Week 5

Week 5: "ljsje"by Elspeth Diederix 

Post Written By: Hannah Zimmerman 

     My blog for week 5 is about a photograph called “ljsje” , which is the Danish word for ice cream. This photograph was taken by my mentor Elspeth Diederix. As the title hints, this picture is of what appears to be a red ice cream fruit bar, melting out into foam and then a liquid puddle on concrete. The ice cream bar is in center frame of the photograph with the pinkish colored puddle spreading around it. It’s a classic popsicle with a wooden stick and indents in the body of the bar.

     This photograph could easily be taken for a study of the action of a frozen treat melting outdoors and giving off the nostalgia of summer and warm weather. However, with my most current class assignment of the use of metaphor within photography, I can’t help but apply it to this photograph.

     I think that the beauty of successful photography lies in the photographer’s ability to allow the viewer to create their own meaning and narrative. I especially believe that in regards to pairing something with something unexpected creates a strong since of metaphor. However, after observing photographers over time, and those who embrace metaphor, some have the ability to use subtle metaphor in their photographs. The use of subtle metaphor seems more challenging to me than more obvious mis-pairings of “things” because it takes more thought and takes the chance of the viewer not being able to identify it.

     So, the detail of this photograph that jumped out to me as subtle was the simple detail of there not being one bite taken out of the popsicle. While I know that sometimes people just accidentally drop a popsicle, I think there is a meaning in just that. Who or why did someone drop this treat? Did they see something or hear something distracting? Did someone bump into them? Did they receive a phone call about something shocking? Was it a child? Was it an adult? Is this uneaten and fallen popsicle a sign for something entirely different in life? Is about the things we want but cannot hold onto? Is it about dreams or desires that we have as children that pass us by into adulthood that we no longer reach for? Is it the memories we leave untouched and let fall away as children? Is about things we think we want but then once we have them we decide we don’t like how it tastes?

     I could go on to list the questions that go through my head when looking at this photograph, but the fact that it causes this reaction is the reason I chose to write about it as my chosen photograph of the week.

     Additionally, I want to use this idea of subtle metaphor within my own photographs or at least reach over time with practice. 

View photograph, "ljsje" by Elspeth Diederix here: 

 http://www.stigtervandoesburg.com/artists/elspeth-diederix# 

My photograph of the week: