Reflections #4

I See Faces Everywhere

I See a Face in a Cleat

I was very fortunate to have a fourth-grade teacher who inspired me to see ‘outside the box’. She once told the story of how she and her mother, while laying on their backs on a summer day looking at the sky, saw clouds in the shape of an oasis. That story and vision have stayed with me all these years. By using my imagination, I can conjure visual similes and it can be fun.

Somewhere along the line, I became aware of anthropomorphism, the attaching of human qualities to non-human things. Rocks take on personas that are seemingly eternal. The tip of a crane resembles a dinosaur.

Taking this one step further, leads me to one of my favorite subject challenges, pareidolia, the attaching of facial qualities to inanimate objects.

On days when the light is flat and uninspiring, when I am pushing too hard to make great images, letting go of controlling that which is in front of the camera, paying close attention to details, yields bounty beyond expectations. I see faces in rust, wood grain, machines, electric outlets and of course, clouds. Faces can become characters reminiscent of icons (I once saw a face in a sailboat block that reminded me of ‘The Scream’).

The camera sees whatever we point it towards; everything we see can be distilled to lines and shapes. The circles of screw heads become eyes when seen with our imagination. Being open to possibilities of chance is also fair play. There are happy accidents like ephemeral reflections of swirling water where faces appear and disappear. Staring beyond the carrier of the the illusion. things are not always what they appear to be. The world is a vast cauldron of delights waiting to be uncovered, more than what appears at first glance.

Plenty of examples can be found on my website galleries of pareidolia and anthropomorphism.

https://www.cindywilsonphoto.com/p226825387

https://www.cindywilsonphoto.com/p596520626

Thanks again to an inspiring educator among a sea of tired tenured teachers who stimulated a young mind to look outside the lines, unlocking the curious nature that has become a hallmark of my creative life.