Compassion in a World without© 2006-2007 Nicholas A Price. All rights reserved. Yes this is real life; just in the way you remember when four letter words were taboo and how now we love to use them. These images are cruel, after all where are those over used over exposed celebrities you love so much? Four letter words probably come into that equation too, at the very risk of being deemed something undesirable for such an overt obsession. These people, these places and thoughts are far more true to life and correctly exposed for your sore eyes, maybe a little more than you would like to comprehend. Dirty alleyways, the have not, those without homes or possibly, no surely not, those without designer label clothing, a fate worse than death. This is not about an individual, a city or town, nor any specific country; this is a narrative concerning a sometimes very forgotten emotion, that of compassion. A concern for fellow man or woman and our surroundings, giving a thought beyond the grocery list, the fast food lunch or television schedule. Hell appears here as more of a state of mind than a specific place where the heat of fire is too much to bare, this is a place where cold comes in the guise of a lack of that very same compassion and understanding and this appears to be a cold that no fire could warm. Here hell can truly become a city and this could be the title for this study too. I am not talking about any more than real life here and saying well yes, hell can really be a city. Not any specific city, but a real place, where so many people dwell and hell arrives as a result of loneliness, desperation, addiction and greed. Although hell in religious terms is very much the sum opposite to heaven, in this world it comes in countless guises. Often within the prison of our inner selves, this is an inevitable consequence of the world in which we take or make our place. A place where addiction is escapism and where loneliness, desperation and greed appear to hold hands in some perverse union that almost creates an inevitable and cheerless chain reaction. From this we appear to be forever widening a gap between have and have not, whilst moving both physically and geographically apart. Those that have are moving behind guard gates and spending leisure time the other side of the velvet rope. Those who have not, reside in utility and public transport corridors in a world of cardboard and recycled trash. The observation here is really how far apart we really are, is it only distance and financial standing? For I think they all look rather a lot like human beings too, maybe disheveled and disenfranchised, having lost both direction and dignity, but in no way that far from anyone else I see. And here I momentarily revisit the topic of film, yes good old black and white film, not only because it is become a kind of signature or trademark of my work but also merely because the shame of loss and decay is clear in monochrome, for here it cannot slip behind a colorful sign or building. Nature hands us beautiful colors everyday and those sunsets and open country scenes make for beautiful color works, however this is story and a journey through the very world in which we live. For some this is a harsh and rough journey and they should not go forgotten and undocumented. |
