Stonework at Night by Chipka
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Description
When I was younger, and still in pursuit of my Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia College in Chicago, I took a class in literary deconstruction. Though English was not offered as a Major, per se at my Alma Mater, I focused on English language literature: world literature, ethnic literature, science fiction…the kind of stuff that isn’t often viewed as “literary” unless it is self-conscious, Mainstream and written by women or minorities, or minorities who happen to be women. Needless to say, I became intimately familiar with the strange phenomenon as ethnicity as text. For anyone who has read N. Scott Momaday, Maxine-Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, or Toni Morrison, you’re familiar with at least some aspect of ethnicity distilled into pulp. For those who have read Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, or Ursula K. LeGuin, you’ve experienced the same phenomenon, though distilled into its essence. I stand (whole heartedly) behind the belief that Science Fiction is the most vital form of literary expression, as it’s not about hardware wars in space and high tech shenanigans (usually involving white American men, and women used for sexual titillation.) It is, in a sense, autobiographical literature. Read Toni Morrison, or Feodor Dosteyevsky, James Baldwin, or Maxine Hong-Kingston if you want to experience humanity from a specific perspective. Read any of the contemporary science fiction greats if you want to experience humanity as a raw and naked, universal animal. Read the “literary greats” if you want to know the all-consuming “Who? What? When? Where? How?” Read Science Fiction if you are interested in the greater “Why?”
All of this comes to me whenever I make photographs. I am interested in cities. I have lived in Chicago for a very long time, and it is the quintessential city: the place that is home; where everyone is a stranger. I have lived in Prague: that mad-woman of a city. She seduces you. She accommodates you. She summons your innermost desires, though it’s up to you to decide whether or not they consume you.
It was in Prague that I experienced a thing I’d learned back in college. In that course on literary deconstruction, I was struck by the fundamental truth that all forms of art are autobiographical. There is no way to avoid this. Read fiction. Look at a photograph, or a digital rendering, look at a painting or sculpture, and you are not seeing anything more than what the writer/artist presents. You are experiencing his/her values and assumptions…for as long as you are reading or viewing, or listening, you are experiencing another person. This is something that I have come to see as an “elemental darkness.”
In Prague, I learned to embrace darkness. I’ve always been drawn to it. In a sense, I’ve always lived in darkness. This is not hyperbole. Darkness has been my life, simply because it is the very skin in which I dwell. This does not disturb me. Like the ancient Egyptians, darkness is purity—there’s no light cluttering it up, there are no colors clamoring for your attention like a gaggle of transvestites trying to out-dress each other. I love colors, but they are as flamboyant as cross dressers: darkness in drag…darkness pretending to be light. There is a particular, delightful richness in that, an experience worthy of the god I’d love to become. But I have discovered that these delights, the richness of voluptuous hues, are simply the safe version of darkness: the absence of light, rendered polite for beings (people) accustomed to the light. Indeed, there are people of light, just as there are people of darkness. One is as pure as the other, and it is through reading (and writing, and experiencing) science fiction that this has become intimate to my life. Darkness is who and what I am, and it is the dance between my element and the element of light that gives life its dynamic and enjoyable motion.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting. It means a lot!
Comments (21)
mbz2662
Great photo. As for the words, you always make my mind work! (A good thing.)
kgb224
Outstanding capture my friend.
bimm3d
wonderful shot!!!!!
tofi
A most beautiful photograph; th lighting is fantastic, creating a most elegant and evocative mood and atmosphere! It must have been such a beautiful experience to stare this stunning structure right in the face! Exquisite lighting Chip! Fantastic! I read what you've written, and in fact can appreciate all that you say, and your fascination is admirable and greatly understood. For me, literary Deconstruction is indeed, a tricky concept to truly understand. It took me quite some time to wrap my head around the actual desire for someone to want to in essence, dig "deeper" by attempting to "deconstruct" what has already been constructed, so to speak. I mean, in terms of the ways that meaning is constructed by writers, texts, and ofcourse it's readers. I've read some of Jacques Derrida's works, and let me tell you what a hard time I had at first, trying to grapple with everything he was criticisizing (literally the entire tradition of Western philosphy's search to uncover the essential "structure" of knowledge and reality. I mean, knowledge and reality is something so subjective... I too, after reading some more of Derrida and Heideggar, became quite interested in what was not part of the "cannon"... It provoked me to question why certain literature was "taught" in universities and even schools, the typical "classics" rather than say, African American literature, ie: Chinua Achebe.. this is when I became very inteterested in post-colonial literature myself... searching for meanings created by what is "left out of the text", or more importantly, been silenced. I really like your comment and insight on science fiction being autobiographical... I guess I never really looked at that way. Profound and articulate are your words, as is your composition!
Meisiekind
Firstly Chip - your image is fantastic... depicting both the darkness and the light to accompany your narrative. Secondly - your narrative has once again rattled my brain and made me think (and agree) in ways I never thought possible! You are truly a master at words! :)
MrsLubner
I am too simple a person to think in terms of metaphores and symbolisms. I look at this and I see a beautifully lit phalic symbol - one of the styles of construction that mankind is forever building and calling something else. It is also one of the shapes that is most accepted and taken to heart by humans but often not recognized for what it is. Freudian? Perhaps. But most of all, familiar to all. Great shot.
bmac62
Chrystal clear photo playing light off the Chicago night. Thought provoking narrative. You've put a positive spin on darkness that I hadn't heretofore considered. Well done.
beachzz
You and I saw this same structure--and you turn it into a story of cities and light and people and all kinds of things that never occurred to me. I have to start looking a whole lot closer at what I'm doing!! Beautiful shot--and you got ALL of it!!
auntietk
I've just learned something new about the settings on my camera, so now I have to come back to Chicago and walk around at night taking pictures again. :D This is a shot I wanted but couldn't get at the time, and I LOVE this image!
helanker
This is a fantastic capture. I love the light on this building. Thanks to the electricity, we can see these wonders. Very well captured. I havent yet learned to photograph clear in darknes (without tripod). Maybe I should ask Tara what she learned :)
xpersona
Fine works. I am greeting around Warsaw Poland Katarzyna
tamburro
Fantastic light, excellent shot!
MrsRatbag
A gorgeous fantasy of light; beautiful capture, Chip!
ladyraven23452
love it.
romanceworks
Superb shot! A grand contrast of darkness and light, of phallic and fantasy. Don't know this building, don't know the architect, but seems like I would like the creator, I'm such a romantic. This photo, and your narrative engage my mind. I do believe it is true that all forms of art are autobiographical. This is what artists do, they give form and thought to their own unique vision. Each creation is a part of ourselves, a gift we give to the world to do with as it pleases. Good thing we love what we create and give, or the receivers might very well deconstruct us. CC
durleybeachbum
More people I've yet to read...I know James Baldwin, read him probably too early for my own good, and Ursula LeGuin was a set author on my degree course. But is there time left in my life for everything I'd like to read, do, try?! I think it unlikely! A wonderful photo!
JohnSmall
Ohh, nice... I've taken a lot of pictures of this building myself over the years, but somehow never got around to getting one at night. Timing is everything, I suppose... anyhow, great pic!
Mousson
fantastic shot!
pwilkin
Great capture of a wonderful structure!
myrrhluz
My sister and I passed this everyday for a week. I've no picture as nice as this though. I've read LeGuin and Delaney. These days, if I'm reading fiction, I tend to gravitate to humorous, irreverent, masters of a well-turned phrase like Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett.
gmvgmvgmv
Wonderful night capture - the stone work is spectacular!