I am amazed by the talent Ruth Thorne-Thomsen has in order to put together a picture like she did without the modern day digital photography and programs like Photoshop. It must have taken her a lot of time in order to put it together. A picture like this takes determination, she must have really loved what she did or else she would not have invested the time necessary to produce such an outcome. I praise her dedication. It took a lot of learning to make a photograph like this. For example Thomsen received a BFA in painting from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, a BA in photography from Columbia College Chicago, and an MFA in photography from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She worked hard in order to make extraordinary pictures like “Thunderhead.”
“Thunderhead” also makes you think when you look at it. I found myself asking…why make a picture like this, but when looking at it further I realized the deeper meaning. “Thunderhead” juxtaposes what is going on inside the human mind to what is happening in nature. The human mind is cloudy, foggy, confusing. So many thoughts take place at once inside the human mind. The mind changes thoughts feelings and emotions quickly like a storm. The human mind can also be loud like a storm. There is juxtaposition because the head is surrounded by calm serine nature. The landscape/nature surrounding he woman’s head is the opposite of the mind. Nature is peaceful and unchanging. I think the head/mind wants to be like nature. Nature is praised in this picture…if the craziness of the mind was being praised a storm would not have represented the mind, because a storm represents a bad situation, not a good one. Nature is praised because it looks beautiful versus dark and scary like the head’s mind.
I wonder why a woman’s head was chosen versus a man’s. Was this part of Thomsen’s plan or does it play no role in the overall concept of the photograph? I also wonder why Thomsen wanted to portray this juxtaposition in the first place. Was Thomsen feeling this way? (Confused on the inside and wanting to be like nature.)
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