By Koseli.
I recently discovered Two For the Road, a simple Tumblr of side-by-side imagery. The site curator, James Turnley, clearly defines his project as “Image next to image. Nothing more, nothing less.” And yet, seeing those images next to each other, I can’t help but try to find similarities between the two. A theme, abstract thought, colors, geometric shapes…anything!
Isn’t that always the way? Someone explicitly tells us there’s no theme, no puzzle to piece together — just beauty for beauty’s sake — and we still look for a hidden message! How many of you have found yourselves squinting at your monitor or at a museum or gallery asking “But what does it mean?” Maybe nothing at all! (Can you accept this? Sigh. I can’t, either!)
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David Byrne swears the same about the majority of the Talking Heads lyrics – that they don’t mean anything, so much as he liked the way the words sound together. It is very hard to accept that and not read into them. Impossible almost.
It is hard to look at the image and just except it as just that, an image. Speaking for myself, I am always searching to make sense of the world around me or see the “Bigger Picture”.
It’s difficult for me to accept, as well. Especially because the images you chose do have themes: the first one has peaks, the second one has lone people, the third one has objects moving away from the vertical lines. Or did you purposely choose those because of their commonalities?
Ha! I feel the same way, Koseli! Every so often I can just accept, but way MORE often, I’m looking for something more.
I think most of us wired this way, Amy.
I’d venture that many a college art or lit course was based on this exact phenomenon.
what a beautiful find and well said, humans are pattern seeking people, its what we do :)