Collective Red 1998

This photograph, *Collective Red*, by Arsen Savadov is filled with, well, a lot of red and fleshy tones. I can only imagine the act of taking this photograph. It must have emerged through improvisation. I sympathize with Savadov. What might he have been thinking when he made this? How did he set up the shot? The men seem like they are in costumes, but also as if they are laboring. The blood is definitely a texture, like a layer on top of the other layers. Even the floor, the way it reflects back up to the other parts of the shot. There is a weird ambiguity here, which makes me think of, say, Caravaggio. These artists are always in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.