Today is ANZAC Day – 25 April. This post is here because it reminds me of an army unit’s colours, worn on the pugaree of an old slouch hat.
Sometimes I do wonder if I have grown as a photographer over the years. I shot this more than 30 years ago, and I look back at it and marvel at the beauty in this image. So seemingly simple, but I found out later, oh so complex. My wife is a PhD candidate in Art History, and she has informed me that his image has a foot in the following artistic camps:
- suprematism
- minimalism
- geometric abstraction
When I shot it in about 1978, all I saw was a well of pure colour. I honestly believed at the time that I was breaking new ground – and perhaps I was, working in ignorance in the artistic backwaters of the most isolated city on the planet -Perth. What a shock it was to find out I was simply treading a well-worn path in art theory circles. Ah well.Perhaps the purity of ignorance worked for me at the time. Now I know what I was seeing, I find it hard to repeat it and do it again.
I do still love the glowing colour from this completely unaltered trannie, however. Long live ignorance!
The Obscure Camera Blog 