When I was
first listening to “Charley’s Prelude” by Don Byron, the music evoked images of
a downcast man in a blue robe and also images of people playing tennis. I was
really confused as to why this music could simultaneously conjure up two such contrasting
images, one being the perfect image of melancholy and the other being a perfect
image of carefree-ness. The music is in a minor key, which probably led to the
first picture, but the rhythm and melody are upbeat and almost carnivalesque,
which is what I’ve determined led me to the other picture. And this project,
then, became an effort to reconcile those two feelings.
I liked the
image of a robe a lot, so I decided to stick with it throughout the project,
and to use it as a symbol for deeper feelings and hidden problems. So I decided
to create pairs of images: one image would be a Snapchat of a person or
persons, and the second image would be a parallel picture, but someone in the
picture would be wearing a robe and a more serious expression. (I wanted to use
a blue robe, because the song feels very “blue” to me, but I was unable to get
my hands on one.) The robe would be the physical representation of any weight
that the person is trying to hide. I wanted to try and express the disparity
between what some people show on the outside and what they’re really dealing
with on the inside. I moved around a lot while growing up, and something I
learned that everyone is good at, no matter where they’re from, is pretending
like everything is okay, hiding their problems from the rest of the world so
that no one really knows what’s going on. This is a theme that’s always stuck
with me, and I think this goes along nicely with what Annie Dillard discusses
in “Seeing.” Her whole article is about seeing and understanding instead of
merely looking. With regards to this project, I especially like the part
towards the beginning where she discusses light and how our eyes can only perceive
30% of it – light at different wavelengths cannot be seen. Also, I believe I
had “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in the back of my head while
working on this project. “Richard Cory” is a poem in which a very popular man
kills himself; the majority of the poem is about how well-liked this man was
and how much everyone admired him, and so his suicide in the last line is very
shocking. Why would someone like that ever kill himself? And the idea is that
no one may ever know what was really going on. I’m not trying to say that the
characters in these photos are all suicidal, I just have met so many people
suffering from real grief and depression and abuse and other heavy burdens and
nobody knows until much later that they needed help.
"Charley's Prelude" - Don Byron
"Charley's Prelude" - Don Byron
Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
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