Rust Abstraction

I was in Jamaica last week and unfortunately, I did not have access to a computer so I was unable to send out a new picture of the week. I am back home and have brought with me new pictures from Jamaica, many of which work well as abstractions. As many of you know, I rather like abstractions; I like the way they hold my attention and question what I am seeing. I was on a trip to Dunn's River Falls when we stopped for a rest stop. The area was littered with junked vehicles and assorted scrap, and I moved among this disparate collection taking pictures. Of all that I took, this one excited me the most. There was an old trailer on the lot and one long metal panel was completely rusted through. I used a 55 mm lens to get in close and isolate one particular patch that caught my fancy. I would have liked to develop this in color, but there was no variation to speak off in the colors of the rusted panel, so I decided to stay monochrome and produced the print shown here.

I know that everyone will "see" different things, and I am not going to discuss all that I "see", but when I look at this picture I am reminded of an oriental painting on a screen panel. The darker rusted ares take on a filigreed appearance while the lighter areas look, to me, like lakes with reflected vegetation. About a quarter of the way down from the top, there seems to be a dividing line that could be the edge of a field with an arched bridge on the left hand side. I like the almost mirror image of the "bridge" that appears just below, and this dividing line separates the picture into a rectangular upper portion and a square lower portion, each of these segments then being broken into triangular shapes of light and dark. Exploring all these shapes and lines and allowing the imagination to run riot is what abstractions are all about, so spend some time with the image and enjoy.

[photo for week of 7 June 2010]

© David Butts, 2010