Two Faces of War

[TahitiNut]

As I look at the 'Subject' I've typed, I'm thinking it looks pretentious. So be it. It sure wouldn't be the first time I've thought that about something I've written or said. It probably won't be the last and I'm sure I'm rarely alone in that opinion.

A couple of weeks ago, intheflow started the "Self-portraits" thread and then was kind enough to offer some generous feedback on an old photo I took of myself and posted in that thread. (See here.) It'd been several years since I'd worked with that photo (taken in 1969), so it wasn't until I'd posted in another thread (which was new to me) in this forum that I remembered something.

The other thread (by electricmonk) asked about "Favorite photographers" and, after reading the thread, I was reminded of the awesome photo of the Afghan girl (see my post here) that has been burned into my memory since I first saw it many years ago.

Well, some years ago, putting two and two together and coming up five, I finally figured out why these two photos struck strangely harmonic chords in me, so I did some playing around.

It wasn't until I'd made the two posts here in the Photography Forum that I recalled what I'd played around with those years ago, so I thought I'd offer it up for your possible interest.

I've never shared this before. It's so tied up with some intensely personal (and complex) feelings that I lose objectivity. I suspect/fear that I'm being pretentious and overly self-centered. I don't really know, though.

Be warned. It's a 4.5MB GIF file. Thus, I've at least been sensible enough not to try to embed it in this post. So, here's a link.


Image


I hope it's worth the time of those of you who look at it. I'm sorry if it isn't.

...mike

[electricmonk]

1. Definitely worth the time

Pretty impressive. :thumbsup:

[outraged2]

2. Very good

I love metamorphic pieces. I don't think I have ever seen one that was so deep/emotionally intense... I don't really have the right words. Thanks for sharing this with us, you do good work.

[intheflow]

3. Another haunting image from

the creative, taciturn mind of TahitiNut. You did a nice job of juxtaposing your face and hers.

Did you know National Geographic found that girl 17 years after the original picture was taken? She had no idea that her portrait was world famous. She'd aged quite a bit in those 17 years. Much more so than me with my relatively cushy American life. *sigh*