LOVE THURSDAY

"Sometimes something can look beautiful just because it's different in some way from the other things around it. One red petunia in a window box will look very beautiful if all the rest of them are white, and vice-versa.”-Andy Warhol

I have this set of photos on FLickr called Walkabout. It's where I've been putting pictures of things that cross my path that I find interesting, but don't really fit any theme. Some times the Walkabout pictures are for the sole purpose of getting out my camera and really looking at my surroundings. Many of my New York pictures ended up (or will...still going through them) in this set. My last day in New York, Talaura and I spent the morning walking around Brooklyn Heights Promenade and the DUMBO area. At one point during my walk I had to tell Talaura to hold up so I could take a picture of something and then I apologized for the delay. She told me that it was OK and that she never knew what I'd want to photograph. My reply is that I never know either.

The Walkabout pictures are a practice in seeing things in a different way. Critics of Andy Warhol may scoff at his Soup Cans painting. Why would any one want to create a painting of Campbell's soup? Warhol's paintings were meant to be a symbol of commercialism, but I also think it makes you see the cans differently. It's no longer just about a can of soup, but about what makes that can of soup appealing. The eye is pulled first to the red of the label and crispness of the letters. And then maybe you begin to notice the texture of the can, the difference between the metal part and the label. This is the same thing that happens in the Walkabout pictures. It may just be an everything common item, but now the focus is pulled to something different about that object. I keep thinking that the more I practice this, the more likely I am to apply it to everything, people and situations. Because when you're able to find the difference, you're able to see the beauty.

Happy Love Thursday.