The anecdotic cactus and traffic jam

The weather in California is exceptionally bad.
Cold.
Clouds.
Wind.
Rain.

And the mornings come with heavy fog.

Causing a major accident on Highway 5 near Victorville.
A truck loaded with diesel fuel crashed into other cars.
A huge traffic disaster forcing the authorities to close off the entire Highway 5 in the northern direction.

Highway 5 is a most important highway.
It is the channel for all traffic going into and leaving the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.
It is the gateway to Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

The accident happened around 7.30 am.
And at 1.00 pm the highway was still closed.
The diesel tanker had spilled over 15.000 litres of fuel and many car wrecks had to be cleared.

Towards the south on Highway 5 a tremendous traffic jam accumulated.
For miles and miles trucks and cars were parked along the road waiting for the highway to open again.

The Fuso Szulc was trapped in this situation also but managed to escape from being a victim by returning to the nearby campground at Lyttle Creek.

This is an example of an anecdote.
For many people it was a major event when the highway was completely closed.
But in the scheme of things it has no importance whatsoever.

In art and photography, which is the same, the anecdote is always avoided.
Unless it is a metaphor, but then the anecdote was deliberately elected to play that role.

An anecdote has a very short lifespan.
And it is of interest only to those who have some relation to the event.

A lot of photography is based on anecdotes and the makers hardly have an idea what is the general meaning and artistic value of an anecdote.

This fact is often met in the daily life of an artist-photographer.
As a professional observer a lot is seen.
But unfortunately most what is noticed are anecdotes.
Funny or remarkable but forgotten five minutes later.

These thoughts came to mind when making this mountain walk in the San Bernardino National Forest recently.
It was observed that cactuses were blooming.
From their spreading leaves a large and high vertical element rises decorated on top with flowers.
However, once the blooming is done, the plant dies and rots away.
Remarkable is that usually there are two cactuses next to each other.
Of which one is blooming and the other one dead and rotting away.

It is life and death one sees.
Beginning and end.
Old and new.

Reason strong enough to make pictures?
Are these therefore anecdotic or metaphoric?









One of these pictures published somewhere will be anecdotic.
But within this concept that is created, right here on the posting of this blog, the images of the cactuses serve a purpose and get layers of meaning and a quality of significance.

Voila, l’artiste.




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