Microwave as art

After reading the article about the guy who's famous for taking photographs of the inside of an oven, I thought I'd try it.

Only just to go my own way, you'll notice this is the inside of a microwave.

Close up and not so.

So?

Do I have a future in microwave-oven photography?

Are these not the most artistic shots you've seen of a microwave oven?

Perhaps I should point out, though not crucial to the picture, that this isn't any old microwave. This is a brand-spanking-new microwave. I would not likely have taken a picture of my old microwave due to the splotches and splashes. But it is now gone and I'm happy to share with you this incredibly white (thanks to Photoshop because my adjusting of the white balance on my camera never quite worked -- and actually using Photoshop is something I generally avoid so it is progress) wonder.

A new microwave was necessary because our old microwave was haunted. The fan inside would start up if you so much as walked by. And if you closed the door after cooking something, the fan would go on again. And if you wanted, in fact, to cook something, the fan would sometimes go on and make you think something was cooking, when in actuality it was just blowing air.

My husband and I each had our own way of dealing with this. Sometimes we'd just leave the door open so the fan wouldn't have a chance and we could walk by without being freaked out.

But when we were actually trying to cook something and the fan did its thing but the cooker did not, I had a system of opening the door and pushing certain buttons in certain ways to get it to cooperate. My husband's methodology was to pound the door in a variety of areas until it bowed in submission. Perhaps the pounding was to show it who was boss. Perhaps it was to get frustrations out.

But the time came when the frustrations and the freaking out were happening all too frequently, so the old microwave was replaced by this exact replica to fit the space. So far so good.

So it works as a microwave, but does it as an artistic photograph?

It is William Eggleston who spoke lovingly of his oven picture. And Time included with the article his picture of a kitchen sink that was truly artistic. Kudos to Eggleston for making something mundane become somehow magical. And kudos to the rest of the world for honoring him for his passion and sight.

Artists need a niche. Something they can do better than anybody else. Something that will get them into the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and buy them an apartment in Paris.

Artists struggle with doing what they love and doing what will bring them popularity. It is a gift to manage both. Congratulations to Eggleston and his photographs.

Me, I think I'll stick with landscapes.