the heart of human existence

yesterday we had an exercise in photography with a dude quite famous who has done many magazine covers etc (you can find his site here: http://jonathandevilliers.com/ ) - the aim of the exercise was to take 10 photos between the train station near my school and a garden not so far off. this is one of the photos that my team mate took. the photographer said it was his favorite photo, that it was poetic, but that it didn't make sense if we tried to explain it.

instinctively i disagreed (silently :p ; my discreet asian character restrains me from outbursts or prolonged arguments using a microphone and in front of the rest of the school.) but i just felt that there was so much in the photo that could be explained. firstly, simply, the ubiquitous presence of nature, in the midst of an artificial construction. emotionally, visually, the sparrow embodies an innocence, a fragility, the sole spot of color that is perched in all tranquility upon cold, harsh, dead wire, in the middle of a monochrome nowhere. isn't that the crux of our existence? in every story there is at least a conflict - always the juxtaposition of opposing elements that shouldn't co-exist, but do. and their co-existence is the spur that provokes endless suffering, whatever the scale. the sparrow could stand for any range of virtues and blessings, poetic joy - the wire the relentless, unforgiving, invasive, prosaic reality of ugly.

that's what this image whispers to me anyway (slightly sadly)