"Molesting Post" New Masterful Photograph by Charles Foster Johnson

Johnson, Charles Foster (Naturalized Iranian), Ocean, 2009. Collection of The Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum Gaitlinburg, TennesseeMaster "hands-on" shutterbug Charles Foster Johnson's latest foray into the world of things seen but not seen is sure to bring knowing nods of awe to his adoring acolytes. Indeed, within minutes of being unveiled to the deserving few at LGF, it was garnering breathless comments such as "Marco" and "Polo." Coyly entitled "Ocean" it is already known to discerning critics and collectors of Johnson's work as, "The Molesting Post."

Today's most influential critic of fine-art photography, Ace d'Allahpundit has cracked the Johnson referential surface once again and offers up this penetrating, and exclusive, analysis:

"With 'The Molesting Post' Johnson at once presents us with what at first glance seems to be an out of focus post and bar motif set starkly against his trademark soft and fuzzy ocean with a soupçon of foam. This, however, is only the signifying surface of his deeper signifier.

Mark how the stark black shaft of the post is topped with a broad black knob just above the cut part of the shaft. Reflect on how the top of the knob just barely intrudes into the clear off blue of the sky above after rising out of the weedy mud below. Recall that placed against the wet of the ocean the shaft and knob must obviously be, if not soaking wet, at least pleasantly slick with sea spume. Reconstructing this deconstruction of angst, desolation, dark childhood fears of being locked in the closet, plus the profound isolation of the self from the self implicit in all of Johnson's work, and we can ultimately "decode" the inner confession that lurks just beneath the surface of all of Johnson's mature work.

With 'The Molesting Post' Johnson has finally broken free of his previous inhibitions and become, at last, a mere self of his former shell. I, for one, am glad that the fierce internal pressure that writhes within Johnson's most tortured work has finally found it's release in the eternal truths of soft-focus photography."

Posted by Vanderleun at October 15, 2009 1:20 AM