The ‘Nature’ of Bridges: Personality (A ‘Vibrant Night’ Related Study)

The ‘Nature’ of Bridges: Personality! (A ‘Vibrant Night’ Related Study) I explore nature areas and nearby places – mainly in Texas – at night and its border zones with light painting photography. I call that meta-series (composed of subseries) “Vibrant Night” both for its surreal colors and because I sometimes imagine illusory animism in things (a metaphor itself inspired by “Gaian” analogies of Earth to an interconnected organism). This new study from “The ‘Nature’ of Bridges,” an adjunct series to “Vibrant Night,” visualizes animistic ideas by adding symbolic photomontage/compositing* to certain images. This (and the project title) provide a context for the viewer to reframe other bridge images in the study as also animistic or symbolic. (And I think animistic bridges with human traits can symbolize our Gaian connections with the rest of nature.) But to focus on the title’s premise: For me, as a psychologist, this work can suggest visual metaphors for personality types, traits, aspects – or even an “inner diversity” within a person: For example, the extreme contrast between the cold formality of a bridge’s tunnel-like underside with a giant flower trapped deep within it can symbolize the contrast between our superficial personae (masks) and deeper levels of being (eg., the Jungian “shadow self.”) Yet, general viewers could enjoy this as a Rorschach-like game, discussing their own interpretations in this context. *Note: I don’t do this in my pareidolic subseries of ‘Vibrant Night': I don’t composite-in features to create the illusion. I just highlight what’s there by altering tone and color.)