Visceral Response

The visual I chose for my Visceral Response is a picture I took myself.  It is simple yet complex in it's own unique way.  I took the picture while my sister and I were up in Rockville, Utah taking family pictures for one of our co-workers.  Now my sister and I are in no way experts at photography but we have through combined efforts quite a few years of experience/practice on how to work a sophisticated camera, knowledge of lighting, and editing.  That being said, this particular picture was taken with a commonly known Apple produced smartphone.  It was edited with the basic software within the picture application on an iPhone.  While we were wrapping up the session, I was walking down this dirt road in Grafton Utah, and my eye caught the lines of this fencing.  The diagonal line of the fence flows to the vanishing point and draws the eyes to look that direction. Behind the vanishing point there is a horizon line that eludes to Zion in the background.  The vertical lines of the fence create height, leading to the center creating depth.  The vertical lines are accentuated even more with the perpendicular crossroads that is created by the horizontal barbed wire. Which almost is forgotten due to the fact the fence line draws the eyes past them. The lines are what makes the picture. They bring dimension making it visually stimulating to many.

Once I had captured the picture, I noticed the fence line draws the eyes mostly to the left side of the picture. There is sense of open space on the right side, predominantly toward the top of the frame.  This eludes the feeling that something is coming into that space. Though, we don't know definitively what the space for it allows for the observer to imagine what could be to the right of the frame. The reason I edited the picture to black and white is because the colors didn't matter to me.  Though it is rich with color, because I mean come on, it's Zions, I didn't necessarily feel that the colors mattered as much. The lines and dimension were the focal point to me, and is what drew my eye. When I made it black and white, the contrast amplified.  The change is what made the 'feel goods' come in full force. The contrast added texture to the picture. You can in a sense feel the rustic atmosphere.  It has history, character, and a story to tell.  The black and white helps add to the visual I was trying to get across when capturing this picture. The lack of color, allowed for vibrancy to be focused elsewhere, and moves for us to reflect on what once was.  This abandoned field once had a purpose. It's the ghost of the past, and a skeleton of something that used to be alive and flourishing. This picture to me is beautifully simple, and when I lined up the frame to take the picture it became even more beautiful, it became a story.