TRIPTYCH
3
A collection of images and thoughts 2020-21
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What is it with '3'?
Throughout human history, the number 3 has always had a unique significance, but why?
In ancient Greece the philosopher, Pythagoras, believed the meaning behind numbers was deeply significant. The number 3 was considered as the perfect number, the number of wisdom, understanding and harmony. It was also the number of time - birth, life, death: past, present, future. It was the number of the divine, in many world religions 3 has unique significance, and 3 is often the magic number in fairy tales - Goldilocks is confronted by three bears; the three little pigs come face to face with a wolf, the genie gives 3 wishes.
In music, classical sonata form consists of 3 balanced sections; exposition, development, recapitulation. Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is littered with symbolic 3's; its opening overture is written in the key of E flat major, which has 3 flats, and begins with 3 strong chordal gestures that imitate the secret knock on the door as used by Viennese Masons wishing to enter their lodges. Numerous other examples abound.
Our brains seek patterns and constantly search for relationships and meaning in the world around us. 3 is the smallest number we need to create a pattern, the perfect combination of brevity and rhythm. Words, pictures and... yes, photographs, can appear more appealing and achieve a greater intensity of meaning, when grouped in 3's, when presented as a 'triptych'.
And this was my motivation in producing 'Triptych'. To collate and distil a series of photographs from the many (such is the nature of digital photography) to just three, for each subject. Although each image could and would stand alone, together they enhance a narrative, they convey a cohesive work of art and better create the mood and atmosphere I was aiming to capture - in short the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.
