Saguaro Wanderings: Seeing 2011 (#42)

For your consideration: a pair of images depicting the astounding complexity, subtlety and sophistication of body language, context, and our ability — perhaps necessity — to properly interpret the messages communicated, both explicit and implicit.

In the first case a man uses upraised hands to evoke a highly choreographed response from an unseen audience (or so we must surmise: no visual evidence is extant to prove anyone else's presence). The attire, lighting, and tool at hand all conspire to suggest an act of directing, cajoling even; presumably to affect a lofty result for the listening pleasure of others. The pose connotes a call for momentary restraint, just before the next scripted action. Even in its simplicity all seems highly controlled, exactly as it is supposed to be in a specific point in time.

Not so in the second image. Ironically, here an obviously inanimate gesture conveys a visceral sense of avidity, a cry heavenward — an intensely emotional state of mind universally recognizable and depicted, again, by outstretched arms. However, this setting — culturally and atmospherically — is radically different, mining an entirely different desire. Alas , due to the absence of a tiny yet vital detail — the facial expression (utterly irrelevant in the first photograph) — we don't know whether the scene is one of agony or ecstasy.

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