Mind Pollution

I was in an "Art of Photography" class where we studied the concepts and history of photography and its contributers. We never spent a day on working with a camera but focused a lot on how photography can be much more than a beautiful image but a tool to speak your mind. I was intrigued from the beginning. 

Each week or every other week we would have critiques on a project the teacher would give us. These projects dealt with simple themes like movement, shadow and light, portraiture, and so on and so forth. The project that really made me think was the "text and image" project, in which we were suppose to incorporate text with images. I thought for a while, what can I do that would be different from everyone elses?

I remember I came up with this idea after looking at some crappy experimental shots I took in a private back alley in Mare Island. I thought by layering an old drawing I had since sophomore year that read "evil lures", that it was clever enough to be considered "text and image" but I still thought it was missing something.

It was probably past midnight and I thought about writing a poem to go along with the image of the smoke drawing and the actual picture. It came to me quickly because I actually knew my purpose in creating this image. 

Metaphorically speaking, The old decrepit machine shop is me/you/the person and the smoke stack is its only vent to let out all the bullshit that it accumilated. And it's fed up and just wants to let it all out. To better understand it would be best for you to click on the image and read the poem.