Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see in the picture?
- What does it make you think of?
- What observations can you make?
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
hey there – I LOVE THIS PHOTOGRAPH !!!! I think the word to best describe it is ” zigzag “. If the two sailors were not there with their shadows sliced in their midsections, it would not be such a great picture. I love the way the sailors are kind of conjoined in reality ( on the left side of the picture ) but then their shadows are sliced in the middle and their four hands just make it down on the underside of the cut. They are two humans who seem out on a spirited walk-and-talk, but everything else in the picture is flat and cut and shadows and light. Gee !!!!
This makes me wish I had been a sailor or merchant marine who travelled the world and explored exotic ports of call with his buddies. I wonder where these two are headed.
What makes this photo impressive to me is the fact that it’s all grays, black and white yet it says a lot about the hot sun. Right now the East Coast of the US is immersed in a massive snow storm that is turning the world into grays, black and white, but it’s all about the cold and the absence of sun.
I also like the comment above about zigzags.
There are so many straight lines and angles – except for the shadows, which are full of curves that match the arched windows!
Straight lines, angles, planes. Then the humans make it all out of whack. Except I noticed Beverly’s comment about the arched windows. Thank you!
so YES this photo is arty but WHAT about the reason these sailers are in a foreign country ? YES they look like they are out having a good time on their day off but WHAT ABOUT THE REASON WHY THEY ARE THERE AT ALL ????!!!!
Thank you for showing this picture. The two sailors look relaxed and they seems to be talking to each other like friends. How exciting for them to be in this foreign location on their day off.
The sailors are moving out of the frame, off to the left. Where the sun is. As people have pointed out again and again on these Thursday art responses, the sun is often, in Western paintings, off to the left of the frame. So with this photograph. So, soon, with the sailors.
Interesting?