all my seeming transfixation with reflective subjects. The one above is a reflection of a sensing that we are losing our ability to write in cursive.

This image is part of a series I started called "Altered States." For some reason, I abandoned this theme and until I shot Believe, I wasn't sure I would go back to it...but me thinks I will.