Corner Window by auntietk
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Description
When Bill and I went to West Seattle a couple weeks ago and took pictures of the downtown area, I had no idea it would spawn the line of thought I'm currently enjoying.
Seattle (or any city, I presume) from different distances appears to be a different place.
From across the bay it's a nice-looking, small city on the waterfront. Zoom a little, and it's a collection of tall buildings. Zoom a bit more, and you see a wall of downtown bricks and glass, three or four buildings smack up against each other.
Stand on a city street, and you've become part of that pano, one person among many. The vantage point from West Seattle is not part of the experience. A single building looms above. A fountain in a downtown park provides no context ... you could be anywhere. Zoom closer to that fountain, look at one square foot of it, and you're in another world.
So with those sorts of things rattling around upstairs, I've gone back through my files to a day we spent in downtown Seattle early this year. I wanted to see what I had that shows the city in a different way.
This is a department store window on the corner of 5th and Pine. I'm looking through both windows of that corner at the bicyclist ... or am I? If you study the reflections, where they are and where they aren't, you'll start to figure out what's where.
No tricks ... this is only ONE image.
Comments (26)
jayfar
Lovely shot, beautiful reflections.
wysiwig
I was promised there would be no quiz today! Layers upon layers. What is real, what is reflected? This is an excellent image and very complex.
awjay
yeyyyy...great reflection use
cfulton
Transportation, clothing, structures, art, control, observation, shadows, light, reflection, refraction... ... all a part of living! Clive
babuci
You so good at this. Never a simple reflection, you always tell a story or put us into one.
bazza
Great shot and reflections Tara, kinda freaky really lol
GARAGELAND
Top Image!!!!
durleybeachbum
Brilliant, Tara! This is such a stimulating image, full of excitement and brain-teasing interest. I hate tall buildings, but down here I can forget for a while.
helanker
Supetb capture of the city as a reflection. Looks fantastic and we know how much we love such shots :-)
cannonn
superb photo
makron
Superb image. Very well done
thecytron
Great shot!
MrsRatbag
I do love your window shots, and this one is possibly your best yet! Well done!
Ac-Dc
very interesting image, congrats.
Faemike55
Wonderful capture, Tara
bmac62
Like the way you've taken us in this thought experiment from pano perspective to close... What's next? Grand variety of shapes and colors as we look searchingly through two sheets of glass. Lovely Tara trademark shot:)
beachzz
This could be one of those infuriating exam questions that challenges your brain to the max. Or, it would challenge mine at any rate. I love this, and everything that's going on in it. It's full of city life, and all the action, color and motion cities have.
Sea_Dog
Superb shot - so many levels and so much going on; it captures the nature of the city and its complexity. Very creative - well done.
anahata.c
I already know from you, by now, that your reflection shots are real, and all the stuff in them is real. I knew it wasn't a composite---this is what you do with reflection. The fascinating thing about your commentary is that while we get closer & closer, this shot suddenly gives us the cosmos again: It's just a 'corner window' but a whole confluence of things is in it. The interplay of the building windows---across the street---with the mullions of one of the windows (foreground) is real music; and add to that the stuff in the window and the cyclist, walkers, etc: a cornucopia of abstracts! And that red (still dont' know where it's coming from) and the white are perfect bifurcations of the image. And the mullions are lined up very well with the corner of the building across the street. A real reflection shot, teeming & filled with the ambivalence that makes reflection shots what they are. Also, believe it or not, I see a link between this and your "You'll Need a Tray": The same Tara at work, making wholes out of many objects (or takes of objects). Beautiful work all around. (And btw: I never get to say "mullion". Never. I've said it some days just to shake people up: Nothin'. I once made the spectacular joke, "thanks a mullion!"---a real knee-slapper in architectural crowds---nothin! So I'm grateful I got too use it today---even though I'm not sure those are actual mullions. Great job, whatever they are. A cornucopia.)
RodS Online Now!
Fascinating study in reflections, Tara! Lots to look at here - many different views in one image - the guy with the bike makes this scene! Excellent!
Chipka
I look at this shot and the reflections (and realities) within it, and it snaps my mind instantly back to something that I read a long time ago in a story by Jorge-Luis Borghes in which the central character/narrator states: The Bioy Casares recalled that one of the heresiarchs of Uqbar had stated that mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of man. That line has stayed with me through the years and had a rather strange effect on things in Prague, especially things in Prague seen in reflection, let alone things (like a certain goofball) see without the aid of a reflective surface. Anyway, all of that came spiraling back to me when I saw this photo and examined all that it holds. I love what you wrote as well: it's a perfect match to the image in that it defines both the strangeness of reality, and it's subtle riches. The problem with life in general is that we only allow ourselves ONE way of seeing something, when in truth, there are zillions of ways to see ONE thing, or zillions of ways to see other things. A city is never a city, unless you're far away from it. In the midst of it, on a random corner, in front of a random window, or on a stroll down a particular street (shoulder to shoulder) with a dear friend, the city IS something else...a labyrinth of multiple realities like a mad Tarot deck, all of the cards jostling and shuffling and desperately arranging themselves time after time into a new narrative. WOW! You really got my mind to going, and I love the directions its racing off into. This is always a good thing, and maybe like one of the heresiarchs of Uqbar, I'm on the verge of a new philosophical doctrine regarding reflections and transparent planes of glass. Hmmm...WOW! There's some rich material in there! What a shot and what a write-up; you've really gotten my brain into buzzing stimulation with this post! Yeah, I like this a lot!
Orinoor
Chipka is right, what a rich post, visual, thought, fascinating!
lick.a.witch
Like quantum physics, so many realities living side by side. This is one terrific capture! It's no wonder Chip built a tale around it! So deserved! ^=^
lyron
Great capture!!!
Merrylee
Wonderful capture...
francinechristophe
I like this one very much (thanks to Chipka !) I dont wonder that Chipka commented it. I posted, months ago, the interior of a restaurant full of mirrors. It is usually intriguing and Chipka commented it also in his usual style.