My Moonrise, My Citizen Kane?

Movie Still from Citizen Kane

Moonrise Over Hernandez, NM - Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams had Moonrise over Hernandez. Edward Weston had Pepper Number 30.  Richard Avedon had Dovima with Elephants. Orson Wells had Citizen Kane.   I have Yin and Yang.  I do not list these giant's iconic photos and movie and my work as being on par in quality and beauty, but to share what they may all have in common.  For most viewers they are the single piece of art everyone identifies with their creator.

I wrote a short post last night about which photos models choose to use from our work together.  At the top I put the photo Leila uses in her Model Mayhem portfolio, Yin and Yang.  My friend UL wrote a comment about the post and the image.

Yin and Yang

The one you posted here is one of my all-time favorites of yours. I like the yin-yang of it, and the beauty of the alabaster bodies against the black. Stunning and somehow pleasing to the psyche.

Others have written:

stunning b&w. love the emotions - Drusilla Killswitch @ Model Mayhem

This is one of the greatest shots I have seen on MM - Digiphotoarte @ Model Mayhem

 One even wrote a poem for the photo and posted it as part of their critique.

A snowflake
on midnight's window
spirals around my centre
stirs the vortex of my desire.

Wonderful entwining of human forms here - love how one body merges into the other in Geminesque balance. - Jac at Photosig.com

I appreciate all of the comments and compliments of this photo.  This is a special image for me and I am proud of it.  When Leila, Hana and I created it in 2004, I was standing on a ladder above them as they lay on a black rug.  As with almost all of my photos, I spent little time staging since I am not too particular with every detail meeting some predefined concept in my head.  This moment and the pose lasted one or two photos before the models moved a bit to a new pose.  The whole thing took maybe forty seconds.  I mention this because part of the success of the image was serendipity.

Dovima with Elephants - Richard Avedon

Yin and Yang has a rich aesthetic beauty for me.  As UL wrote, "Stunning and somehow pleasing to the psyche."  I agree and I like that description.  It is a relaxing piece to look at, but does it have much more than that?

I believe Yin and Yang lacks complex meaning.   I have many other photos I think are more important including some recent work from New York, Nevada, and Rome.  They make me stop and think.  I want to explore them and discern what they mean to me as the creator of them and also who I am.  I seek the deeper meaning with them as they get under my skin and make me think.  Yin and Yang does not do that for me as either a creator or a viewer of it.

Maybe I have to accept Yin and Yang, and how it reflects on me, in two different ways.  First, not all of my art has to be about something.  It doesn't have to carve deep into my psyche and share truths about existential issues.  Yin and Yang can exist to simply celebrate beauty and aesthetic.  Second, even with its success I have not pigeon-holed my art into making all my images like it.  I am not Anne Geddes.  While I have pride in that photo, I am free to make what I want and not be limited to cloning prior success.  I have to remember Walker Evans may be remembered for his Share Cropper photo series, but my favorite photos of his came from his late-in-life experiments with Polaroid cameras.

Walker Evans - Polaroid

Walker Evans - Polaroid

Walker Evans - Polaroid