Surreal reality.

This post is going to be very similar to one of my A level Artist studies from back at school... when I was a sad lonely teenager with a demon of an art teacher who wouldn't shut up about how proud she was of her divorce....

"I'm SoRrY mIsS I jUsT cOuLdN't ImAgInE sOmEoNe LoViNg YoU iN tHe FiRsT pLaCe!"

My focus here is on an a photographer that I really admire.

And thats Gilbert Garcin.

My man is french and is 89 years old and only started making his photographic pieces in his retirement aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnndddddddd those are the only facts you are going to get because his work is far more interesting... no offence to the man.

Sorry Mr Garcin

Now I'm sure that I'm going to misinterpret a lot of Mr Garcins work because I am just a dumb fuck university student. But this is what his work means to me...

I'm always fascinated about the ideas of a bigger universe or a simulated reality... This piece brings an entirely new meaning to having the blanket taken off your eyes... It's like removing the horizon only to reveal a bigger more enticing one behind it... Only question is... whats behind the next blanket? Its like when humans realised that the universe didn't stop at the sky instead it went of for infinity... Only for us to question later if there was something bigger than our infinity. 

Now this piece to me has an obvious meaning. Two objects (In this case rocks) leaning against each other in order to stay upright... one cannot stand without the other. Like in a similar relationship between to objects... humans. This is a relativity simple idea that many other artists adopt. But Mr Garcin here ads another construct to the image... Himself. And he is also leaning. Now I have different thoughts on what this could mean... 

Is he trying to understand how the rocks are leaning on each other by imitating them therefore studying how human relationships work? But how can he do that when he only has half the picture... Where is his other? Maybe hes lost his other and hes trying to remember back to when they were around.

You are your own puppet. This to me shows in a really good way how we are kind of in control of our own lives.... Its just really hard to control... If it was easy we would all be the people we wanted to be and have no problem achieving what we wanted in our experience. But by the character (I should mention all these dudes are Mr Garcin himself) Being off balance it shows that controlling your life is not easy. And just as I was writing this I noticed that he added a road... Now he could of just left the ground as a rocky wasteland.... But a road could mean that things go down it... These COULD represent the challenges life throws at us... Paying the bills, Telling the girl at school that you like her... Getting out of the way of a moving car.

This one is quite a sad one because it represents the saying "what must come up must come down" However he's put a twist on it. Imagine a person working for their entire life to achieve a goal like reaching the top of a mountain with all their problems and baggage weighing them down... And then just as they reach that goal...

After all that hard work...

Find out that all that's left to do is go back down... Something that for their entire life they've been avoiding. 

Maybe the bottom of the mountain is eventually death who knows. 

This piece carries a similar demeanour to the last one. In which it shows what the meaning of life is. In this case... what do you leave behind after death???
You spend your entire life working... building a legacy... memories around yourself. Only to pass away and leave behind what you did. In this case the ring in the sand is your life's work and memories which when you die is all that's left of what you did.
Its also got a religious touch to it which resembles Christianity's saviour Jesus. Who in the bible is said to have carried his cross through a city before being killed on it. No I'm not saying that the dude "supposedly" was killed on a cross as well in fact its very far from that. But what it was, was a tribute to his faith.
But this image should really be three parts. The last one being...

Sand blows away in the wind.
Leaving only a cross...
Your name.