April 24, 2005

Cool photos.


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Originally uploaded by John Cohen.
I gave my son John one of the free Flickr accounts I had, and he's uploaded a ton of photos. Here's a particularly cool example!

MORE: A nice thing about the way Flickr works is that if you click on the picture, you'll enter John's "photostream" and can see the other pictures next to it. Whether that answers your questions about what's going on in this picture is a different matter! It's an art project!

YET MORE: If you liked that, but would prefer a different color, try this.

13 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Louis, what's really upsetting you about the picture? Don't you like painting?

Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...

I don't know what they are "saying" that picture is...

but if the government were hiding giant Hostess cupcakes, and you had just busted in and eaten part of one to protest Federal corruption, you would look just like that.

Or if your mom had had a secret affair with Gene Simmons of Kiss. You would like that too.

price said...

Better than the Romero zombies at least.

Ann Althouse said...

Louis, I think that picture does have something to do with beauty.

price said...

Maybe it was Plato who said this, but if everything has its ideal Form, then the closer you get to that ideal, you've found beauty. So, something that is the ideal Form of horror can be beautiful. Or the ideal Form of a paint-covered artist: beauty! Beauty is truth or whatever.

Ann Althouse said...

Louis: To test your theory -- what about a painting of the crucifixion?

The Captain said...

Nice contrast in colors there.

Ann Althouse said...

Louis, would you then have to say that a painting of the crucifixion is art to some people (Christians) and not to others (non-Christians)? And what about paintings like this and this?

Ann Althouse said...

Louis: In this whole comments thread, I've never asserted anything was art. I've only responded to what you said and asked you to focus your ideas, which were accusations, beginning with calling something "sick." Now, you're basically retreating to saying that you know what you like. It seems to me that you don't want to face the hard questions -- which you yourself brought up!

Ann Althouse said...

Louis: you're right that this isn't a law school classroom, but this is the Althouse comments section, and you tripped one of my hot buttons when you called a photo taken by my son (of a wonderful young man who's his friend) "sick."

Ann Althouse said...

louis: well, to be realistic... something was a big deal to you, and you just admitted it didn't you? It was the young man's tongue! Be honest. You tried to turn this discussion into one about art, but then you didn't really want to engage on the definition of art, because that really wasn't the source of your distress!

Ann Althouse said...

And let me add--at the risk of being too hard on poor Louis -- the fact that the picture disturbed you really shows it's a good picture. It's striking. And it's not obscene. Here's a young artist awash in his enthusiasm for paint, and whose choice of black and white then causes his tongue to look weirdly colorful, and the photographer captures the moment. I like it!

Ann Althouse said...

Aw, Louis, don't take it so hard. I never even said it was art. I said it was "cool." You called it "sick." Then you acted like you wanted to talk about art but you didn't. Don't go off in a huff. Think it through!