Swimmer Girl

The ability to create art is one of the most profound abilities of human beings. There are an infinite number of genres of art ranging from writers to painters to tight-rope walkers t0 musicians to athletes. Personal creativity and distinctiveness are both similarities and differences between the genres. The photograph in this blog is an optical illusion. Optical illusions use subtle methods to visually stimulate the brain to create pictures that do not always fit within the realm of possibility.

For example, the focus of the photograph on the right is the woman at the center of the photo. The author (photographer) placed her in the center of the photo so that the audiences' eyes would fall on her before the things that surround her. There is nothing particularly unusually or unbelievable about this woman; it is the context that the woman falls within that makes this photo an optical illusion. The context of the photo places the woman sitting at the top of a large wall leaning against a wall of water. This is the illusion. The author toys with the historical context or common understandings within the audiences' brains by taking the picture from one angle and then turning it to change the point of view so it seems to have been taken from another; he creates an image that all humans know is illogical. Water cannot be held in place to make a wall. His choice of materials, using water, is an important aspect in the making of the optical illusion. If he would of chose concrete, brick, dirt, or etc. turning the photo would have changed the visual image but it wouldn't have made the audience think something that was impossible. The author establishes clarity in the photo by keeping it simple. There are only three parts of the photo arranged into a simple hierarchy: the girl, the water, and the wall. By keeping it simple and using only these three parts he is able to keep the message/optical illusion clear because the chance of the audience missing the illusion is lessened.