Weekly Photo Challenge: Monument
About this image: We all have a conception of beauty that is both individual and socially contingent. Having acquired a taste for male beauty with a determinately classic Greek slant (feel free to blame Louvre’s collections of antique sculptures for the bias, if you will), leave it to the new world to unsettle one’s discreetly cultivated status quo.
This particular New York “monument” challenged my preconceptions of what ought to be included in that category (of beauty, rather than Greek sculpture). This male specimen does share something with his classic predecessors: a disregard for actual human proportions. Just as the ancient sculptors used an “ideal” model for their art, often at odds with reality, so did the present artist. Although I believe that while the first promoted a particular vision of beauty, the latter attempts to do the reverse. It questions ideas that would otherwise remain fixed.
What I particularly like about this photo is the fact that not only the statue, but its two onlookers became part of the narrative. It was their discussion of the piece that prompted me to stop and reflect.
vic briggs 
What a great photo.
Love your title too!
Perfect.
Thank you, Lance. It felt like one of those unusual moments worth adding to the record. 🙂
Small head on that statue.
I did think the artist made some unusual choices. Then again, I may have never taken notice had it been “usual” 🙂
An interesting composition, Vic…wonder what those onlookers were saying?! 😉
Thank you, Lee-Anne. My attempt at something a little different. How lovely that you should wonder, because I almost “invented” an exchange based on what I overheard. I could’t eavesdrop without being noticed, so only caught a few words. They were curious about the unusual shape of the statue. I wish I had a better recollection of the exact dialogue, but then again our imaginations are allowed to roam free in the absence of a “script” 😉
A slightly more muscular buddha.
I of course have to be careful where I flash my beauty, so I can relate. LoL… I’m kidding.
There is certainly a buddha-like beauty about this sculpture. 🙂
Hahahaha awesome…
Glad you approve, Ivy, and even better since it comes with a smile 🙂
😀
Remarkable that nobody commented on his penis (April came close but chickened out). Its size should be matched by a larger head, or vice versa to conform with certain conventions pertaining to how a man supposedly uses his head. On a more salubrious level you snapped this trio to wonderful effect and interpretation. Well done.
Haha. Quite true, but then few would venture that way for the classic statues as well. I rather enjoyed taking this pic, and revisiting it in this way made it all the better as an experience. Thank you.