Photographer as Mime

There is a party game called charades where one or more people try to convey a word or phrase by nonverbal means; pantomime or mime for short. When editing photographs, I often feel like I’m miming visual sensations. The big difference being that neither I nor my audience can fully verbalize what it is that we are after. So, my progression might go as follows, with the quotes being from the viewers to which I am ‘miming’ my image:

“Pretty bird. Sort of dull, though. Not getting much of a feeling from this one.”

“Swoopy patterns. Sort of a lifty motion to it. Still, that railing is overpoweringly stable.”

“Yeah, now he’s less grounded; more floaty, but you lost the wood texture lines that brought out the bird’s texture. There is some good ‘wild’ stuff starting to go on, though.”

‘Getting there. Starting to feel that mountain air. That is one big siskin, though. Looks sort of like super-chicken…”

And so forth. I am feeling something from my picture. I want you to feel that same something. I caper and contort; I gesture, I use all the body-language I have. You look puzzled … but sometimes I do the perfect mime, and you know exactly what I mean. Bingo.

-Julie