Confess!

Cem,

The picture itself seems to be of a flat structure, part of a series of doors, with an ornate angel decorated door and shaped woodwork painted in faded cyans, whites, silver and gold.It has an arched shape in gold leaf or gold pain and perhaps a curtain inside. Without any direction, we could imagine this being part of a lavish home and some partition that lead to a small sitting room or perhaps a privy or kitchen off a salon.

But that simple word "Confess" provides us a a GPS location device to orientate us and we can draw on a myriad of personal memories from childhood, encounters with authorities and literature we have loved and hated. Thus, you have provided for us, not only a picture of something very intricate and interesting lurking in the shadows, but also you touch on social issues of sin, trespass, guilt, confession and perhaps even forgiveness and redemption. Each concept is complex. Each is part of the fabric that makers your picture so hauntingly powerful and probative.

In addition, the name, "Confess!", I took license and added the exclamation mark), adds so much, like the simple letter Landed Gentry in England send to Harrow or Eaton schools in the U.K., months before the child is even born. Titles have that power!

Cem_Usakligil said:

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So it's more likely a "confessional" in the Catholic Church!

"Confess" is a powerful word! It brings a decrease in the built up pressure of bearing guilt secretly! That's where the religion has leveraged power over us, as they can forgive our trespasses!

But that's not really true, only the person we wrong can forgive us...and then we still have to forgive ourselves!

The powerful songs of Leonard Cohen allude to confession quite often.

Teacher is really worth reading! Listen to the song, the confession is realized near the end.


Asher

Just realized it's not flat! But it looked flat! But now it's so obviously dimensional, perhaps hexagonal!

But where are the rest of you!

Asher

Hi Asher,

Thanks a lot for your interesting analysis.

Asher Kelman said:

....
But where are the rest of you!...

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I guess they've got nothing to confess, lol.

Cem,

I was worried that I spoke too much again and distracted folk from your picture!

.......I also reread what I wrote and realized I didn't disclose that it seems to be a "confessional" of the Catholic Church tradition, where the congregant enters the tiny wooden chamber, often sits and the priest in the adjacent compartment listens through a curtained or perforated wood "window" and admits, "Father I have sinned" and then discloses a litany of real or imagined transgressions for which the priest gives remedies, such as so many "rosaries" or whatever the sins merit for correction.

........but these are the easiest confessions!

Asher

As to everyone else, is this picture not interesting to you enough to visit and write your reactions or am I inhibiting you all because of my own long winded writings!!

...or do we only comment on flowers, wonderful portraits, pretty things?

Asher

This is a confession booth indeed Asher. And the shape of the cross section horizontally is a trapezoid (half of an hexagon) as you've mentioned.

PS: my intended subtitle (which I've not disclosed before) is:
Anything you say may and shall be used against you..

Hi, Asher,

Asher Kelman said:

As to everyone else, is this picture not interesting to you enough to visit and write your reactions or am I inhibiting you all because of my own long winded writings!!

...or do we only comment on flowers, wonderful portraits, pretty things?

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Sorry, I was taking a nap.

I'll try and do better in future.

Best regards,

Doug.

I first opened this image yesterday and had an immediate reaction. It's so dark and foreboding!
My first reaction to the title was "I didn't do it!" but my sins stay with me, some get rationalised, some fester then fade over time and some will never go.
Of one thing I'm sure, none get absolved by prayer. The buck stops with me.

Andy brown said:

I first opened this image yesterday and had an immediate reaction. It's so dark and foreboding!
My first reaction to the title was "I didn't do it!" but my sins stay with me, some get rationalised, some fester then fade over time and some will never go.
Of one thing I'm sure, none get absolved by prayer. The buck stops with me.

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I think the only confessions that are worthwhile are ones first to oneself to admit one's shortcomings!

Then to others who have been robbed of something - compensate them.

However, confessions just to dump that pain on a spouse or other loved one's and force them to shoulder the pain of one's own selfish acts, (and be humiliated in the process), is cowardly and victimizing them once more! We need, instead to simply reform and if the guilt hurts, we have to just cease doing whatever is inappropriate - it's that straightforward. Heaven cannot forgive us for trespasses against others or the planet over which we claim dominion!

Confessions to a priest, if it works for someone, doubtless relieved some of the angst, but it really shouldn't, unless we blame ourselves for the failings of others! Guilt has a purpose, LOL! One cannot simply get a free pass once a week!

