Water Woman Water Woman
Explanation For the only post of this roll, I want to talk about a pair of pictures taken of Wangechi Mutu's sculpture Water Woman. Out of all the pictures I took on this roll, these were really the only ones I felt were worth talking about.

Since this is a publicly displayed piece of art, I thought it'd also be interesting to talk about a couple of the official pictures taken of this piece. They aren't set up the same but I think that that'll be interesting to talk about too.

For my pictures, I think they have a delicate and intimate feel to them. The softness of the background is enough to make it undistracting. It's also not so soft to make it impossible to discern what you're looking at. The mostly cloudy sky makes the lighting quite soft, which against the sculpture looks really natural, with no sharp highlights.

Additionally, in the first picture, the foliage in the foreground makes the subject feel coy. In some ways, it feels a bit voyeuristic. There's a sense of longing in the composition with the head turned away towards the water. Alternatively, the second picture, while it still has some of that voyeuristic quality, feels more confident. We can see the entire figure while still being unable to see the face or front.

In comparison, let's look at a pair of pictures taken for Laguna Gloria. Since I don't have specific permission to reuse this picture and I don't want to deal with that, I'll leave the links for them here (1, 2).

For this first picture, there are a lot of good things about it. It's clear and sharp. The background, like my pictures is soft without making it impossible to discern. Arguably, the colors are more vibrant and appealing. However, for me this picture feels a bit flat. The green-ness is almost a bit overwhelming. It's clearly a sunny day so the highlights on the sculpture are really strong. To me, it's to the point where the sculpture almost looks plastic. Furthermore, by being flanked by trees on both sides of the composition with what look to maybe be palm fronds, there's a kind of vacation postcard kind of look to the picture. It feels a bit fake, a bit too idyllic, a bit too "day at the beach". There's nothing necessarily wrong about that, it's just the vibe I get from the picture.

For the second picture, here's one a bit more similar to my second picture. I actually like this picture a lot, probably more than my own. From the side instead of the back, the confidence I mentioned earlier in my picture is more strongly accentuated. Unlike the previous picture, there appears to be more shade at this angle so the highlights are less distracting. Additionally, from this angle, it feels a bit more sensual. In some ways, this picture is a combination of the two pictures I took. The sentimentality of my first picture is combined with the confidence and entirety of my second picture.