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hotography can be prose or poetry. Some
photographs are statements – prosaic in nature.
They describe fully what the photographer saw:
‘I was here, and I bore witness.’ This can lead to
wonderful images – photojournalism has a canon of
superb pictures. But some images are more like poetry.
They use visual style and rhythm to create imagery and
metaphor. Neither approach is better than the other –
both prose and poetic images create a reaction in the
viewer. They just arrive at that reaction in a slightly
different way. In the former, the vision of the photographer
predominates, in the latter the interpretation of the image
is left more open. The viewer is being asked to add their
own meaning to what is described in the photograph.
Ron Tear’s image, Aged Hands, does exactly this. It asks
questions and leaves the answers up to us.
What do we see? A black & white image of an old lady’s
hands. The hands are lying, quietly, on a book. The arms
are low down, particularly the forearm in the bottom
right. This suggests the woman is reclining, possibly lying
down. The image is low key, most of it is very dark. The
light picks out the veins in the hand, the wedding ring, the
cuff of the jumper and the edge of the book. All else fades
to black. The photographer has used a wide aperture to
concentrate focus on the hands, in fact just one hand. The
plane of focus therefore takes the viewer’s eye to the veins
in the hand, the ring and the book.
What questions does this image pose, and how can the
viewer answer them? Is the woman being photographed
awake and reminiscing? Is she reclining and asleep? At an
overall level the tone of the photograph seems nostalgic,
there is even a touch of loneliness about it. Notice how the
‘v’ shape created by the arms and hands point backwards.
The lighting and the post-production of the image have
emphasised this shape: a visual metaphor? Does this
suggest that the subject is thinking about the past? Our
focus is deliberately being directed to the hand/ring/
book so the viewer must fill in some blanks – what is the
book? A novel? Diary? Bible? Why are both hands lying
on it? They almost seem to be caressing the book. There
are no answers to these questions – they just remain
as questions. And as a result the picture has a gentle
emotional charge. The feelings it evokes describe a truism
about old age – a time for reflection, for looking back.
Of course, one can question whether the photographer
meant any of this when he made the image. We don’t
know. Or whether this represents the reality of the sitter
when she was photographed. Again, we don’t know. But
that isn’t really the point. The image suggests feelings and
associations which are there for the viewer to latch on to
or not. It begs interpretation. Poetry indeed...
ronandmaggietear.co.ukthomaspeckphotography.com
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