10 + 16 points
Player Photograph by lefthandedsnail
September 21st, 2008 12:00 AM / Location: 34.161741,-118.3681
After having shown this to one of my closest friends only to receive a reaction of,"The Fs need little curly things at the bottom to look like a cello," I realized that this image is not as self-explanatory as I thought.
When Roommate E and I were working on a series of nudes, we decided to recreate the famous Man Ray photo:

It seemed like a good idea since E likes Man Ray a lot and I am learning to play cello.
It looks like an easy pose to hold, but in order to get your shoulders to hold the shape of the top bouts of a cello they have to be stretched out before you with your hands clasped. Turning your head to the side without it affecting your shoulders is very hard. That's why my left shoulder is so much higher than my right. There were a few photos in which I managed to get the head position and shoulders right at the same time but there were problems with the turban or the drape that masked my legs.
After our homage we messed around doing parody pieces. Me, still as cello, playing myself with the bow to my cello. Me using bow as back scratcher. Fingering an F natural on my non-existant D string. Etc.
It didn't occur to me until later that the best thing to parody about the photo was its fame. It's become ubiquitous. Is it art? Is it a joke? Was it ever art? If it's a joke, who's the joke on? Man Ray or us?
So, in order to highlight the ubiquitous nature of this image, I used the most ubiquitous font for my f-holes. Ah, Helvetica. So very everywhere that it's almost invisible. When's the last time you actually saw Helvetica and not just its content?
The goal was to combine two things, once bold, now invisible, to renew their jarring nature.
When Roommate E and I were working on a series of nudes, we decided to recreate the famous Man Ray photo:

It seemed like a good idea since E likes Man Ray a lot and I am learning to play cello.
It looks like an easy pose to hold, but in order to get your shoulders to hold the shape of the top bouts of a cello they have to be stretched out before you with your hands clasped. Turning your head to the side without it affecting your shoulders is very hard. That's why my left shoulder is so much higher than my right. There were a few photos in which I managed to get the head position and shoulders right at the same time but there were problems with the turban or the drape that masked my legs.
After our homage we messed around doing parody pieces. Me, still as cello, playing myself with the bow to my cello. Me using bow as back scratcher. Fingering an F natural on my non-existant D string. Etc.
It didn't occur to me until later that the best thing to parody about the photo was its fame. It's become ubiquitous. Is it art? Is it a joke? Was it ever art? If it's a joke, who's the joke on? Man Ray or us?
So, in order to highlight the ubiquitous nature of this image, I used the most ubiquitous font for my f-holes. Ah, Helvetica. So very everywhere that it's almost invisible. When's the last time you actually saw Helvetica and not just its content?
The goal was to combine two things, once bold, now invisible, to renew their jarring nature.
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posted by Jellybean of Thark on November 5th, 2008 12:41 PM
I was going to send an email congratulating you, but then realized that I don't have your email address.
Congratulations on joining our theater! It am be awesome to have you.
Wow. Way to actually make this task into a task.