60 The Shadow

Here I stand on a sunny winter day and glance at the image of brilliance that the white, fine gravel at my feet, returns. Next to me a tree casts its shadow diagonally. In the early afternoon the shadow becomes longer, but it is still possible to recognize in it the original figure. As in a distorting mirror, the feet seem large and the head small. The bag hanging from my right creates an asymmetric impression that can be interpreted in a thousand different ways. The left hand is bent and is only partly seen. The right hand holds the cell phone camera at eye level. It looks short and strange. Fat at the beginning and thin at the end.

Little, dry brown leaves are scattered over the gravel. Also a few cigarette butts. The light is brighter on the upper part of the picture, as if the source of the light is coming from somewhere behind the head, or with a little imagination, as if I am looking into the light in the depth of the picture. The leaves around the head seem to paint a curve around the shadow. As if they had arranged themselves in that way due to an electrical field that the image creates.

The soft shadow of the foliage in the upper left hand corner seems like the shadow that emphasizes the sharp contours of the tree trunk and the image in the middle of the picture. The laws of perspective have accustomed us to see the little head as an object that is far away, but if we ignore them, for example by partly closing an eye or observing from a distance, the image contracts and new possibilities are provided.

The shadow both reveals and hides at the same time. It leaves much room for the imagination. It is possible to see many things in this picture of an individual raising his hand to his head.