Dangereuses

Dangereuses

By: Elias Rafael Decena

May 12^th

What is danger? The Merriamwebster.com defines it as an exposure or liability, pain, harm or loss, another online dictionary states that danger is an instance or cause of peril; menace.

The last few days I’ve been on Las Vegas for a vacation and to check out the place. It was full of lights especially on nights. Everyone’s having a great time with booze on their hands walking with their family, friends and even with total strangers. I was told not to go out late for it would be dangerous for a tourist like me to walk on the Strip’s streets especially with drunk people having different ways of making fun. Too bad L Or is it?

Back from a vacation from Las Vegas, where everyone seems to be liberated and everything tends to be a “sin”, I’m now again here in DUMBO to visit gallery friends of The West Harlem Art Fund. My target: Content Aware.

I entered this gallery where I used to be before. This gallery features students of the Pratt Institute’s Department of Film/Video & Photography. There were two people talking upon the entrance of the gallery. I’m pretty sure they’re here for the gallery but I’m not so definite if they’re the artists.

Everything’s familiar to my senses, as I’ve said, I’ve been here before. But have you ever had this feeling that a familiar thing becomes so alien and new to you that again you wonder and get curious of its existence? That’s how I felt. Everything seemed to be on focus to me, clearer than the first time I’ve been here. Before, there were lots of people inside this place, everyone talking to each other, socializing, critiquing, wondering, taking photos, walking, eating, drinking, burping, scratching and everything you could think of; maybe the reason why I lost my attention to what I’m really supposed to do here. But now it’s different.

Still, the two people upon the entrance are talking about something. I don’t want to eavesdrop but how could I get their attention? I really would like to know if they’re somehow connected with the photographs on the wall. Should I listen to what they’re talking about? Maybe I shouldn’t, I’ll just walk around and maybe I’ll get their attention.

So as I was wandering inside, I saw this photo of a rifle? Or is it a sniper? I get my guns mixed up because of my playing war games too muchJ. It’s so classy yet chilling, the way the “gun” (I’m gonna call it a gun for now) was photographed. The smooth lining the lights reflected on the surface of the gun exudes a feeling of a rich man with his “gun” on a hunting season. Yet, the fact that it is a gun can certainly make you feel “endangered” or “threatened”. I took a photograph of it from below and it seemed to pop-out of its frame, kind of like a 3D effect for a photo, now that’s cool!

Below the photo is another, a picture of sort of blankets with multiple holes on them. They’re numbered with paper stuck on top of them and they hang on a steel line. The coloration of the photo is also chilling and gloomy that one could almost feel looking at a picture from a Silent Hill game. “The photographer must really have an interest with classy danger” I said to myself.

Beside the below photo was the name MARIETTA LEUNG, the photographer. Then I turned my head on my left to the two people (a girl and a guy) talking upon the entrance and looked at the lady and wondered if she could be the artist. Still they were talking and doing some things so I didn’t bother them, though it’s my duty to ask people, I think it would be rude to just barge and talk to one of them on the middle of a conversation (excuse me anyone?).

After minutes of staring at the photos with my mouth wide open because I had no one to talk to, I decided to exit and thought of writing another story that did not have any viewpoint of the artist. But as I was about to reach the door, the lady asked me “Do you have any question?” with a smile on her face. “Yes of course” I answered with a glad feeling inside. After I introduced myself and explained what I do, I took the chance of asking her if she’s the artist of the photos I just viewed and I swear I was hoping that I’m right because of she’s an artist of one of the photos this gallery and I asked who’s the artist of another photo, I think, only in my perception, it would be a little disappointing for the artist. But I guess instinct really is most effective when you need it at times, I was right.

She was MS. MARIETTA LEUNG a student from Pratt Institute. She explained to me the genre of her photos. According to Ms. Leung, her photos focus mostly on still-lifes of people and things you could encounter and find inside a shooting booth or range. She even showed me profile pictures of people who shoot every now and then and occasionally on shooting ranges. I asked her what the gun is on the top photo. “Oh the rifle…” she said, so that’s it! It’s a rifle! But I swear there’s still a part of me that thinks it’s a sniper (better drop this topic off, it’s bugging my head!) and also she told me that the sort of blankets I was looking at were actually backdrops for an actual shooting range, which functions as a cushion for incoming bullets behind the target. I was amazed of how she could pull-off a photograph that almost made a stunt-woman out of her, photographing behind a shooting range.

So Ms. Leung and I talked for a while about her art and the way she photographs. As I was talking to her, every second and then I take a slight look at her photos and think of the class and attitude her photos exemplifies. A feeling of danger yet class and elegance while one looks at the rifle, something so dangerous yet when I look at it, I feel relaxed and caressed. The way Ms. Leung used the light to play this trick must really be a hard one to pull off, especially when you’re profiling a “weapon”.

So how could she make something so fine and full of life out of something traditionally considered as dangerous and deadly?

My thought went back to Las Vegas and remembered the notice I was given not to go out late on its streets. Still I did, there were drunken people all over the place with booze on their hands with perfect strangers beside them talking, touching and kissing. I was walking on its streets, at one point I felt endangered, but as the lights of Vegas and the sounds of parties give me the feeling of liberty, I felt alive.

Life sometimes takes risks to find out what would make a person truly happy. And sometimes danger can be the hardest but the most fulfilling way of doing so.

From Ms. Leung’s photos, I found my meaning of danger: it is the way to live.

“Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously! ”

-Friedrich Nietzsche