Glass and Ghosts at Twilight by Chipka
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Description
Saturday night.
Laughter stretched the length of Broadway Avenue, tinged blue and orange in shades of twilight and electrified, pressurized sodium vapor. There were red buses with cut-outs in place of windows. Tourists shouted and chortled in an inebriated manner, cheering themselves into frenzies of shrill (or growling) operatic dissonance. Dogs wrote messages on benches, garbage bins, and newspaper boxes emblazoned with dabs and scrawls of graffiti and bird drops. Humans wrote messages in the small, flattened rectangles of touch interface screens: blue-glowing screens, recalling the ghostly depths of some hostile, alien sea.
Saturday night.
Neon flashed in the growing darkness, accented with the dot-dot-dash orthography of passing headlights, passing tail-lights, or the LED advertisements emblazoned on the sides of buses.
It was Saturday night, and I was not interested in the sides of buses. Like a spider I hadn't yet met, I was engaged in the ritual of hunting: of seeking nourishment, not for myself, but for the lens of my camera. I found such sustenance in the most unexpected of ways. I wanted people engaged in life. What I received were reflections, and ghosts in motion, as if trapped in glass, trapped in water, trapped in the strangest possible mirrors. What I received was life with barriers: inside light and outside light and shapes half-focused between the two. I sat (with Corey, in a coffee house) entranced. I sat (with my camera) pointed in a single direction: capturing what I could of light (inside and outside) and the strange human shapes moving from south to north along a small stretch of Broadway Avenue. I like what I captured. I am surprised at how ephemeral that night now seems, and how humans (so solid in their own minds) are little more than happy ghosts...sometimes here, sometimes not, and interesting for all that they fail to reveal.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and hopefully you're all having a fantastic week.
Comments (26)
MrsRatbag
Ghostmaster! This is wonderful, Chip!
Sepiasiren
beautiful werk as per always
Orinoor
Fascinating shot and I love that about happy ghosts, so fitting.
dashboard_jehovah
Nice one! like the bend towards the ghost and such.
jac204
Great capture and description.
bmac62
Wasn't long ago that you wrote about ice and snow. So good to see shorts and flip-flops back on this Saturday night. The world takes on a different flavor when you (or Corey) don't have to worry about biting winds and failing coat zippers:) Superb pic and narrative of life on the both sides of the glass.
jocko500
wonderful shot
bobrgallegos
I so enjoy Your way with words. This photo does seem to catch Ghost trapped between two sides of life. Very well done.
beachzz
I noticed the flip flops right away (of course I did!!) and I know they're real, not ghostly!! Down here in Socal, they're required, you know. You know those signs that say " No shirt, no service"? Down here it says, "No flips flops, no fun!!" Well not really, but they probably should! But, once again, I digress (your work does that to me a lot). Love this shot, it's got that tweaky look you do so well. Did I just say "tweaky" -- yep I did. Not even going to try and explain my way outta that one!1
Lashia
great motion blur- makes me think of a drunken night downtown haha- thanks for sharing! :-)
evinrude
Nicely done!!!
BessieB
A great shot, wonderful work
durleybeachbum
Brilliant,just brilliant!
helanker
WOW! This is such a great shot with the people outside and reflectiond of the inside. And your little narrative to this is just perfect and touching somehow. Love both.
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God Bless.
Feliciti
well seen !! like all this details ,reflections and much more how long i see... great !!
flavia49
very beautiful
auntietk
Oooooohh! That's too cool. What a fabulous result! They're moving just enough to give them that lovely transparent look, and the reflections in the window are excellent. Superb image!
Sea_Dog
Well done. As always your ability to link imagery and prose is amazing.
makron
Very beautiful image. Well done
KatesFriend
Again, the juxtaposing of the ghostly walking men in the cross walk sign. Ironically (where's Alanis Morissette when we need her?) it is these characters that seem more substantial than the genuine humans. The humans seem to be artifacts of the light the illuminates the all important sign. The spectral illusion just being a curious happenstance.
mgtcs
Love the effect. It perfectly reproduces the everyday experience of looking through glass and seeing a strange, new, world (Alice, anyone?). Hard to get that reflection just right on a photo. Well done!
RodS
Fascinating - both the photo and your reflections (no pun intended..) on a warm urban evening. Just superb, Chip!
sandra46
excellent reflection
_timba_
That is very cool, good reflection too.
perlk
Amazing picture!!!!