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The Sasse: Where love stories develop between art and viewer | ||||
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The Other Side |
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“We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice.” — John Berger, Ways of Seeing A hibiscus is usually seen from the front. Its open petals, vivid color, and prominent stamen are made for attention. This photograph turns away from that familiar view and asks us to look at the flower’s other side. From behind, the hibiscus becomes almost architectural. Dark sepals radiate outward like the points of a star, supporting the broad petals that surround them. A dark diagonal stem draws the eye toward this unexpected center, where soft organic growth becomes sculptural form. The petals were a soft off-white and the stem a deep green. In black and white, the pale petals become a field of light, while the stem and shadowed sepals take on visual weight as nearly black forms. Removing color does not diminish the flower. It clarifies the relationship between light and shadow, delicacy and structure. The back of the flower is not more beautiful than the front. It is simply less familiar. The front offers color and display; the back reveals support, attachment, and form. Looking at it asks us to pause before what we think we already know, and to see that even a familiar flower has another way of being seen. Hibiscus Flower with Stem | 2008 |
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| by: Gene Sasse | |||||
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