Thoughts on an untitled photo by Brett Harrington

Brett Harrington posted this on Flickr a few days ago. After I gave it a minute to sink in, I was all

This is another one of those "everything" images… it’s real and abstract, distant and in your face, cold and inviting. But I think it defies that kind of analysis because almost every observation I can make about it is both true and false. It’s like Schrödinger‘s photo, only you never get to open the box. That whole way of trying to explain or look is totally broken for this, so I can just cast it off to the side and forget it. That in and of itself is both amazing and rare, but after that, it’s still got me by the neck. It hasn’t slid into "well I just don’t get it or know what to make of it then" territory. After all that it’s still relevant, personal, and in an interesting and good way, invasive. But the way in which it is those things is beyond my ability to understand in concrete terms, so you’ll have to make do with "I really, really like this".

and he was all

…this is one of those shots that I don’t know why I like it, but I know I really do. It’s also one of those shots that reminds me of my taste in art. If you could search my deleted tags you would see I was about to tag it, "maybe just for me" due to the punches from nowhere it was giving me. I will stop there, knowing that you have already worded it better than I will if I keep going. I think it’s one of the best shots I have taken in awhile and I am very damn pleased that it has you by the neck.

and it was you know, like, cool and stuff. A week later and it’s still as captivating and description-defying as it was the first time.