she would often either fall asleep or cry after making an image

July 25, 2013 11:02 AM

"Arresting Portraits of Children in Water" by Wendy Sacks [Some nudity.]
posted by andoatnp (19 comments total)

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.
There on the pendant boughs her crownet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chaunted snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
posted by yoink at 11:05 AM on July 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

These are pretty great. And then you read the titles.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:06 AM on July 25, 2013

what's wrong with the titles?
posted by sweetkid at 11:11 AM on July 25, 2013

what's wrong with the titles?

If a picture's worth a thousand words, why are you appending a TL;DR to those words?
posted by explosion at 11:20 AM on July 25, 2013

If a picture's worth a thousand words, why are you appending a TL;DR to those words?

The titles are mostly one or two words. The text is a piece about the photographer by someone else; not something the photographer appended to the works.
posted by yoink at 11:26 AM on July 25, 2013

wait, do you think there should be no titles at all? Boy and Tree is TL;DR? I'm not snarking, genuinely confused.
posted by sweetkid at 11:28 AM on July 25, 2013

Yeah, I was implying that a title is a TL;DR.
posted by explosion at 11:28 AM on July 25, 2013

Gotcha. I disagree, most photographs have names.
posted by sweetkid at 11:29 AM on July 25, 2013

I was referring to titles like "Terriroire Inconnu", "Canopies", "Jasmine's Odyssey", and "In a Child's Hands", which are somewhere between pretentious and saccharine.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:45 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Hmmm. These kind of creep me out. They seem kind of death-like. I have an eight year old daughter whom I worry about constantly. Don't need artistic photographs of kids submerged in water looking eerie to make think of death by accidental drowning.
posted by PuppyCat at 11:48 AM on July 25, 2013 [6 favorites]

I agree with puppycat very death-like and a bit disturbing for parents, I'm sure...and even more disturbing for parents who may have lost a child.
posted by HuronBob at 11:59 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was referring to titles like "Terriroire Inconnu", "Canopies", "Jasmine's Odyssey", and "In a Child's Hands", which are somewhere between pretentious and saccharine.

Fair enough to think they're a bit pretentious (I agree) but I was confused by the idea (not by you) that photographs must not have titles.
posted by sweetkid at 12:22 PM on July 25, 2013

Funny I was thinking the opposite of death. Amniotic fluid.
posted by surplus at 1:47 PM on July 25, 2013

> There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
> That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.
> ...
> Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
> Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
> To muddy death.
> posted by yoink at 2:05 PM on July 25 [+] [!]

Yeah, just that.

Only, y'know, kids. Those eyes made me think of The Bridge of Sighs (Thomas Hood, 1840, known to me from the 1912 edition of The Oxford Book of English Verse, which is online.)

Take her up tenderly
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
Ere her limbs frigidly
Stiffen too rigidly,
Decently, kindly,
Smooth and compose them;
And her eyes, close them,
Staring so blindly!
...
Take her up tenderly
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly
Young, and so fair!
Look at her garments
Clinging like cerements;
Whilst the wave constantly
Drips from her clothing;
Take her up instantly,
Loving, not loathing.

Touch her not scornfully;
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and humanly;
Not of the stains of her,
All that remains of her
Now is pure womanly.

Make no deep scrutiny
Into her mutiny
Rash and undutiful:
Past all dishonour,
Death has left on her
Only the beautiful.
Still, for all slips of hers,
One of Eve's family—
Wipe those poor lips of hers
Oozing so clammily.

Loop up her tresses
Escaped from the comb,
Her fair auburn tresses;
Whilst wonderment guesses
Where was her home?
...

(there's more flagellation where that came from.)(Yes, I have kids.)
posted by jfuller at 1:58 PM on July 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

yeah, they didn't make me think of death at all so much.
posted by sweetkid at 2:00 PM on July 25, 2013

Haunting, delicate, beautiful. yoink, that's exactly what I first thought of.
posted by glasseyes at 3:49 PM on July 25, 2013

For me, these evoke Millais' Ophelia drowned, but with less foliage.
posted by Scram at 7:59 PM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Immersed in water, wrapped in sensation, and engaged in their individual, slow-moving interior dialogue--only the faintest hint composes their faces, of that, just the peaceful aspect. Portraits of people, somewhat tolerant of onlookers, living in the moment.

Anyhow, not wishing to be you, they would let you be them, if you could.
posted by mule98J at 7:48 AM on July 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

that's cool mule98J.
posted by sweetkid at 8:22 AM on July 26, 2013