Post by saint on Aug 27, 2010 12:33:50 GMT -5
With the Notorious remaster looming, it's got me thinking a lot about the cover shot again. For some reason I've always found the picture deeply evocative. Not necessarily for the faces or grade of film stock - even though these things are all part of the greater whole - but the landscape behind. The grading on the clouds and the way it creates a canopy over the land just sucks me in, and I wish I could step into the shot and go look around.
I think my intense feelings towards it are to do with it perfectly capturing that woozy point between day and night; the transient moment that won't hold still - making it feel all the more precious - and evening begins to tantalize with the promise of what the night might hold in store.
There's just something about it that keeps the image stuck in my head like a bookmark in the book of my life. Every time I see the picture I instantly shuttle back to being 16 again. It's quite autumnal, too; it feels like that point around now in the UK, when the Earth is beginning to tilt on its access mixing more yellow into the sunlight, and shadows begin to stretch.
To me, it's possibly one of the most successful attempts at capturing the power of a gorgeous sky - and if you've ever tried photographing a sunset (or sunrise) only to have the photos prove deeply underwhelming, you'll know what I mean.
That said, it is a masterwork of composition, too. The way SLB, NR and JT are all looking to different points, with only SLB actually allowing you in. The way the three faces bounce your eyes down to Simon, who is giving you some major smolder. This isn't something new, as all decent group pics have the individual faces aiding the directions within the shot; but for some reason, JT's distant gaze towards something going on behind us really works for me. It gives the overall shot an actual 360-degree effectiveness; it's not just what we see with out 20-20 perspective, but also what's going on behind us too. We are actually inside the photo - the moment - as well.
The presence of Christy Turlington? Well, I can take it or leave it, but in terms of the balance of the shot, and her aid to perspective... well, it all just adds up to a great, synergic shot. No one aspect being any greater than the total sum of the whole.
Mysterious. Evocative - and just plain lovely.
I think my intense feelings towards it are to do with it perfectly capturing that woozy point between day and night; the transient moment that won't hold still - making it feel all the more precious - and evening begins to tantalize with the promise of what the night might hold in store.
There's just something about it that keeps the image stuck in my head like a bookmark in the book of my life. Every time I see the picture I instantly shuttle back to being 16 again. It's quite autumnal, too; it feels like that point around now in the UK, when the Earth is beginning to tilt on its access mixing more yellow into the sunlight, and shadows begin to stretch.
To me, it's possibly one of the most successful attempts at capturing the power of a gorgeous sky - and if you've ever tried photographing a sunset (or sunrise) only to have the photos prove deeply underwhelming, you'll know what I mean.
That said, it is a masterwork of composition, too. The way SLB, NR and JT are all looking to different points, with only SLB actually allowing you in. The way the three faces bounce your eyes down to Simon, who is giving you some major smolder. This isn't something new, as all decent group pics have the individual faces aiding the directions within the shot; but for some reason, JT's distant gaze towards something going on behind us really works for me. It gives the overall shot an actual 360-degree effectiveness; it's not just what we see with out 20-20 perspective, but also what's going on behind us too. We are actually inside the photo - the moment - as well.
The presence of Christy Turlington? Well, I can take it or leave it, but in terms of the balance of the shot, and her aid to perspective... well, it all just adds up to a great, synergic shot. No one aspect being any greater than the total sum of the whole.
Mysterious. Evocative - and just plain lovely.