war is not healthy for children and other living things well said and well done

Excellent for.

Brilliant words and a superb image!

Makes a super abstract and we have yet another poetess!

Fantastic picture!

This is a superior image and very human in all of the ways that it should be. Is there beauty in war planes? Yes! Absolutely. I happen to think there is exquisite beauty and grace in weapons...a sword (for all that it is meant to do) is still a thing of beauty...I actually saw something similar--first hand--in the town of Cesky Krumlov. I was in a bar, smoking like a fiend among others smoking like fiends; Pavl and I were stealing each other's cigarettes. One of the local characters was also in the bar...a half-homeless man. He wanted a cigarette. He didn't want to beg for one. He wanted an exchange instead. He wanted to be fair, but all he had to offer in trade was a rather lethal knife. He offered to give it to me, in exchange for a cigarette. He informed me, in broken, poetic English: "Is good knife." He flicked it open mimed the act of cutting meat. "You eat with it." It was a killing knife, intended for one thing, according to common "logic" but Wensla (I learned his name much, much later) wasn't thinking about that purpose of a knife. He wasn't interested in killing. Eating was more important and he was willing to trade dinnerware in exchange for tabak. I suspect Wensla is a Buddha of sorts. (I accepted the knife, then traded it back to him (since he needed it more than I did) by telling him (through Pavl's translation) that if he took our beer mugs back up to the bar, I'd give him a knife in exchange: that's a true story, but it sounds like a fractured fairy-tale with a pun in there, somewhere.) As for this image...it's astonishingly gorgeous. It's like a wasp, a rattlesnake, a cobra...elegant and beautiful, intriguing and complex...and yes, it can be lethal...but why focus only on that. As you've so elegantly put it: everything is separate from its function, and only a reductionist (or a Sith) would focus only on its darker nature! Okay, now I'm gonna stop rhapsodizing but before doing so, I'll say that I love this image. It's quite exquisite. And I love your poetic writing!

A designer's dream, an engineer's creation, a photographer's artistic expression. Your image and your poetic words say what I am always trying to say. Chip wraps it up very nicely in his comment above. Well done you:*

excellent abstract image

Your words are correct Tara, but in all truth, unless you were an incredibly good shot, the gunners aimed for the 'aircraft.' Yes! I know this sometimes caused a pilots death (you are right), but if a gunner spent his time trying to hit the pilot (man), the gunners aircraft would in all likelihood be shot down.. Now, if it was a machine gun used by infantry (soldiers), it would used pure and simply to kill people... Sorry, I AM NOT not picking.. Your picture as the other in this series has been is of the highest quality and I'm somewhat jealous that you got so close! lol Well done.. Rob

Oh, beautifully done! If you didn't know the function you'd just be lost in the lovely curves and geometry of the composition. Close up as only you can do! Bravo!

It's good to be able to see beauty in forms, whatever the original purpose.

Deadly yes. art and beauty, yes. they served a deadly purpose to save out lives and that of others from those that would rather do the opposite to us and ours. A sad world at times that we live in.

I've said it before, there are no good wars but sometimes their are necessary ones. You have made art from an engine of death and maybe that's as good as it gets. And yet I can't help thinking of the Syrian soldiers who have put their lives on the line because they refuse to serve a madman.

This is beautiful.

Incredible idea here. Bravo !

Well done abstract!