Genial photographs

[Orio]

There can be many reasons for a photograph to be a great photograph.
There are, however, a very few photographs that I would call genial.
For me, it's those photographs who have the power to change your vision of the world.
To place the viewer in an entirely new and different perspective. To let you see the world,
like you never saw it before.

Such is this photograph by Elliott Erwitt:



At first sight, you smile for the humour, the funny scene.
But it doesn't take long before you realize that you are having a very special experience: the perception of the world,
as it is lived by a Chihuahua dog.
A world with no faces. A world populated by human legs as monumental as ancient sequoias.

After having seen this photo, your vision of the world has changed.
Even after having recovered the normal human perspective, now you know that the world, your everyday world, can look
entirely different.
You have experienced the alterity.