She came from Planet Claire

A photograph captures a moment in time.

Whether it’s a photo of person or a thing, it will never look the same, again. The sun, the atmosphere, the temperature, the movement of the particles causing the light to scatter will never, ever yield the same look again. Sure the change might be subtle, so subtle you might not notice, but the change happens.

But a photo doesn’t capture that moment. What it captures is a facsimile of that moment. It captures the moment, not as your eye saw it, but as the camera saw it. The light sensor on a camera is not the same as the human eye, so it will never capture exactly what you see in that moment.

Want to have your mind blown? Think about this. Every human is different. So no person will ever see things exactly as you see them.

This photo is a captured moment in time, a moment at a dinner party when people were dancing to She came from Planet Claire by the B-52s. I liked the stillness of the owl while everyone was dancing around and in front of it.

This photo does not reflect what I saw or felt at that moment. Instead I’ve chosen this photo because it almost imparts a sense that is opposite of the actual moment. Owls are traditionally harbingers of death. By making the photo black and white and placing the owl in the frame, the image has ominous implications. The person dancing is barely seen, just their hand and wrist forming a nice curve around the corner of the frame, which contrasts with the straight line of the staircase behind the hand and owl.

Finally, there’s the title of the work: She came from Planet Claire. Does the song reflect somehow on the image? I’ll leave that for you to decide.