Blackbird Fly

• Prize
• Photographer
  Hugh Jones, United States
• Date of Photograph
  online
• Website
  http://www.hughjonesphotography.com/

The images express a timelessness and evanescence at the same time â?? a bitter-sweetness - that life is both eternal and fleeting.
The prismatic blue monotone of the vases speaks to an eternal timelessness. The delicate colors and textures (brush strokes on
Vaseline layered over a piece of glass in front of the tulip) of the tulips speak to the evanescent nature of the tulip. The brushstrokes also
communicate an aliveness â?? by suggesting motion. The feeling of a bitter-sweetness is reinforced by the presence of the "dew" (tears) on the tulip.

For me, the tulip and vase are alive - I see a blackbird with a broken wing - learning to fly again. As in the Beatles lyrics (Blackbird):

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise"

• Biography
  Hugh Jones is a self-taught artist and has presented work in over 150 exhibitions and publications since 2008. He has a BS in psychology, BS in electrical engineering, and a PhD in Electrophysics. He has also studied Zen and loves to travel. His images have won national and international awards for collage, erotica, nature, landscape, abstract, architecture, portrait, pinhole, photojournalism, political and street photography. These include: ......Prix de la Photographie Awards 2009-2012; International Photography Awards 2009-2011; WPGA Annual Pollux awards 2010-2011, WPGA Black and White Competition 2010-2011, WPGA Storyteller 2010, WPGA Best Shot 2011, WPGA Urban and Country Landscape 2011, XTO Image Awards; ART undressed 2011 Tour. Work also presented at 1212 Gallery, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art; Millard Sheets Center for the Arts; Plates to Pixels; Target Galley at the Torpedo Factory; The Visual Arts Gallery at Governors State University; Watson Studio Gallery......... He is published in Camera Obscura Journal; books by Urban Fox Press, Ovenden Art, A Smith Gallery, Manifest Gallery, Vermont Photo Space Gallery; Vermont Photoworkplace. His work will be published in Identities Now: Contemporary Portrait Photography (Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art, 2012)....His work is part of the Permanent collection of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction....... More recently: Camera Obscura Journal Prize (2012 summer issue) and Editor's Choice Award for 2011 summer issue of Camera Obscura Journal; 7th Black and White Spider Awards (Merit of Excellence, honorable mention and 11 nominees - and 8 nominees, 1 honorable mention in the 6th), LESSEDRA Art Gallery, Bulgaria (special prize, 2012); Photographer of the Year, 2011 WPGA Pollux Awards (joint award).....please visit http://www.hughjonesphotography.com/