Cajsa’s Flickr Pick: The Story-Rich Second Life Photos of Charlie Namiboo

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Charlie Namiboo's photostream does not have a single mediocre photo, but I am most drawn to her storytelling photos like "My eyes refuse to watch you leave, so tears will blur the memory..." (above). She places her three subjects who form a triangle of dramatic tension. He's leaving and moving out of the picture. There is also a lot of geometric shapes blocked out in the picture. The triangles formed by her alone, by the shadowed wall, by the subjects, the horizontal lines of light shining on the steps, all combine for a dramatic story.

"Remember how far you've come, not just how far you have to go..."

Namiboo's stories are subtle, not so literal that we know how we are supposed to understand them. This could be a story of someone whose car broke down, looking for a service station that's not there yet. It could be a woman with ambition who is working a job that she would like to leave behind, who wants something new. She's carrying a suitcase, is she running away or running toward a new life? We don't know. As a picture, it's dramatic precisely because we don't know. Telegraphing that this story is open to interpretation, we only see the subject's legs, telling us we get to fill in the details.

"[a picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know … ♪♫] ~ Diane Arbus"

Many of her pictures are of her from the back, looking at the landscape. She has recurring themes, intimacy, longing, heartbreak. There are recurring elements in her pictures, pets, smoking, and music. I chose this picture (above) because the title reflects the frequent ambiguity in her pictures. This picture shows Namibook as a photographer. A photographer takes a picture of a photographer taking a picture with a title from a photographer (Diane Arbus.} Can it get more meta?

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