Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Seeing 2013 (#32)

For your consideration:

A study in tones, subtle geometries and topography which by prior arrangement conspire to elucidate a universally recognized form of sensual beauty, presented with an unyielding aura of confidence and power.  This tableau exists purely in two dimensions, yet by dint of both subtle perspective and continuos gradations it speaks of a fully-realized body offered without restraint, wholly present, fearless in pose and proximity.

I presume the viewer shares an evolutionary kindred with the entry's subject; intimate familiarity with one's own species makes recognition of a familiar model having a common pedigree swift and intuitive.  And yet, perhaps not.  Incongruities challenge the standard assumptions.  Even for the fairest of Scandinavian clans this inhabitant features a considerable degree of translucence.

Then there's the small matter of the navel. (Everyone has one, right?  Right?)  This model's seems to be an "innie" . . . however, something's amiss.  The symmetry is simply too perfect. Set off and encircled by an orbital-like ring, this hardly seems the remnant of an umbilical cord of any organic constitution.

An acute disconnect from the clan of Courbet's L'origine du Monde is certain.

What then can we divine from this semi-realized, modestly ethereal torso?

At the very least this visitor bares witness to the reality that regardless of how authentically presented—nakedly honest, if you prefer — ultimately we can never know the true depths of our fellow travelers; beneath the exteriors of body and personality to which we are accustomed reside untold elements of mystery.  Indeed, all of us harbor interior chambers unknown — and perhaps ultimately inaccessible – even to ourselves.

In recent times astronomers, physicists and cosmologists have been investing prodigious intellectual and material resources to in the pursuit of dark matter.  Without it, explaining the realty of gravity is a real problem.

This entry's subject suggests we might alter the parameters of the search.

Dark matter, indeed.

Nude, #7359-7D

© 2013 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details:  August 11, 2013, Canon 7D; f/3.2 @ 1/250 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 400;
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM @ 57mm

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Visit my full photographic repository at jwmurray.smugmug.com