Asher

Doug Kerr said:

Hi, Asher,



Sorry, I was taking a nap.

I'll try and do better in future.

Best regards,

Doug.

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Doug,

I rather suspect it has been a rather long time since your last confession! I do suspect you of a lot of sins, for example, of ignoring non linear transfer functions or limiting transpositions of color to merely 3 coordinates! Confess!

Asher

Hi, Asher,

Asher Kelman said:

I rather suspect it has been a rather long time since your last confession!

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Indeed!

I do suspect you of a lot of sins, for example, of ignoring non linear transfer functions or limiting transpositions of color to merely 3 coordinates! Confess!

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Forgive me, Rabbi, for I have sinned.

Ooops! Mixed a metaphor there.

Can I be absolved it I say, "Our sensors are usually non-colorimetric" 5 times?

Or fiddle with Carla's bead necklace several times while putting a new clasp on it? (Those 4 mm lobster claws are so tedious.)

I was a member of an Episcopal church for a while (Carla and I met there, and were married there, by a gay priest, not yet "out" at the time - he was in fact in a very unsatisfying marriage, to a woman who was a very mediocre violist). We didn't have any confessionals. If we had, they would have been used to store extra loudspeakers.

Best regards,

Doug

Asher Kelman said:

As to everyone else, is this picture not interesting to you enough to visit and write your reactions or am I inhibiting you all because of my own long winded writings!!

...or do we only comment on flowers, wonderful portraits, pretty things?

Asher

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Some things are personal and yes maybe some only like certain types of pictures Asher. I did serve a sentence at Folsom prison for stealing mugs and tie clips while working in the gift shop of the Museum of Anthropology. I now spend most of my time between the kitchen and Oxbow Saskatchewan but after taking a fearless and moral inventory of myself I have seen the light.

I would offer, to you, that Cem's work is quite extraordinary sometimes in that it is can be packed with functional meaning like a piece of genetic code or a flat piece of paper with the plans for an entire oil refinery!

It's worth looking as we test out boundaries, exercise our noggins and as a reward, we get more neuronal connections and end up a tad smarter.

I would even suggest that actually understanding Cem usakligil's body of work and also reading just one of Doug Kerr's essays will stave of Alzheimer's disease. In fact, I'm banking on that!

Otherwise do I'm ****'d!

Asher

Cem_Usakligil said:

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The tonality is stunning Cem.

BTW - I only went back and read the long winded commentary following your initial posted image - after I replied with my simple photographic observation based on what I see. Nothing said swayed my mind. Just a really cool and visually appealing image to me.

Robert Watcher said:

The tonality is stunning Cem.

BTW - I only went back and read the long winded commentary following your initial posted image - after I replied with my simple photographic observation based on what I see. Nothing said swayed my mind. Just a really cool and visually appealing image to me.

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Robert,

I looked above and then checked again for your "simple photographic observation" you referred to above. Was it deleted by accident?

But anyway, you think this picture is visually appealing - why? And why is that sufficient without the impact of the title? Surely without the title is just a decorated piece of wood in the shadows. Absent its weighty social meaning, it's merely nice and neatly done but not that much important!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Robert,

I looked above for your "simple photographic observation you referred to above. Was it deleted by accident?

But anyway, you think this picture is visually appealing - why? And why is that sufficient without the impact of the title? Surely without the title is just a decorated piece of wood in the shadows. With its social meaning, it'd nice but not that much important!

Asher

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It's right there Asher.

"The tonality is stunning Cem"

That's my simple photographic observation. Lol

Robert Watcher said:

It's right there Asher.

"The tonality is stunning Cem"

That's my simple photographic observation. Lol

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Robert,

What makes it "stunning"? It's painted wood in the shadows.

You seem, by your statement to ignore Cem's chosen word, "confess"? This refers to the Homo Sapiens need to clear the slate and shed the burden of guilt one accumulates, trespassing as we all do! Just that there is one organization that has perfected a double chambered box, like a changing room for trying out clothes, except that small spac cod split into two compartments with separate entrance doors, one for the congregant to confess his/her sins and the other for the priest who hears the confession in lieu of God and then prescribes remedies! Thud, the intimate and personal lives of each of its more than a billion followers can be monitored! This one word "confess" is active like aightening rod in a direct strike! "Confess!" Is a call to action, like, "bomb", "he has a gun!", "Repent!" Or "Fire!!"

