Personal Perspective

The Wonders of Escher

Maurits Escher

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated and in awe of the wonderous, mind-bending artwork of Maurits Escher. In my childhood, at Christmas time, calendar hunting was an adventure to see if I could find one featuring Escher’s drawings and designs. I could then have a new puzzle to ponder or new perspective to analyse and contemplate every month.

I admired his precision, discipline and meticulous attention to detail. His artwork was exact and exacting. A passing glance would never do. You had to do more than just look, you had to delve deep to really appreciate the myriad of intricacies, contradictions and impossibilities which he presented.

Transformation

‘Day and Night’ 1938

One of the key aspects of Escher’s work which attracted me the most, is the theme of transformation. Central to my abstract photography, I too love the challenge of taking something in a familiar state and crafting it into another, offering a completely different interpretation and point of view.

In ‘Day and Night’, for example, the way Escher morphs the fields into birds is gradual and subtle. But even more compelling is how he turns the negative space between the white birds into their black counterparts flying in the opposite direction. For me, there’s a contradictory oscillation between the apparent simplicity of the artwork and the underlying complexity of design and execution.

We see the same technique used in ‘The Encounter’.

‘The Encounter’ 1944

This piece is almost like a macabre dance where the two protagonists are destined to repeat their handshake over and over as they perpetually circle around each other in varying degrees of rendition.

Challenging Perceptions and Perspectives

Offering a different, and hopefully thought-provoking view of the world is one of my goals as an abstract photographer. I enjoy subverting viewers’ expectations and perceptions by taking the ‘known’ and recognisable, and presenting the ‘unknown’ and mysterious, where viewers must make a leap of faith and move beyond their comfort zone. This is another reason why I have such an enduring affinity for, and fascination with Escher’s work.

‘Other World’ (Another World) 1947

When I was younger, these types of pictures used to blow my mind! They still do. Who wouldn’t harbour, at least the tiniest sliver of intrigue when viewing something like this? For a kick off, what’s up and what’s down? What exactly are we looking at? How is this ‘space’ orientated and defined? Are multiple spaces existing simultaneously? How do we perceive this? Everything is thrown into question. What shouldn’t be possible, suddenly is.

I’m reminded of Scotty’s immortalised line on Star Trek – “I cannae change the laws of physics!”

He may not have been able to – but Escher could.

‘Relativity’ 1953

‘Relativity’ is another example where our perceptions are turned on their head and we’re left exclaiming “how can that be?”

Out of curiosity (and just for fun), I decided to do a little experiment and re-orientated this picture several ways to see if it would withstand observation and maintain its integrity from multiple points of view.

No matter which way you look at it, Escher’s staircase conundrum plays out equally well. So aptly titled, our point of reference in this fantastical setting is all ‘relative’.

Inviting the Impossible

Speaking of staircase conundrums…

‘Ascending and Descending’ 1960

‘Ascending and Descending’ has captured my imagination for decades. Logically I know this shouldn’t be possible, yet my eyes are apparently telling me otherwise.

Upon reflection, I think this is what’s at the heart of my enjoyment of Escher’s works.

The paradox.

The contradiction.

The challenge to the viewer to make you think.

The invitation to question what you see.

“Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?”

Maurits Escher

Jane Trotter - Creator of Abstracted Reality

Jane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.

‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange

Sometimes a photograph can stop you in your tracks – you’re almost spellbound and its power deeply moves you. That’s how I felt the very first time I saw ‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange. I hadn’t seen this photograph until well into adulthood, so perhaps its impact and meaning were amplified with more mature eyes and life perspective.

‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9058-C

Impoverished, destitute and homeless, I could only imagine what suffering this family was experiencing. The look on the mother’s face embodied so many emotions; deep concern and worry, apprehension about the future, a wistful longing. Despair. Yet there was something more, a glimmer of hope and determination, a quiet dignity and stoic resilience, a heroic fortitude of the human spirit.

I knew the photograph was taken in America during the Great Depression, but I was determined to learn more and began to look into the background and context of this compelling image.

Dorothea Lange

The author, Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965) was a professional photographer contracted by the US Government’s Farm Security Administration to drive around California, documenting and raising awareness of the struggles of rural life and impoverished farmers. In early 1936, Lange came across the pea fields of Nipomo. The pea crop had failed and migrant labour camps were full of unemployed field workers whose livelihoods were destroyed.

Lange recounts: “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in the lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”

Lange, Dorothea, “The Assignment I’ll Never Forget: Migrant Mother” Popular Photography, February 1960

Other photographs in Dorothea Lange's sequence of images

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USZ62-58355

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9095

The now famous mother in the photograph was Florence Owens Thompson (1903 – 1983). Interestingly, Thompson’s identity was not revealed until many years after their encounter.
Although ‘Migrant Mother’ became the most well known and widely publicised image from this series, the other shots also convey the stark, desperate and unforgiving conditions in which Thompson and her family were forced to eke out a meagre existence.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9097-C

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs DivisionFSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-T01-009093-C

In her biography of Lange, Linda Gordon describes Lange’s process: “Lange asked the mother and children to move into several different positions. She began with a mid-distance shot. Then she backed up for one shot, then came closer for others. She moved aside a pile of dirty clothes (she would never embarrass her subjects). She then moved closer yet, focusing on three younger children and sidelining the teenage daughter out of the later pictures altogether.”

Linda Gordon, ‘Dorothea Lange: A Life beyond Limits’, 2009, pub. W. W. Norton & Company

Upon finishing her assignment, Lange approached the editor of a San Francisco newspaper. After presenting two of her images, one of which was ‘Migrant Mother’, the paper published an article featuring Lange’s photographs and the editor alerted federal authorities. As a result, the government dispensed 20,000 pounds of food to the families in desperate need.

This iconic image immediately became a symbol of the plight and desperation of migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. In fact, the then Director of the Farm Security Administration, Roy Stryker, supported and advanced the collection of more than 270,000 images which were commissioned from numerous photographers throughout the country. The intention behind their collection and publication was to draw attention to, and increase public awareness of the adversity and hardship endured by displaced farming families and migrant workers.

* * *

Having explored the history and context of this photograph, my appreciation has only grown; not only for its power as an individual image, but its power as a force and instigator for social change. I can’t help but feel now is also a critical time in our history when we need more Dorothea Langes and ‘Migrant Mothers’ to shock, motivate and inspire us all.