Image Essay #9

This is a photograph taken by photographer Charley Mallett. This first caught my attention because it reminded me of those crop circles supposedly created by outer space aliens. Then, I started to read it as an artwork. This piece includes the element of similarity. The circular areas of the field are all very similar and so we group them into one type of image. The picture itself is taken at an interesting angle in order to break the symmetry set up by the similar objects. There could be some sort of symbolism associated with the piece of art. Perhaps one is that there is other life outside of Earth (the obvious answer), but I think another could be that maybe there are something greater than humans out there capable of producing interesting structures. I read this because the angle of the picture makes the person looks smaller in size and sort of overcome by the circular imagery. It could also symbolize the taking over of the human race. The person, being so small, looks to be almost meat for the circular object surrounding her. Off in the distance, it seems to be even more coming to defend themselves against the human.