Embrace

The woman is mending the nets. When you see these women, it’s such an ordinary thing, but if you see it from a certain perspective, it becomes so mysterious and wondrous. It’s like it could be a hot couture dress she is making or an ocean or nets…

Perspective is everything—in life and to some degree, in photography. Viewed from above, this Vietnamese woman appears to be surrounded by an ocean of netting. Is she preparing the materials for an avant-garde, high-end outfit? Will the netting be used for a cadre of couture fashionistas who might parade down Paris fashion runways or take to the streets wearing clothing created with her blue river of nets?

It is mysterious and wondrous. Images both glamorous and gorgeous images form, then rise like stars in the imagination.

From the woman’s perspective, as she mends the nets for their intended, far more practical purpose of catching fish, it is work, not mystery, that eddies in every direction. Encircled by a never-ending chore, it is possible to think she might feel despair. Somehow, I believe this is not the case. Somehow I believe she is completing her task while doing what I would do: Imagine magnificent art made from the simplest of materials. We allow dreams to brighten the blues in life while keeping their mystery. Together, we say, embrace the magic of what if….