 (click to enlarge) |
by Christopher Tate
The picture "(click to enlarge)" is an overtly titled, not nonobvious way of demonstrating what, quite clearly, is the photographer's inner sexual position. And by that I mean the orientation of his sexuality inwardly, not the sexual position of his interior.
The erect pilot, grasping not unsuggestively the round "flight stick", as it were, smiles giddily while facing forward-- and does not then the title of the piece invite the viewer into the artist's psyche? It encourages the viewer; it states, quite exactly, "(click to enlarge)". What is this "clicking" we are asked to do? Some people believe the ancients called it milking the monk or pumping the purple pontiff, but to be truthful a definite answer is likely obscured by the milky haze of time. Perhaps our artist is uncomfortable with his orientation-- hence the parentheses in the title. Could not the parentheses and the lack of capital letters be expressing a conflicting desire to suppress a feeling that throbs and pulses on the inside, to say-- in a manner of speaking-- "My orientation is this way, but it's not quite exactly, it's a little that way too?" This way or that way indeed. Couldn't this thing be the thing it is?
In medium, the goggles, the "flight stick"(s), the pants, the long, high leather boots, and the schoolgirlish grin all point to one thing. "(click to enlarge)"? No, thank you, but you should feel free!