The old adage says “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Not always true, but there are photos that seem to be a story. We look, smile, and wish we knew more about what’s going on. This family at a museum in Toronto, for example. Don’t you almost wish you could overhear what they’re talking about? Aren’t you tempted to make up a story?
Little confession: that’s my son and his daughters. I didn’t take the photo. I wasn’t even there, but I think it’s a charming moment.
Jerrie Hurd Takes Family History Seriously . . . 
And, like you say, wouldn’t we love to hear what they are talking about?
Charming indeed. And since it’s your son, you COULD ask 🙂 He might even remember what was being discussed. It might have been insightful about the art, or it might have been, “The baby is getting restless. We’d better think about going.”
Even as adults they still say: I don’t know.
It’s a wonderful photo. I thought how young our fathers now are, looking at dragons, as in the games they grew up with. And the baby who wonders what is going on with–mom?–the photographer. Thanks, Jerrie.
Babies have no illusions about what is art and this baby knows that another painting or perhaps movable art (the colors of people talking, dancing, stopping, starting again) behind Dad and Sister is much more interesting than a static image. Babies stare with no inhibition and no agenda, no beliefs. Dad and little girl are wondering what the painting is about and little girl is ready for a snack. Delightful picture! ; )
Jerrie,
The story I’m telling about this photo is that daughter number one (whose arm is draped around Dad as if she were a business tycoon passing on pearls of wisdom) is the artist of the work they’re looking at. She’s explaining what inspired her to create the work, discussing the symbology in it that is tied to her own cosmology, and pointing out the details that Dad might otherwise have missed.
Melanie Mulhall
http://www.melaniemulhall.wordpress.com
Melanie:
Love it. Perfect story.Thanks.
Jerrie
Hi guys, I’ve been away on vacation and haven’t been able to respond to this until now.
This is a piece by Mars-1, you can find more of his work here: http://www.mars-1.com/. Mars is an old graphiti artist gone fine arts. He paints abstract landscapes of alien lands. I like his work but this was the first time I got to see some of his originals.
In this picture (you can see a larger version here: http://metagallery.com/exhibitions/11/infinite+tapestry/artworks/) I was talking with my older daughter about the piece and what she thought of it. If she liked it. At first she was dismissive and said she liked the colors but didn’t know what it was a picture of. So I asked her to look at the detail and tell me what she thought it would feel like if she could touch it. Parts of the picture are painted prickly and other parts are painted fuzzy like a fur coat. She described each in detail. I then asked her what people who lived there might look like. She came up with a few ideas. I did all this to draw her into the picture, to try and think past the representation of it. It’s something I’ve been doing as we go to different art shows. She seemed to like this and had fun with it but in the end she still didn’t like the picture.
My younger daughter was looking at my Mom who was taking the picture. I think she was just hungry.
This is a common pose for the baby. She often peeks out like a coo-coo bird. I have to add that she doesn’t take kindly to being contained. This was just too cute not to shoot.
And so now we have the story. It was worth the wait and the speculation, I think.