Thursday, April 5, 2012

Ekphrasis


Ekphrasis: a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art


The HAWMC prompt for today was to go to flickr.com/explore - I haven't ever done that, or clicked on the "explore" tab in flickr despite having used it for quite awhile now.  Then write a post inspired by the image.  This is a beautiful image - I'd recommend following the link above to see more of this photographer's work on her Flickr site*.


For me, this photo evokes a feeling of both excited anticipation, and a fear of disappointment. Since there is no color to bring out the potential life in what I imagine to be a striking color green for the new shoots and buds, the "Blossom expectation" takes a small of leap of faith.  How do we know these are live little plants with the potential to burst open and spread glorious color across the landscape?  The buds are nice and fat, and you can see how sleek they look in the black and white contrast photography. I want to see what will happen next. I want the next frame to blow me away with an explosion of those fat little buds. And my optimistic expectation includes color. So I'm pulled back into the tension of the image in black and white where I'm reminded that not every bud results in a blossom.


The angle of the photo brings to me memories of tall grasses and various plants and flowers from eye level - as a child growing up in the countryside, I had so many opportunities to lie in the grass and explore the world under our feet and see the sky from that angle.  I don't do that anymore - or at least I don't remember the last time I did. So I feel some nostalgia too when I take in this image.  In reflecting how this photo could relate to my health experiences, this nostalgic feeling hits hard. I didn't have anything wrong with me during those years. Scoliosis and type 1 diabetes hit me in my early teens. I doubt I would have been rolling around in the grass looking at ants and catching grasshoppers in my teens anyway - but memory triggers can appear unexpectedly and anywhere and they don't follow linear paths.




btw, the prompt says we should post the image - but I've emailed the photographer to double check that it's okay with her. 



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