Week 2-journal 4

I think a person confronted with this image would be, at first, confused and [hopefully] curious about what is actually being represented. At first glance, it looks like a bizarre building with a crumbling, ivy-covered foundation supporting two topless towers and a triangular roof surmounted by a cross. The cross and the towers are clues to this structure’s religious function, but the doorless, windowless foundation does not fit with common church architectural traits. After a moment it becomes clear that the two structures are spliced together. We achieved this illusion by walking downhill from a vacant lot and taking of photograph of the foundations of an old building from below (I think it used to be a church); the top half a church in the distance peaks over the crest of the foundations. Because the two parts are of roughly similar scale (in the photograph’s perspective) and similar material, the eye is able to combine the forms into a whole: the ruins of the former building and the worn façade of the church come together to form an intriguing, illusory structure. Although this image is constructed of a juxtaposition of two different structures, the illusion of the joined structures suggests both a physical and perhaps a symbolic unity. The wire fence in the foreground suggests an urban setting but the structure is in a kind of no-mans-land of rough, scrubby plants and a vivid blue sky. The lack of human subjects in this photograph, low angle, and bizarre juxtaposition of two disparate structures seems to suggest that a symbolic reading of this image is most appropriate. The viewer might draw a connection between the disrepair of the church towers and the complete destruction of the foundations. Perhaps the church is going the way of the other structure. Perhaps the foundations are symbolic of a crumbling community that no longer cares to or is able to support the church (the towers have fallen into disrepair, the tops are missing and the windows are boarded up). I like the use of photography for this image because traditionally people see the camera as an unbiased, documentary medium, yet this image misleads the viewer’s eye into believing something that doesn’t exist in reality.