Suddenly I remembered something that had been said at our recent tutorial meeting - something about Plato's Cave, and about the shadows of things that seemed to be there.
From where I was standing, I couldn't see the origin of the shadows - the plants that the sun was shining on, yet in some way, a very special way, the plants were very present to me through their shadows.
Today, on my way home from visiting my sister, I noticed the shadows of my husband and myself as we walked along the platform in Heuston station.
I stopped to photograph them, and as I did my husband alerted me to the fact that someone was about to 'INTERRUPT' the shadows by overtaking us.
I began thinking of this process of interrupting the 'screen' on which our shadows were being projected by the sun.
In this case, the Interrupter, being on our left, between us and the shadows, would have passed within our field of vision, and if I had snapped the shutter at that moment, I would have seen a real person.
On the other hand, if the person had passed behind us, to our right, and I had snapped them, I would only have seen their shadow, alongside ours.
Is there a difference in the level of reality between photographing a shadow, and photographing an actual person?
When I came home, I looked up Plato's Cave on You Tube. There are dozen's of illustrations of this Allegory. I like this one for its clarity and slowness, but there are many more to choose from.
All address something of my conundrum about shadows and reality ....
***
Today, on my way home from visiting my sister, I noticed the shadows of my husband and myself as we walked along the platform in Heuston station.
I stopped to photograph them, and as I did my husband alerted me to the fact that someone was about to 'INTERRUPT' the shadows by overtaking us.
I began thinking of this process of interrupting the 'screen' on which our shadows were being projected by the sun.
In this case, the Interrupter, being on our left, between us and the shadows, would have passed within our field of vision, and if I had snapped the shutter at that moment, I would have seen a real person.
On the other hand, if the person had passed behind us, to our right, and I had snapped them, I would only have seen their shadow, alongside ours.
Is there a difference in the level of reality between photographing a shadow, and photographing an actual person?
***
When I came home, I looked up Plato's Cave on You Tube. There are dozen's of illustrations of this Allegory. I like this one for its clarity and slowness, but there are many more to choose from.
All address something of my conundrum about shadows and reality ....
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