"Uncanny Valley Effect." The spaces between Reality and Illusion.
Been away for a while with someone special. Nice to have a break from thinking, writing or posting on here but I return now to my cave on the outskirts refreshed.
ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN
Sometimes it's hard to separate reality from illusion- fact from fiction. It has always been difficult to tell what is truth... as truth itself can be fluid but now it is harder than ever to decide. Does it really matter?
Does water always run downhill?. Well.....not on every occasion. Vertical flower head ~meet sticky water.
I sat overlooking the 'city in a bowl' with the great bulk of Ben Cartwright looming to the north, covered in autumn snows, a gateway to the Highlands, and thought ahead to the race wars to come and the last false promise of the final crusades before religion died completely within the human psyche. Future, fact, or fiction. you decide....
Cities melt and turn into glass, oceans freeze, skies collapse, but a weak pulse remains in the patient.
A new dawn brings fresh raindrops. A long summer of rain. Look much closer though. Have you ever seen paintings appear within the raindrops... an entire art gallery in fact. - I call this one "dolphins leaping."
The River Clyde at Clydebank on a still evening. Fish could be heard coming up to kiss the air in mid- channel so clear the hour- just before spells and wonders unfold with nightfall.
During daylight (the deceiver) I wait in a notorious haunt above the city for darkness to fill my life. The true sight of "dust." Everyone is attracted in some way/degree to the darker side. Ask Alexander Trocchi about that one.
A brand new sculpture appears beside the cornfields. The Renfrewshire Raptor.
A bee in close up detail underneath... is nothing like a furry teddy bear but a strange alien life form instead -concealed in colourful robes. Look too closely at it and the 'uncanny valley' aspect appears. Especially under a microscope. Size matters- much larger and it would be monstrous and horrifying indeed... instead of small and cuddly looking. No makers stamp visible yet though in all the subjects tested so far but I persist in my mission, undaunted.
Flowers in George Square. Took this as it reminded me of 1960s flower power vs gun authority photos. Roses placed into rifles etc. My modern interpretation of that period echo in old photographs.
As I could wait no longer I descended via shady lanes ,tunnels and underground streets into another realm. All cities change character at night... or maybe just the characters change.
Illusion or real? You decide.
As true night falls I can once again walk under clear skies and cool air, leaving Glasgow's underground chambers for another day.
Many predators walk in the dark places of this world. Will you be kissed, cuddled... or cut apart tonight? Pathways and choices for everyone in life.
Glasgow's lanes can be very dark indeed but surprisingly empty anytime I pad through them of an evening, now, claws within paws, paws stuck firmly in pockets. I find myself surprisingly nostalgic for old time prostitutes hanging around this area- very dead city centre without them these days- so many things have changed here since my teenage years in this once thriving metropolis. This place used to be jumping back then! Retro visions from the 1960s right up until the 1990s flash before my eyes like a silent movie running.The once busy shopping streets filled with real shops, the heaving mass of people on pavements, the pub life. Still as a frozen corpse here now though. ( Fact. This city has lost almost half a million people since the 1930s.)
Darker and darker the lanes got.. matching my mood.
Up and up I travelled.. searching everywhere...Grail questing.....Sniffing the shadow-lands for prey.
"There is always a light that never goes out." I told myself.
What I needed now was a sign from above. Sweet Satan back in Heaven- save me! at # Satan back in Heaven .com
No illusion this....
No fear now either. Just the woman of my dreams descending to earth... from the mothership. Such sparkling eyes.... :o)
PPS....This post was also partly inspired by several explicit and gruesome crime novels I've read recently- about serial killers destroying women in a variety of ways. All bestsellers... all written by women...presumably for women mainly. Didn't really understand the 50 shades craze for bondage and torture books in every mainstream bookstore a while ago either. I preferred the Duke of Burgundy myself which was a clever twist on a very old subject. Didn't get the worldwide popularity of them or the amount of folk reading and taking about them in every office. The Marquis De Sade got locked up for that sort of thing but now its fashionable it seems... as long as you are a good looking millionaire of course and not some guy from a council estate tying up girls in a bedroom.
Come to think of it... me just not understand females at all........! :o)
Can't have the girls having all the fun though.... can we? # the last male writer on planet earth... or so it seems from the recent choices presented on the book sales table in my local library over the last few years :o) Having said that a good book is a good book.
Hi Anabel, I like to ring the changes. Felt really good to visit the lanes again as I like prowling around in the dark. Always have. A proper Boo Radley me. Makes photography interesting as I was not alone and had an entire portfolio to shoot, a willing young model and everything else. Ticked all the boxes.
