hard cut

I didn't like this photo at first -- my physical reaction to it was an immediate repulsion and alarm (sort of like looking at an image of torture). This reaction was interesting, because it happened BEFORE the visual recognition. Usually, the recognition and the visceral reaction go together in thematic pieces like this one, but in this case, they were separate (which, oddly enough, and appropriately, turns out to be part of the concept here).

The blur between the two halves suggests it is a single photo, but initially, I was unsure if it was two shots assembled like panels of a comic strip. Once I "recognize" what's going on, I realize it must be a single shot of something like reflective elevator doors. One side is moving (thus the blur) while the other is not (at least not as much, since the edge is blurred). At this point, I am thinking of this as consecutive frames of a motion picture film (and then I think of consecutive frames in the film of the camera). "Hard cut" is the white line, but also a reference to the violence of the image (thematic) as well as how a film is cut.

Now I notice why I had such a visceral response to the implicit violence. The woman's body has been dismembered in a parallel (conceptual) dimension. Those white reflections on the floor look like dismembered legs while the shadow she stands in mirrors the shape of her skirt.

Finally, I realize the photo is of double reflections. The left and right side are too symmetrical to be the reflection off of an elevator door. The blur made it uncertain, but after a while I notice the white speck on the floor, the hair,and other elements. And yet some of the reflection is not perfect.The dark speck on the right must be on the door, not on the "real" floor.... That graffiti also seems to be reflected as a light blur on the more focused part of the reflection....

For IMPACT, I would give this a 7 out of 5!