The Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park has always held me fascinated. The towering photographic faces possess' a mixture of Rembrant eyes , Mona Lisa expressions with a jolt of Richard Avedon high technology.
Designed by the Catalan conceptional artist Jaume Plensa, the Crown Fountain is actually an interactive video sculpture. It is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of translucent glass brick towers. Standing 50 feet tall, the towers use light-emitting diode behind the bricks to display digital videos on inward faces.
How can it not be an attraction for photographers and a popular gathering point unlike the information booth / clock at Grand Central Station in New York City. The tower has faces and eyes that reaches out and pulls you. Just add water. It is like the mirror image of a well made portrait looking inward. It reminds me of the early golden axions of portrait photography, to focus or not to focus on the subjects eyes, the nose, or lips if it is a beautiful woman.
One of photography's biggest challenge is the eye connection in portraiture that goes on between the subject, photographer and ultimately the viewer.
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