Cajsa's Flickr Pick: Grief & Loss in Real Life Expressed By Second Life Images

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

“Start Again” is a gorgeous photo in the Flickr Group, "And in the end ... Grief & Loss in SL", dedicated to images created in Second Life to paingful real life changes, such as "the death of a spouse, a parent, a child, a friend, a pet. The loss of a job, of a home."  Sometimes I love taking a dive into a group photo pool as a way to discover new artists. Just paging through, I found a dozen new-to-me artists. One of them (above) is Charly Keating who kindly includes SLurls to his exploratory photos. Generally speaking, you should try to avoid centering, but when it works, it works, and wow, it really works in this beautifully simple photo with an amazing sky.

“Keep Me Alive” by Mavi Beck truly captures the weight of grief, how it drags us down, weakens us, forcing us to carry not only ourselves forward, but also the burden of grief. I love that it is a duotone, focusing us on the figures, the woman and her burden. I love how the skeleton embraces her lovingly, resting its head gently against her, the way a loved one would. It is so evocative of what grief really feels like, heavy, tiring, but loving. 

“#112” by Neo Concept reminds me of something from Edward Gorey who is familiar to anyone who watched the intro to Masterpiece Mystery. The concept of even the sky is crying is a common trope in all art forms from poetry to pictures. That’s probably due to the old folk superstition that if it thunders after a funeral, it is a signal of the loved one entering heaven. 

Do check out  "And in the end ... Grief & Loss in SL". The photos are thought-provoking at times and by and large, they are beautiful and moving. 

See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog. 

Comments

[anandahear resident]

love your picture choises always! A side note, on the subject of centering in images, that is the main focus point in all movies by Wes Anderson, see http://vimeo.com/89302848 :-) just an off topic fact you might like :-)

[Charly Keating]

Thank for the immense honor of your kind words about my photo....It comes with such pride when I read your words. My very heartfelt and sincere thanks...

Charly Keating (also im a woman not a man, but I get the confusion! Laughs)

[Cybele Moon]

excellent choices!