Hi Carol, Your probably right but I like the way familiar places totally change with darkness into something more sinister and I love the colours at night, especially after rain. Most of the night shots were taken on the way back from Edinburgh trips with Belle De Jour. Ben Cartwright is a long standing quip among Munro baggers here "Done em all, including Ben Cartwright from the back end." Bonanza the TV series was very popular on TV during the 19600s, early 1970s and many outlying estates UK wide were given the Ponderosa tag as it took ages to get into the city centre from them just like that famous outlying ranch. Hence the outlying mountain. When I can be bothered I put a lot of additional stuff into certain posts... like this one is all hints or clues to a range of different cult classic films and books. Young Adam, Under the Skin, Manhunter, etc that most will not even be aware of. For instance the human relationships in Autohighography are deliberately shaded towards classic primate behaviour in a semi David Attenborough way as so much of our unconscious reactions to things can be traced right back to our primitive roots without being aware of it at all. Whether they are good clues and hints is another matter entirely but I find it amusing to put them in :o)
Hi Mike, Cheers for the comment. It was a variety of different photos taken and I had to think of a way to stitch them all together. Probably not do anything like it again however as it has had scant interest so far despite taking me ages to produce some of the photos. Most folk prefer straightforward happy clappy picture postcard stuff and its far easier to bang out that than anything complex and experimental, dark and serious. Still don't get the 50 Shades of Grey effect though and its worldwide popularity but then again I'm a man. Watched it a couple of days ago on TV and The Duke of Burgundy is light years ahead as an interesting film and script as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it was the religious aspect, nucular threat, or reference to street prostitution in this post (a visual thrill only I have to confess) but I seem to have lost two regulars and gained nothing :o) Or maybe I'll take up writing porn novels instead as they will probably sell much better than my current set of books online... and that's the truth!
Your photos are fantastic, I really enjoyed this post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Linda - a bit of departure from your usual mountains though! Don't go wandering through too many dangerous, dark places .....
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the characters that change at night in cities (and large towns).
ReplyDeleteBen Cartwright sounds like a bloke - are you sure that wasn't your special person? ;-)
Cheers Linda
ReplyDeleteHi Anabel,
ReplyDeleteI like to ring the changes. Felt really good to visit the lanes again as I like prowling around in the dark. Always have. A proper Boo Radley me. Makes photography interesting as I was not alone and had an entire portfolio to shoot, a willing young model and everything else. Ticked all the boxes.
Hi Carol,
ReplyDeleteYour probably right but I like the way familiar places totally change with darkness into something more sinister and I love the colours at night, especially after rain. Most of the night shots were taken on the way back from Edinburgh trips with Belle De Jour.
Ben Cartwright is a long standing quip among Munro baggers here "Done em all, including Ben Cartwright from the back end."
Bonanza the TV series was very popular on TV during the 19600s, early 1970s and many outlying estates UK wide were given the Ponderosa tag as it took ages to get into the city centre from them just like that famous outlying ranch. Hence the outlying mountain.
When I can be bothered I put a lot of additional stuff into certain posts... like this one is all hints or clues to a range of different cult classic films and books. Young Adam, Under the Skin, Manhunter, etc that most will not even be aware of.
For instance the human relationships in Autohighography are deliberately shaded towards classic primate behaviour in a semi David Attenborough way as so much of our unconscious reactions to things can be traced right back to our primitive roots without being aware of it at all.
Whether they are good clues and hints is another matter entirely but I find it amusing to put them in :o)
A very different sort of post indeed! Thought provoking and read through a few times to get lost in the words and images
ReplyDeleteHi Mike,
ReplyDeleteCheers for the comment. It was a variety of different photos taken and I had to think of a way to stitch them all together. Probably not do anything like it again however as it has had scant interest so far despite taking me ages to produce some of the photos.
Most folk prefer straightforward happy clappy picture postcard stuff and its far easier to bang out that than anything complex and experimental, dark and serious.
Still don't get the 50 Shades of Grey effect though and its worldwide popularity but then again I'm a man. Watched it a couple of days ago on TV and The Duke of Burgundy is light years ahead as an interesting film and script as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe it was the religious aspect, nucular threat, or reference to street prostitution in this post (a visual thrill only I have to confess) but I seem to have lost two regulars and gained nothing :o)
Or maybe I'll take up writing porn novels instead as they will probably sell much better than my current set of books online... and that's the truth!