#icanseefaces

[c-o-n-f-l-u-x]

Pub (2020) from Everything is Real series #spectrality #illusion #architecturephotography #rorschachtest #reflections #photographytheory #pareidolia #icanseefaces #urbanexploration #spectersofcovid #abandonedplaces #hauntology https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlyE52nFQb/?igshid=s3xbdpna6p24

[groppi-gc]

a perfect start in the day 😍 #icanseefaces #sundaymorning (at Bad Honnef Am Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxoaQ2PgL3xaYt7elHMOSQuOcUc15dKJEipfgE0/?igshid=1s6kficihm9xk

[c-o-n-f-l-u-x]

Empty Buildings (2020) from Everything is Real by Michael C Coldwell. These architectural #Rorschach tests were inspired by my three year old daughter, who defiantly proclaims “everything is real!” whenever her fantasies are challenged. Despite alluding to something more fantastical - spaceships, monsters, objects from another world - everything about these photographs is actually real. The #indexical trace of some real space I have visited is preserved entirely intact, the only creative intervention being the placement of a #mirror, another technology we routinely rely on to tell us the truth. We are tricked here by reflective symmetry into seeing something which is not present, a psychological phenomenon known as #pareidolia - the same #illusion relied on in psychological Rorschach tests. Does what we see in these meaningless forms have something to tell us about ourselves? All photographs have this latent ability, here rendered obvious through the simplest of manipulations. When I myself was little, I used to stand on my head and imagine a world where ceilings became floors, light fittings became alien furniture. In this series I have revisited much of my urban landscape photography from the past few years, trying to see it afresh through the eyes of that child. “Reality” is a trick of perception and there are other ways of seeing it that we have forgotten. Photography should be about seeing through another set of eyes, perceiving banal and everyday things in new ways. Also, I was bored during #thegreatconfinement of #covid19 and had to rely on #postphotography for my fix during the #lockdown. At a time when reality itself seems to be bending out of recognition it might be comforting to consider that how we look at things has a profound ability to alter what we see. #icanseefaces #apophenia #truthclaim #photographytheory https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ifUCLHhPe/?igshid=styu8ylo02tm

[c-o-n-f-l-u-x]

Metamorphosis by Michael C Coldwell. A few years old now. Used as cover for UE’s live album Evolve. #120film #analogue #lightleak #bronica #leedsliverpoolcanal #pareidolia #icanseefaces #postindustrial https://www.instagram.com/confluxcoldwell/p/BxS2NkAH7ua/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5063r4hf17o8