Perception is Greater than Reality.
Everybody’s interpretations on Stuff are always different, be it an artwork or a song meaning.
I’ve always asked myself – What is actual Reality?
Celebrated playwright George Bernard Shaw, once quipped, “If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.”
Everyone having journeyed through their own lives, their unique ways, will have different interpretations of Life with its unique coincidences, related profound meanings and lessons duly derived.
Think back on that time when you did not get that promotion you thought you deserved. Perhaps your boss had a different perception of your accomplishments from you? I rest my case.
Joke: When asked “How much is two plus two?” A child replies “Four”. The lawyer pulls the drapes, dims the lights, and asks in a hushed tone, “How much do you want it to be?”
My beloved “Blondie In Wilderness” image of the band Blondie, shot in Woodstock, upstate New York (above image).
I’m proud to have captured this legendary New York punk band in rustic hippie Woodstock.
Blondie featured my image of the band in the double fold of their best-selling “Panic Of Girls” album artwork with the profound quotation from Helen Keller – “Doubts and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.” (above image).
I’m amazed and amused at how the Band interpreted my surreal and psychedelic image of them.
Blondie chose my band image of them for the album sleeve artwork (above image) as well as the cover of their “Mother” single (image below). The B/W image, on the right, is the actual image.
My buddy, Aaron Zych, busy interpreting the merits of my printed image to his friend at my solo rock photography exhibition in New York City, kind courtesy of Morrison Hotel Gallery. That’s me (in jacket) chatting with the great folks from the Singapore embassy, based in New York City, who graciously attended my exhibition (above image).
Me, in my tie-dye T-shirt, explaining the divine aesthetics of a highly-charged Slipknot concert image to a saffron-attired receptive Buddhist Monk (above image).
Me and Yoko Ono pondering over printed images of New York rock bands at a invite-only New York gallery event. Being from Singapore, my perceptions of the bands and the images must be different from Yoko’s New York upbringing and local perspectives (above image)
I saw this direction sign at a concert ground where two famous bands from differing genres were performing at their respective stadiums (above image). I took the shot as I detected an amusing tinge of profundity.
I titled this image – “The One Thing”. Many friends have mumbled to me what they thought the image meant to them. As for me, like songwriters, I do not explain my images.
It is what you perceive it to be.
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers, kindly signed on the back of my Apple monitor – “To Excellence and art, Woz” (above image). Excellence and Art are broad concepts with infinite differing interpretations.
To John Lennon, “Nothing is real.”
