Can you see the image in this photo? It is not a trick question, just an optical illusion of sorts. What you are looking at is a two story sculpture created by Christian Moeller, a UCLA design/media arts professor. It sits in the Walnut Creek, CA Library. I was on the second story of the library when I took this photo.
Here is the tricky part: when you stand where I stood, or even on the first floor, all you see are books…3,960 books with spines in 12 different different shades of gray from pure white to pitch black.
The only time you can see the actual image (in case you haven’t figured it out, it’s a librarian giving you the “shhh” sign) is when you photograph it. Each book spine represents one pixel of the entire image. And, as I found out when I played with it in Photoshop, the bigger the image the less clear the face. So if you use a digital camera and take a picture, you will see it clearly on your camera’s screen.
It is quite a trick of light. By the way, the colors you see on the face are created by sunlight coming through the windows.
There are plenty of extra books to purchase…the idea being for Walnut Creek residents to fill out their stories in a book…then it is put into the sculpture, replacing a blank book. In time, it will be filled with the memories and histories of the people of Walnut Creek. Pretty great idea!
If you ever are in or near Walnut Creek, you should go see it for yourself. It is pretty amazing…and don’t forget your camera.
To see a smaller version of this photo so you can better see the librarian, just click on the image. To learn more about this sculpture, click here. There is also a short video showing how it was done.
To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com
No comments:
Post a Comment