Telegraph's Cabell a true artist with camera

Kudos to The Telegraph for the spectacular photograph by Beau Cabell on page 5A for Monday, April 4, showing Cherry Blossom Festival revelers in silhouette watching fireworks at Wesleyan College. All of Beau's photos are excellent, but I'm thinking seriously of having this one framed.

Almost as good was Beau's intriguing photo at the top of 4A for Saturday, April 2, an overview of a wildly colorful CBF scene, a sort of midway, that almost has the quality of a tapestry or an embroidery. Notice how the bodies of the two figures at bottom right are curving away from the center of the picture, while the figure at bottom center is also bending, but in the opposite direction — as perfectly balanced as a set of parentheses. Notice the balance between the "cool" colors of blue and green at upper left and near bottom right and the "hot" red and orange at bottom left and upper right. Notice also how almost everyone shown is looking away from the center of the image, giving the photo a quality of expansion, of overflowing its frame, that is far beyond anything shown in the photo itself. Notice, in fact, how the photo, defying what is perhaps conventional photographic wisdom, has no real center of interest. But defying conventional wisdom is a good part of what good art is about.

Now, if you're so inclined, go back to the fireworks picture and look a little more closely. The fireworks explosion is stunning and might have made an adequate photo all by itself. The framing silhouettes add a dimension. The distant silhouettes and tent in the background add another dimension. But now notice how, while the fireworks explode outward, tree branches on either side reach inward, toward the fireworks. And then notice how, while the fireworks display is brightest near the top, the pattern of light in the surrounding sky is the opposite, lightest at the bottom. This is truly a multi-dimensional photograph. And the contradictory juxtapositions can be taken to suggest many ideas far beyond the photo itself.

Of course Beau doesn't control the sky. But I can almost guarantee that, had I taken that picture, the sky in the picture wouldn't have had that quality. And I believe the same is true of most of the rest of us as well.

The thing that I find hardest to understand about professional photographers, however, is their uncanny sense of timing. In both of these photos, the positions of the people shown seem perfect. Had the picture been taken a fraction of a second sooner or later, the positions would have been different and the effect lost or diminished. So how do they do it? Is it possible that Beau is paying all these people to freeze in place until he can get the shot? I don't think so.

Merely calling Cabell's photos uniformly excellent, in fact, understates the case. Like all the best art, they also bear the imprint of a distinct individual style. Beau may think I'm making this up, but in perusing The Telegraph I often think, "That looks like a Beau Cabell photo," and so far it has always turned out to be just that!

David Mann is a freelance writer, based in Macon, who not only reads The Telegraph but looks at the pictures.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Telegraph's Cabell a true artist with camera ."