The Positive Negative

 Reflected image

this shadow of the real thing

real enough itself

 I have long pondered over the subject of shadows. Either by means of sunlight or artificial light, a silhouette or image of a solid object is cast on to another surface, so for all intents and purposes it has no essence in itself, simply reflecting the ‘other,’ the real thing. But the more I think about it the more I wonder.

Is a shadow really nothing then, or is it something in its own right, or only a replica of the ‘something’ it represents? You can see a shadow, touch the surface on which it lands, but even though what you see and touch has no substance, shadows do have a way of taking on a life of their own. Just walk down any alleyway on your own at night. The shadow that suddenly appears at your feet and overtakes you until it has grown out of all proportion, can feel real enough. Grotesquely, scarily real.

As one who still plays the game of finding pictures in the clouds, the shapes thrown by shadows sometimes reveal more than a carbon copy of what the light is filtering through. Depending on the angle of the light, it can appear as something quite unlike the actual object, and then there is the negative space, and that’s what I find even more interesting.

Dappled light spawns alien creatures, licking flames, a tow bar becomes a farmer in a hat on his tractor, leafy branches become bony arms and fingers reaching out to grab you unawares, but then there are leaves reaching out toward the light which reveal a hand reaching inward

Not an accusing finger pointing hand, but one outstretched, open, ready to help.

Shadows might essentially be ‘nothing,’ but I like to think of them as having a life of their own, and in so doing, are really something at what they do.