Pigments ink, 61 x 92 cm / 24 x 36 inch
Mitch DOBROWNER’s Arm of God (2009) photo illustrate very well the key elements he uses. In order to take the best shot of storms and cloudy skies, he places the horizon line very low. DOBROWNER gives maximum space to the sky. We can also observe that the floor play an important role. It allows the viewers to situate things and give them a scale. It is also this thin strip of earth that comes as presenting the sky, like the pedestal of a statue, it has the role of a solid base. Finally, DOBROWNER uses the elements on the ground to guide the eye. Sometimes DOBROWNER uses a road, a power line or even the furrows left by agricultural machinery. In the case of Arm of God these are the poles that run along the field.
The title of the photograph is metaphorical. The power of the climatic phenomenon and the cloud accumulation retranscribes the strengh of Nature. The clouds appear as an enormous arm, stretched towards the ground. This type of weather phenomenon was one of the nineteenth’s favorite subjects of romantic painters. They allowed to put in perspective the human being in relation to the world. This theme is for example regularly treated by William TURNER (1775-1851).
