Taken from the cover of Rinko Kawauchi’s book Illuminance, ask yourself, what kind of information is included in it?
This is not just a haphazard shot that is mistakenly out of focus, it is the front cover of a book! Therefore we must assume that the image is exactly as the photographer wanted it to be. Based on this, what can we see? The only thing that I can say with any certainty is that the foreground is taken up with a flower atop stem and leaves. Is it real? It could be, or could be made of plastic or even porcelain. It has also been illuminated by a harsh light source to deliberately obscure the detail. In doing so it is accentuating the title of the book, albeit rather crudely! The shot has been taken using a shallow depth of field which has blurred the background sufficiently enough for it to be unidentifiable. Further studying of the image suggests water (rain) droplets either on the camera lens or on a window in the background. In a nutshell, the information contained within this image is all vague, and designed to promote questions rather than answers. As I studied the image more and compiled a series of questions, I started to develop a number of different photographic shooting scenarios from it.
By obscuring the ‘subject matter’ the creator has cleverly drawn me into an, at first, frustrating and passable image. Had the image been in complete focus with no abstraction there would have been no journey for me. Being presented with a wrapped gift, and then being told I can’t unwrap it until Christmas is so much more fun and interesting than being given the present there and then without wrapping!
The image itself is surrounded by a soft, but not pastel, mauve/purple linen type cover, perfectly complimenting the colours within the image itself. Below, in a sequin style, the title ‘Illuminance’, and below that the authors name (again in the same style) suggesting a kind of theatreland illumination (harsh and unforgiving), perfectly in keeping with the image itself.
Having travelled through this image and come full circle, I am none the wiser, however I have enjoyed the time spent delving into it. Surely that is as much a reward as any photographer can want or expect!?
I see! 