“Re:Veal is a multi-layer pun in English intended to invoke the emotional controversy of the Western treatement of young cows (calves) against the abstract resemblance to a Bird of Paradise, in context of the (photo)graphic/cinematic definition of a reveal. In wider context of secular and religious pluralism with regard to sacred cows, the nude legs of women and the revelation of profound secrets, I like very much the depth of your focus that incorporates pores and evidence of erotic vitality, even whimsy (ankle bracelet) in an image that plays ideational abstractionism against corporeal precision.
I think the enigmatic properties intrinsic in this photograph allude to Western fantasies of the seraglio or harem, and to idle odalisques; simultaneously likening those fantasies to the Western nightmare of veal cultivation, against a backdrop of the botanical elegance of the Bird of Paradise. This variety of representational, yet abstract pluralism strikes to the root of every culture; the glamorization of women (shaved legs) and the reactive triggers to libidinal imaginings. The extent to which this form of embrace is sexually gratifying to the participants is left entirely to the eye (and engaged mind) of the beholder.
I’ve always believed that each lightsource can contribute as much information to a scene as another pair of eyes. Your placement of light on both sides of the viewer effects three dissimilar viewpoints, all presenting to the camera a singular shadow of doubt at the center of the photograph that rhymes with the negative spaces, the more intense darknesses, to create a multiplicity of interpretations. I think the two lightsources contribute to a sense of temporal perspective, as though the quest for information in this frame converges in shadow and intense darkness at infinity (the Eschersque Moebius form [or figure-8] at center-top). And sacred mysteries contained by the legs of women are central to the pursuit of erotic exploration. I think E.J. Bellocq might have gone with sepia for the conventional connotation, the conceit of timelessness in these mysteries.
The pose is also definitive of young girls since the late 1940s drooling over their private and collective fantasies of pop idols, so Bobbysox is an intriguing alternative.”
WOW!! I am completely floored by the interpretation given to the picture by Scott Tellington on my request for suggesting a title as I was not able to come up with a suitable one….
