Blog Assignment #2 Part 2

I had commented on the old system of due dates on my image a little while ago, but I decided to go ahead and make a new post (even if a bit late int he context of the -new- system but yes.)

As mentioned in the post itself, my image is a photograph taken by professional photographer Frantisek Saud. It comes from his website titled PhotoTravels.net, specifically aimed at displaying his work of 'traveling places of interest' and to also act as a platform for selling his photography to interested parties. This means that he's trying to take photographs that evoke an instant recognition of a certain place instantly, which would be useful for things like travel brochures, travel agencies, etc. Within this context, this (I dare say iconic) image of the red torii gate extending into a forest mystery seems to be a clear moment of trying to evoke a specifically 'Japan' reaction in a (Western) viewer. This draws on the myths of the mysterious, lost religion or the natural sacred space, which I have seen often associated with Shinto in a western context.

Compositionally, the red gates against the white snow are a graphic and eye catching combination chosen, most likely, because of it's specific quality of colour. It's bright and graphically pleasing, and not a usual sight in the middle of the woods (as the image and it's cropping imply, by leaving only this path and the dark woods and signs to guide any context). I cannot tell where this image was taken, though I suspect northern Japan--but that's exactly the point. The image is taken out of it's specific geographic location and becomes 'idyllic' of the torii gate image. As mentioned by Wynne (Alice in Japanland), she's taken quite a few pictures of torii--and I have too, I admit--because there's something arresting about them in their 'natural' context, I suspect. It's a popular subject matter, rather, and therefore easily recognizable as 'that Japanese thing' because there are a lot of images of this. The connection to Shinto, Japan's oft-quoted 'nativist religion', also makes the image a likely one because of it's 'naturalist' nature, which can be connected to paganism, lost traditions, and the meta-narrative of the Lost Paradise and harmony with nature that these images can evoke.

As was mentioned, it's very much the mysterious forest, the distant land, the strange misunderstood space, that's being evoked here.

Visual Culture Assignment #2

Image courtesy of Phototravels.net and photographer Frantisek Staud. Posted with permission of the photographer.