DESIRE

no clue how lust was followed by grief...

on this thread... Often the price I pay for my soksoky visits here.

Azadeh's clip is lovely with good choice of voices for her profound narrative.

I'd also like to share that i enjoyed Sid's telling images of commercialized Love/Lust. Honestly, the dog stuck behind the car window is my favorite as I relate to him the most, watching the world but directly communicating with one person outside his filtered vision. Whether he's heard or not is a different story. That dog, like me, cannot multitask either, thus is focused on the vibes by that woman in that moment of stuckness. 

As for the last 3 pics, what stands out the most for me is the young man zoomed into his laptop rather than his bro's erotic dance... his "been there done that" kind of expression made me laugh! 

Nice share, Sid. Thank you. 

Sid

Hi there, 

I'm glad you liked it.  The following is that prosaic poem. It's the product of many years of wondering and grieving and looking for a meaning in the loss of a beloved.

Azadeh 

Love, Loss & Grief 

When we speak of

loving someone,

what we mean is

that in that person

the love acts

as a mirror

for that place

within us

which is

love.

That being

becomes the

contact

with ourselves.

When the mirror

shatters,

the grief we feel

is the loss

of the contact

with that place

within us

which is

love.

Azadeh

I viewed your movie.  It is nice, has a good fell to it.  I would even say it had a calming effect on me.   I played it several times to hear the words over and over again.

JJ

I was very tempted to approach him and find out what was he thinking, but did not want to disturb his moment.

Man on the chair

Sid, I've always admired your work. This one is no exception. My favorite is the guy on the chair looking at the mural:
//iranian.com/main/image/135661

Thanks so much for sharing.

Happy Valentine's Day :)

Ari & Azadeh & Nazy

Ari jan, Thanks for being a good sport.  Your observations on #36 is spot on.  The clue on #35 in my eyes is the fact the audiance and the inspector are all wemen.  Something does not fit in this sene and that was your lead.  If you missed these two clues, I don't think you could get #37.  You are left with one emotion, desire!

Azadeh, I will look at your movie tonight.

Nazy, is your question "what is going on in the last 3 pics" answered?

Sorry to leave the party early last night, I had to put my kid to bed:)

LOL, Ari

You're a funny dude! (Well, I'm only sure of the funny part :-)).

Cheers,

Azadeh

Azadeh

Sid & Ari

Hi Sid,

Very Interesting. Can’t wait to see your works, especially the one based on this photo-essay.  I love making experimental videos, but don’t seem to find enough time to edit my numerous video shots. I have finished and uploaded on Youtube one that is coincidentally about love. However, it’s not a happy subject like the Valentine’s Day. It’s about Loss and Grief (regarding my younger sister.) I wrote the text and directed the video (the young woman is playing the role of my sister in heaven – she could not remember her lines, yet she wanted to be in front of the camera :-). The mature woman is a professional actor as you could tell by her recitation. She is playing the role of the Goddess to whom my sister has gone.)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu-0NLslLkk

..............................

Hi Ari,   

I can't understand a word of your last comment :-). What is an  ''unbeliever'' in this context?  

Anyway, as you have mentioned the photo #35, my take on it is that it is an example of non-engagement between a man and a woman. The guy is not interested in the gal; he's interested in the image he is taking OF her. In most of these photos, either there is no human contact or if there is, it's mediated - like #35.  What do you think?

Cheers,

Azadeh

Sid, you're kidding!

Ari & Azadeh

Ari, You keep saying she, she, she.  Think out of the box!

Azadeh, some more info on your first comment.  I am actually doing what you visualized,  Bringing music, sound and movement to images.  I have produced a dozen short films 3-5 minutes long.  Some are complete and the rest close to completion.  I will be releasing them on IC soon.  You will find a little Fellini in some of them.  In your recent comment you quoted Carlos Castaneda as saying” we should stop the world, here and now".  In a way that is what these pictures have done.  When you simply stop. you see so much more.  And no, the game is not over yet, but I think you just started another game:-)

Sid: '' but the game is not over yet.''

Of course it's not over yet.

We live in the frightening world of the photo # 9 (within us: dead.)  The game is not even actualized to be over. It's still a potentiality, an idea. Too many obstacles for love to manifest itself: distances, falsehood, a lot of falsehood,  too much light, too little light, aloneness, loneliness, sadness, blindness to the surrounding, self-absorption, carriers, comings and goings to wherever, rush, rush, no time for living, no time for love! And love is a money-making industry :-(

As Carlos Castaneda would say: we should stop the world, here and now!

Cheers,

Azadeh

OK Sid, emotional take.

Azadeh your go. 

Ari, Azadeh, Nazy

Ari, You first under analyzed, and now over analyzed.  The glass is irrelevant.  Azadeh is on the right track, follow her nose.  I give you one hint on the last image, things are not what they seem.

Azadah, Great clip.  You got it.  So far you are outsmarting our best analyst on this site (Ari) but the game is not over yet.  

Nazy, How did I miss you walking around Union Sqr.with a Victoria Secret bag?  You could have been in this essay as a VS model! Great story.

very tantalizing

My favorite, if I have to chose one, is #28.

Gald to oblige, Sid.

#35: What's is served at a bar table with a straw inside it? No, not the glass but the beauty to the right of it. And the straws are real bamboo! The body lines of the girl and the photographer combine to mimic the outline of the glass.

#36: We really want those legs to part away from their inward angle. The outwardly angled open door isn't afraid to say it for us. Also traces of #35 becasue there we wouldn't mind a peek at that LCD viewer.

#37. Picasso girl. Don't let the brain fill in the rest of her face in shadow. Just trust exactly what you see (concentrating on her lips helps) and suddenly there's symmetry: a male and a female profile facing away from each other. Her hair or his?

Storytelling à la Sid? à la Fellini? :-)

For some reason, I kept thinking of Fellini. Yes, if you make a short video of these fabulous photos, and add the music from  La Saraghina Dance in Fellini's 8 ½, we’ll have a masterpiece - which is already there, but needs some moving & shaking:

 //www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBf7d_LpTwk              

The best photo: #18.  Coincidental? Who cares :-).

Naughty Sid!

Interesting, artistic, and sensual. I liked them all, but 15 and 16 were eerily beautiful.

At the end of a demonstration in San Francisco's Union Square, I stepped into Victoria's Secret. I left the store an hour later with a pink bag, containing things which were nobody's business! Just outside the shop at Union Square, I came face to face with one of my Iranian friends. Breathless, my friend looked so relieved to see me! He had some kind of emergency with his car and a dead cell phone and needed not only a cell phone, but access to phone numbers of mutual friends in the vicinity, which explained why he was so happy to see me! I walked around dutifully with him while he sorted things out, wishing I was not carrying the screaming pink bag! Your photographs of those women with the pink bags brought back some memories!

Thanks for sharing the fun photos!

P.S. What WAS going on in those last photos?

Marjan & Ari

Marjan; Glad you liked the essay.  My pictures of braws are not near as sophisticated as the ones you take, I guess that means there is room for growth. Ari; I expected more analysis from you.  For example what's going on in the last three pics!Sid. 

Beautiful compositions!

SUPERB! EXCELLENT! WONDERFUL!

Sid, thank you so much for your exquisite photos.