Visibility

This photo is very special to me.

I was at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco in May 2009. As I was taking various shots of the Martin Luther King memorial, letting my camera play with the water coming down from above I walked around the memorial shooting photos from different angles. From below the water wall, above and inbetween the water.

While I was standing above looking out towards the grassy area I noticed this couple. So sweet - obvious granddad and grandson. At first my eyes stuck to them because of the way they were walking (granddad holding grandson by each hand). But then I realised how special this set up was. How unique.

The memorial is based on grey and white-ish tiles. Granddad is wearing green trousers and darktoned yellow colored shirt. Grandson is wearing brown trousers and darktoned orange colored shirt.

Also (and I definately do not mean to step on anyones toes, I am not a rascist) the fact that they are black and that I - as the photographer - know that they are at the Martin Luther King memorial in San Francisco adds another angle to the composition. - I often think of this photo and that day at Yerba Buena Gardens, and whenever I do, I never recall them as being black. I recall them as being grandfather and grandson, wearing colorful clothes on a setting that has (in comparison) very dull colors.

But for them to be there, it just seemed like a set up!

Unfortunately, my labtop stalled three days after I returned to Denmark. I had not had time to make a backup of all my photos. Fortunately, I had uploaded several of my photos from the trip to my Facebook profile.

Unfortunately, that means that the version I do have is grainy as FB (at least back in 2009) compresses images that are uploaded. Also, back then it was unsure if FB owned the rights to the photos that were uploaded to the site. The user agreement indicated that it is FB that owned the photos - so I never uploaded the very best images, as I didn't want to someday find my very best photos published as postcards or circulating the internet. In short, for others to earn money on my "work".

I have send in the photo to a photocopy shop and now I finally have a version of this photo on my livingroom wall. But it is suffering from the FB compression. As you will probably notice if you view this in full size.

But I am sure that you can tell from the composition that this was a tremendious loss for me :-(

 

 

 

 

I call this Visibility - because to me it is about clarifying / highlighting the bonding between the granddad and the grandson. And I find it fitting to start my new area of blogging with this composition. Since I myself, from now on, abandons being anonymous on my blog :)