Playing

Do go to Steve McCurry's blog and look at "Power of Play" - marvellous photos interspersed with thoughtful quotes about play.

By the time I came to the end of Steve's blog post, I wanted to play immediately! What struck me about this photo

taken in Australia by Steve McCurry

was the calligraphic quality of the space between the two central figures, which I have tried to draw out with a few manipulations in PhotoShop (Levels, and Mode-Greyscale) -

Playing with the players in a part of the image

I went back to each photo, looking for similar negative space. In another photo, with some manipulation of Levels and especially Blue in the Levels, a blue angel appeared, celestial robe trailing in the slipstream of his flight -

Playing at flying

This is the original, which with the other figures and the setting is so much more interesting -

taken in Mauritania by Steve McCurry

I will definitely not be using these images, however thoroughly manipulated, in my own work ... because they are not "my" work; they derive from someone else's work (the originals are published with permission).

I'm showing a possible way to bring out the ideas that are lurking in a source, such as someone else's photo, that has instinctive appeal.  "Calligraphy of action" is a new thought for me (linked to the current textiles course), but flying figures have often appeared in my sketchbooks.

And negative space ... ah, that holds more than we know ...