I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Rothko in Winchester Center

The wonderful thing about an abstract is that it only slightly resembles reality.  We catch a glimpse of what is real; we see it, but it is distorted just enough to make it different.  In essence, we see an extrapolation of reality.

Deep down within we know that the image resembles something we've seen before.  Our mind and our eyes try to make sense of what we see.  We go through a cognitive deciphering process to break the code.  Breaking the code in some instances is the difference between viewing a Pablo Picasso or a Jackson Pollock painting.  One offers at least the illusion of reality while the other offers no clues.  Both are strictly about the details.

We hit points in our lives where we can't discern the reality of a situation.  Our perception of our own capabilities become distorted.  The picture we see is ambiguous like an abstract painting.  It's okay to ask our friends for help.  Perhaps the picture they see is different from the one we perceive.  Perhaps they've got clues that we don't have.  The idea of asking is foreign for males but we could all learn to ask for guidance and coaching.

As a photographer, I don't always see or get the picture.  There are times I have to find the picture within the picture.  I crop and rework the image until the motive for my shooting surfaces.  In this case, I really did see a Rothko.