So, in fact, that one word choice Cem made, becomes the engine behind the picture. It says much more than "confessional", an object!

One cannot ignore this riveting title, LOL!

Without its social implication, this is just another dark picture competently done with respect to colors and tonalities.

Yes, this picture is stunning once it's charged with the demand,"Confess!"

Asher

I actually saw the image and I was going to comment, but then read your comment and followed the link to the lyrics of 'The Teacher' by Leonard Cohen and got wrapped up in his words and knowing about his life and his many years of depression, the song just explained so much.

I have been spending a bit less time on the computer lately, and only came back this evening.

Cem, when I saw this image it immediately brought me back to when I was a kid and the fear I had at going to confession. It wasn't dark like in your image, but may as well have been as the trivial things I had to confess seemed much larger and much more serious than they were. Today, I have darker sins but no longer go to confession as I no longer go to church. I think the image is good because it brought me to that place immediately.

Now, what I would like to know, is why you took this image?

Asher Kelman said:

What makes it "stunning"? It's painted wood in the shadows and how can you ignore Cem's chosen word, "confess"?

That is the engine behind the picture. It says much more than "confessional", an object!

One cannot ignore this riveting title, LOL!

Without its social implication, this is just another dark picture competently done with respect to colors and tonalities.

Asher

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Sorry Asher. Those concepts and needs are important to you and others - not to me. I visually like a photo or I don't, and that is all I need. I am simplistic.

In reality, every photograph is just another of the millions upon millions of photographs taken each year. As serious photographers, it is nice when we are able to find a small audience - or maybe even one person - who sees value in a particular photograph we have created. And because someone doesn't acknowledge our work, does not mean that it is bad or has no value to the one who has taken it.

For me, I could care less why someone appreciates my photograph --- just that someone does. Beng I have made my living from photography all of my married life, the only affirmation or opinion that I have placed any credence in - is when there is a transfer of money into my hands. Talk means nothing. A piece of someones flesh shows true value.

But as I said, this is only my opinion. I love the tonality of Cems photograph. That's what draws me in. The title, intent or deep meaning are not going to alter my view. It's only a photograph to be looked at to me - as are all others. Some I really like - some are pretty good and some I don't like and other may be very good but I'm not interested in spending time looking at them because they don't suit my taste.

BTW I don't analyze paintings or other fine art either. I go to art galleries from time to time to be visually stimulated by what is in front of me. Some do and many great works I just pass by. Most of the time I go for a break from the riggors of life or to spend time with friends.

There I confessed. Lol but I think my viewpoint on this matter has been made clear to you previously.

Well written!

I understand.....

Never remember you using "stunning" before, so it woke me up!

Much of Cem's work is technically well planned and expertly delivered. I don't count that in enjoying his pictures. His work usually had another dimension and social or pholosophical idea beyond esthetics!

Even your work which someone might think is just a travelers diary of beautiful things is actually a social essay!

That's because you and you dear wife work from the basis of values and conscience.

Anyway that's my opinion! I just think that!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Well written!

I understand.....

Never remember you using "stunning" before, so it woke me up!

Much of Cem's work is technically well planned and expertly delivered. I don't count that in enjoying his pictures. His work usually had another dimension and social or pholosophical idea beyond esthetics!

Even your work which someone might think is just a travelers diary of beautiful things is actually a social essay!

That's because you and you dear wife work from the basis of values and conscience.

Anyway that's my opinion! I just think that!

Asher

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There is a photographer following me - and I him - on my Instagram account ---- who has much of his street photography gallery based on dark, partially indistinct tonalities as are in this image. I am loving his work for it's uniqueness because of those qualities. I can't even really identify what the content is sometimes. But there are some of his images that are stunning to me. That doesn't necessarily mean perfect. It means I really like what is going on.

Besides stunning, I may use awesome or cool or nice or good job or thanks or I comment on how pleasing the composition or content is. I have a variety of superlatives at my disposal. None of them represent anything too deep. Just terms to use. LOL

I think I used stunning related to Cem's success in presenting the subtlety and color - whether that was strictly done in camera or in the darkroom - I don't need to know. The content works well with the look. What the content represents isn't something I considered. Hope that clears up a little.

Thank you very much for your compliment on my work. I appreciate that you can see it as a social narrative. I'm content if some like it simply because it is enjoyable travel photography. It's all good.