Mural, Caution Tape. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
Caution tape and a few cones witha giant street mural on the side of a brick building, Manhattan.
I’m not sure how others see and react to murals like this one in Manhattan, but I respond in several different ways. Sometimes I just see them as what they are — essentially large paintings (or equivalents of painting) displayed outdoors — and I think of them as, essentially, not part of their surroundings but as things that stand alone. At other times I do see them in the context of their surroundings, and when I do the result can be carrying. This one feels more like the latter case to me.
The mural, by Emmanuel Jarus, is near the UN Building in midtown Manhattan. I think it is supposed to produce a sort of uplifting response in viewers, and I’m certainly fine with that. But I saw it more as an element in a complex scene of shapes and colors that includes the intrusion of the sunlit balconies at the right and the odd color and context juxtaposition with the “emergency colors” of the pylons in front of the two benches.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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