PHOTOGRAPHIC DISCREPANCY

I thought this made for quite an interesting picture, one that could spark a certain amount of conversation about what a thing looks like and one's expectation or perception of it based on a photographic image. Though I posted a photo of this Iga vase by Kishimoto Kennin quite some time ago I thought it worth revisiting since an exhibition catalogue featuring the same piece had surfaced and made for some interesting comparisons and some degree of photographic discrepancy. What is immediately apparent is how radically different the color scheme is from left to right and though a photo of a photo, the exhibition picture just lacks any spark or life where the one on the right has a richness and movement showcasing the cascading ash as gravity and heat took over during the intensity of the firing. As I survey the catalogue photo with my older picture, circa 2012, it is almost as if these are not the same pot, rather one being a distilled , diluted version of the real thing where approximation was more than enough when illustrated. One thing I can tell you having seen the pot in person is that as different as these two pictures appear, the same can be said when viewing the pot in hand though that is not always the case where a skilled photographer can make a lesser pot looks so much more. In the end and to be clear, I am not trying to disparage the catalogue system and photographer but rather to point out that you can't always judge a book by its cover or a pot by its photograph.  

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."  William Blake