Fantastic b&w image. I like very much the mood.

I love this image a lot, and reading what I read just made it all the more profound, not in that it needed any sort of additional text or anything, but simply because of what you said in your comments and the fact that I said something that inspired hope in some way. That's what friends do, after all, and I know what it feels like to decide to make a decision. Small steps: that's what life is about; it's not making grand, sweeping changes, it's about taking the steps that you can to get where you want. It's also about giving yourself permission to make mistakes, since in many ways, mistakes are sometimes more valuable than successes. I get that impression in this photo as well (and there are others I have yet to comment on, and I'll be getting to them.) What I love about this photo is the pervasive darkness. It is at the top and bottom of this image in different ways, of course, which just shows us that darkness is a rich and varied thing...it can be soft and even comforting, or it can be hard and implacable, but it can also be mundane and fully lacking in the mystery we associate with it. I've been in places like that--dark places that were utterly boring and trivial simply because they offered nothing. THAT is the most dangerous form of darkness though, mundane darkness. It doesn't offer Evil to fight, it doesn't offer fear to overcome, it is little more than ennui. What your picture shows is that different grades of darkness and light can interact in ways that make you think that there's more light around than there actually is. This isn't dishonesty so much as really great union and a sense of things being dynamic. Aside from the fact that this picture stands perfectly on its own as a challenging and engaging piece of living beauty, it also marks the decision to decide. I see that in the crosses, which is ironic in the extreme for me. Crosses don't bring comfort to me. They represent something that I view as evil, and yet here, they're like darkness itself, devoid of evil. They are what they are and nothing more, and yet here, they're bold and offer a unique anchor to the image. They are the emotional focus, despite the emotional nature of the entire image. You're an artist. Photography is just the means by which your artistry manifests itself. This picture proves it, because it is digital, but it would work perfectly as a silk print, or as a mounted photograph in a gallery, presented on some form of hand-made paper, it's also a poem, despite the absolute absence of words in the image itself. I'm glad that in my goofiness (which is endless) I managed to say something inspiring...lately I've been saying a lot about The Rockford Files, Lieutenant Uhura's red miniskirt uniform with those black space-babe boots, and potentially incendiary things about sexist cross-dressing megalomaniacs, and so it's nice to know that somewhere in that spew, I said something encouraging as well. YOUR photo and dedication inspire me, because I've decided to decide. I know exactly what that means and I know how scary it can feel. I'm feeling pretty scared, because in deciding to decide, I've also decided to put something in its place, and that place is NOT within the boundaries of my life. When that kind of decision to decide is made, it usually means that in a way, one must go it alone, and begin to determine that people (like objects and events) can also be unnecessary burdens. I'm not turning my back on people, but I'm at a point at which I see (glaringly) that some people in my life are a part of why Chicago is such a terrible, inhospitable, and utterly inhuman place to be. I don't want to leave some of these people, especially since they're my family (at least genetically) but I've decided to decide...and it feels a lot like the way this picture looks. Bleak. Empty. Neutral. And supremely, shamelessly beautiful. This goes beyond a favorite for me. This reaches the grand, lofty heights of honest, necessary, and touching. If this picture was my life, there'd be three crosses in it. They'd be people. One would be me. One would be Victor. The third, unseen cross here, would be Corey (CoreyBlack). Corey IS my best friend, and for anyone who hasn't seen his gallery here, take a look. He's revealing himself in his gallery, and it's something that offers unexpected, sometimes quirky riches. My decision to decide, as you so eloquently put it, involves a promise I made to Victor, but it also involves the meaning of that promise in regard to my best friend as well. Thank you for showing me that, and for posting this at a time when Victor and Corey have both shown me that there are people in my intimate life who make me care.