Wednesday 29 May 2013

Art and Work # 1



Adrian Markis : Cometa Finale

 One of my favourite photographers is the brilliant Argentine Adrian Markis. His image Cometa Final encapsulates a split-second in the life of a child playing with a kite. Adrian's photo becomes a still from a movie that has been paused, and prefaced with the question what happens next?

We see a child by the side of a road focused on what he is doing, flying a kite. The innocence of the child immersed in his kite game is starkly contrasted with the proximity of danger. In the background, a truck can be seen hurtling toward the little boy, and he appears to be dangerously close to a railway line.

Notice too the muted colours, a low, fading sun (symbolising time running out perhaps or a representation of life from beginning to end), all of which gives the image a sombre, foreboding feeling.

In this one framed moment in the life of a photographer, a truck driver and a young child, Adrian Markis captures the fragility of all existence, and how it moves at a pace swallowing up time.

This movement is captured inside a frame of space (or a framed space) simultaneously with danger and the gentle fickleness of life on the planet.

How long will it take the truck driver to reach the child, will the boy notice the approaching truck in time, are there any speeding express trains due?


Staring into this photograph I am wondering about the biography of the distant truck driver hurtling toward the boy (who waits for him at home, why did he decide to drive trucks for a living?), the unseen train driver (same questions), the parents of the child.  Perhaps, in the next few seconds, or frames, all their destinies might cross for better or for worse.

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