For this first project I was inspired by the poem, If Only We Had Taller Been by Ray Bradbury. Just before Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars, a panel met, composed of Ray Bradbury and scientists, including my grandfather. Bradbury shared a poem which "links the dream of conquering space with the dream of immortality."
“If Only We Had Taller Been”
" The fence we walked between the years
Did bounce us serene.
It was a place half in the sky where
In the green of leaf and promising of peach
We'd reach our hands to touch and almost touch the sky,
If we could reach and touch, we said,
'Twould teach us, not to, never to, be dead.
We ached and almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
If only we had taller been,
And touched God's cuff, His hem,
We would not have to go with them
Who've gone before,
Who, short as us, stood tall as they could stand
And hoped by stretching, tall, that they might keep their land,
Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.
But they, like us, were standing in a hole.
O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall
Across the Void, across the Universe and all?
And, measured out with rocket fire,
At last put Adam's finger forth
As on the Sistene Ceiling,
And God's hand come down the other way
To measure man and find him Good,
And Gift him with Forever's Day?
I work for that.
Short man, Large dream, I send my rockets forth
between my ears,
Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years.
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal Mall:
We've reached Alpha Centauri!
We're tall, O God, we're tall! "
I choose this poem because it reminds me of my grandfather, but also because I think it's very powerful and speaks to more than just space travel (and I could envision a very aesthetically pleasing photogram). I interpreted this poem as man's continual dissatisfaction with the present and the desire to constantly progress. For my work I pulled literally from the poem when Bradbury mentions, "At last put Adam's finger forth, / As on the Sistene Ceiling," I used then a transparency of Adam's hand reaching out to the planets and the necklaces to represent the inherent human aspiration to "reach" for scientific gains but also materialistic desires as well. In my photogram I used the necklaces as traditional symbols of material wealth but also to add to the surrealist element in this photogram, thus the hand reaching out to these objects further suggests the societal want for material gains. I placed the poem in the middle of the image as it's the central idea of my photogram but also that Bradbury expresses what prevents us from achieving these things, so it seemed fitting to place the poem in the middle of the hand and the planets/necklaces as the barrier between these things. I thought trying to make this image appear surreal would speak to the connotation of immortality in the poem. Finally I added sand to create a galaxy appearance and, again, add an element of surrealism.
Process
I initially envisioned this photogram as a triptych or and experimented with this concept as well as a series of different exposures, before finally deciding on one 8x10.
I choose this poem because it reminds me of my grandfather, but also because I think it's very powerful and speaks to more than just space travel (and I could envision a very aesthetically pleasing photogram). I interpreted this poem as man's continual dissatisfaction with the present and the desire to constantly progress. For my work I pulled literally from the poem when Bradbury mentions, "At last put Adam's finger forth, / As on the Sistene Ceiling," I used then a transparency of Adam's hand reaching out to the planets and the necklaces to represent the inherent human aspiration to "reach" for scientific gains but also materialistic desires as well. In my photogram I used the necklaces as traditional symbols of material wealth but also to add to the surrealist element in this photogram, thus the hand reaching out to these objects further suggests the societal want for material gains. I placed the poem in the middle of the image as it's the central idea of my photogram but also that Bradbury expresses what prevents us from achieving these things, so it seemed fitting to place the poem in the middle of the hand and the planets/necklaces as the barrier between these things. I thought trying to make this image appear surreal would speak to the connotation of immortality in the poem. Finally I added sand to create a galaxy appearance and, again, add an element of surrealism.
Process
I initially envisioned this photogram as a triptych or and experimented with this concept as well as a series of different exposures, before finally deciding on one 8x10.
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| Examples of failed exposures, except for the middle on which is exposed properly but, the poem was upside down. |
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| Another series of experiments with varying level of success with exposures. |
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| An example of a diptych I attempted with good exposure. |
