Dancing Man


  • Photographer
    Stephen Spiller
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    Blue Streak
  • Date of Photograph
    2006

A man dances to music played in the distance. The accompanying text is based on my 9/12/01 confrontation on a New York City sidewalk, in Soho, one day after I arrived in Manhattan on 9/11 at 8:45 a.m. Memories of my childhood, the music, the dancing man, events on my arrival, and the confrontation became an artwork and metaphor for my survival.

Story

These are three self-referential images involved with my past, present and future. They peer beyond physicality, explore unconsciousness and are “in the moment”. A man dances to music we both heard off in the distance. My text is about confronting demons, his and mine. The story grew out of my 9/12/01 confrontation on a New York City sidewalk, in Soho, with someone shouting harsh, angry words, quoted on the first panel, the truth of which I found so troubling. The day before, 9/11, my overnight flight from L.A. got me into Penn Station and on the street about 8:45 a.m., only a minute or so before the World Trade Center North tower was struck and utter chaos broke out. While making the artwork, memories flooded me – of my childhood, the music, the dancing man, events on my arrival, and the confrontation. The work galvanized into a metaphor for how to survive my journey into an unknown world. I scrawled the words I CHOOSE on the last panel -- evidencing hope and possibility.

You can create multiple entries, and pay for them at the same time.
Just go to your History, and select multiple entries that you would like to pay for.