Here's Johnny

[Ernst-Ulrich Schafer]

Yesterday's HS Senior.

[JAS_Photo]

Love this one, Ernst!

[theantiquetiger]

Ernst, I don't know if you know or not, but the union of the flag (blue section) only goes to the right in death to cover the heart. The union should always be to the left even when the flag is hung vertically. When the flag is draped on a coffin, the union goes to the right.

I just figured you may need to know since it is this kid's senior picture and some people maybe superstitious or take offense to it.

Just a FYI. It is a great image.

[Marko]

Interesting play. I have to ask, did the senior know you were creating this composite image in advance?

[theantiquetiger]

I just want to bump this thread to maybe help Ernst from making an unintentional mistake. I actually called you today (got your number off the Internet) to see if you read what I wrote. It went straight to voicemail, but I didn't leave a message.

To be honest, if I didn't know this was a senior picture, I would have said this was a portrait of a fallen soldier, police officer, fireman, etc

[edG]

really like the composition Ernst, post seems a little soft/ethereal

interesting factoid theantiquetiger

[Ernst-Ulrich Schafer]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

antiquetiger, Thanks for your concern, no disrepect intented. I'm just playing around with textures and sandwiching images, if someone takes offense I'm terrible sorry. As an artist am I not allowed creative freedom for the images that I might come up with?

Marco, No Johnny had no idea as to what I was going to produce with his portrait, matter of fact I didn't either.

[theantiquetiger]

I didn't mean I was offended or anything, I just meant his family may take offense to it or be superstitious. I understand creative freedom as an artist, but I wasn't sure if you knew about the rules of displaying the flag.

I remember a tv show (forget which), were a American guy was getting engaged to a Chinese girl. Her parents were coming to the states to meet their future son in law. He wanted to get them a gift, so he found an old picture of them and had it framed with white matting. They took offense to it because white is the color of mourning in China and they usually frame the picture of the deceased in white.

Your photograph reminded me of that episode.

By no means did I mean to offend your art, I just didn't know if you knew the meaning of the flag hanging the way it is hanging in your image.

[Ernst-Ulrich Schafer]

You know what, I never gave it a second thought.

[Marko]

Thanks Ernst - It's a very powerful image. Since AT mentioned it, my instinct as well was that this looks like an image of a fallen soldier.