Dimensions: overall: 30.4 x 30.9 cm (11 15/16 x 12 3/16 in.)
Copyright: National Gallery of Art: CC0 1.0
Dieter Appelt made this gelatin silver print, Monte Isola, sometime in the twentieth century. The stark monochrome gives the image a haunting quality. It’s like a memory, pulled from the depths. The hands, rough and aged, are bound with what looks like bandages, almost like the skin is struggling to contain something within. And there, resting delicately on these worn hands, is a cicada, its wings spread, as if about to take flight. The texture is palpable. You can almost feel the dryness of the skin, the coarse weave of the bandages. The light catches every line, every imperfection. But it's the stillness that really gets me. The quiet moment before transformation. It reminds me a bit of Joel-Peter Witkin's work, the way he finds beauty in the unexpected, the grotesque, the fleeting. Like painting, photography is a process. It’s about capturing something real and transforming it into art. The meaning is never fixed. It’s always in flux, always open to interpretation.
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