Visual Metaphors within Illustartions

Thomas Barbey Alters photographs in a way to illustrate his metaphor. His idea for this came from Hollywood and he calls this work "Tourist Trap." On his gallery website he gives brief descriptions of all of his works. One of his artistic devices he used was, "There is no light at the end of the tunnel because you don't know if you will ever get out," says Barbey. The author clearly demonstrates his metaphor by having cars enter such a large tree with so many arms it represent the different routes you could end up on if you travel through the mysterious tunnel. Its mystical in that while you are traveling into the unknown you are also going in an unheard of manor, through a tree. In a way the picture uses the interxtuality of the tree of life in the Bible. Here taking a forbidden path means you may never get out of the tree's grasp. Much like in the Bible story where eating of the fruit will allow you to understand good and evil, going through the tree can change you from naive to knowing what maybe you didn't want to know if you hadn't gone this route. It makes the adventure all the more exciting and enticing not knowing what will be on the other side.






In another collaged photograph of Thomas Barbey's entitled "Fish out of Water" his metaphor is abundantly clear once again. Once artistic device he used in this photograph was the clouds in the background. It is very difficult when you feel as though you don't fit into the place you are residing. Here it is not smooth sailing for the ship which in my opinion represent the person. The clouds indicate a storm which most likely represent the feelings of the person that feels secluded in his own society. The artist/photographer perfectly places the ship on a separate piece of land as if it is stuck secluded. There being no water represents that there is no compromising ground to be made in this area where the person feels they do not belong. The artist draws the audience in by the abstract way of illustrating of a simply phrase we commonly use when something is out of place. He draws on your emotions and how you feel when you are the fish out of the water.