Why does this photo work. It is a bit of a cliché isn’t it? Beauty offset by ugliness. But maybe it isn’t as painfully obvious as you’d think.
Susan says, “A couple of stories can be found here I think. The most obvious is the contrast between the beautiful orange color of the butterfly and the gray monotony of the stony background. But there is more here. First, the butterfly’s color is intended by nature to camouflage it from predators. This works if the butterfly stays in its natural habitat among the flowers, but here the butterfly stands out and becomes vulnerable and fragile. Second is that the butterfly, she of such erratic and unpredictable flight, has come to rest against the stolid and immobile rocks. Which story grabs your fantasy. Or is there another?”
Lucia says, “People might say there’s not much going on here. Why create this photo? The first thing that attracted me was the simplicity. Then, All of the things Susan mentioned quickly went through my mind. And I mean quickly, because I knew this scene wouldn’t last long – the butterfly would flit off within seconds. I wanted to create a photo of a small creature in a large space. There’s something about all that negative space that I find compelling. Plus, there’s a not so obvious element that I like. If you look closely, you’ll see that the larger rocks from a quasi-circle framing the butterfly. Maybe the message here is the fleeting nature of stories, and that the best of them are simple and subtle.”
