FirstLook: Poetic Fusion
Prior to our modern practice of image manipulation with editing software, photographers worked more with planned intention and craft.
Prior to our modern practice of image manipulation with editing software, photographers worked more with planned intention and craft. We made premeditated and physical creations either through in-camera techniques, trick shots during the photo shoot, post-manipulation of negatives/slides or during the darkroom processing itself.
In this image taken in 1993, I sandwiched two original slides together, one a high-contrast silhouette image of a boat on the Senegal River separating Senegal and Mauritania, the other a photo of wind-carved sand dunes taken in the same vicinity. The result is more than an illusion—the visual poetry and fusion of these two realities is a metaphor for Mauritania itself, where the Sahara Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean, and where nomads and fishermen live side by side.
I created this while living in Mauritania, working with humanitarian agencies, before founding a local NGO focused on collective social and behavior change.
—JONATHAN SHADID
@JonathanShadid
www.jonathanshadid.com
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