W.M. Hunt

 #somereallygoodones, #rogerfenton, #thequeenstarget, 

The insightful English writer Francis Hodgson did a series of columns for The Financial Times in 2012-2013, and this is one of my favorites.  He writes on Roger Fenton’s “The Queen’s Target”, 1860 which is certainly one of earliest abstract photographic images.  Without the history and backstory about Queen Victoria visiting the debut of the UK’s National Rifle Association, we’re left this amazingly modern pict ure.  Hodgson likens it to a “Jasper Johns a century ahead of its time”*1 

Hodgson does not remark on how space changes with the background looking like a weathering sky; this may be the condition of the surface of the print.  The dark cross-hatched circle invades the space, creating an aperture.  That is compromised by. the small bullet hole in the upper right quadrant.  Our vision goes from front to back and vice versa.  What’s where?

*1 Francis Hodgson, Financial Times, January 16, 2013

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