Now, you may be wondering what this title means, “After Doré,” aren’t you? I confess, before a friend made a comment upon seeing this image I would have been right there with you.
My friend Doug Gobel is a long-time graphic designer, painter, and illustrator, and when he saw the image in one of my posts he said it reminded him of “Doré, so of course I had to find out what he meant by that comment.
So off to search on the web I went, and I found: “Gustave Doré (born January 6, 1832, Strasbourg, France—died January 23, 1883, Paris) was a French printmaker, one of the most prolific and successful book illustrators of the late 19th century, whose exuberant and bizarre fantasy created vast dreamlike scenes widely emulated by Romantic academicians.” A look at some of his images made me see what Doug meant, and I get it. And I am very flattered that he saw a similarity with this image and Doré’s work.
Another image from my week in Maine, in what was supposed to be a fall foliage color workshop but ended up yielding a treasure trove of black and white photos once I revisited the shoot during the pandemic. I’m a big fan of texture (one reason I love Europe, it’s everywhere!) so that is one of the reasons this works for me, along with the “movement” of multiple lines in the composition.
