Entwined

When pondering the title of the current round, I felt that I wanted to do a shot like this, and that it would be fitting, though I wasn't fully aware why. I did start with an initial concept, yet once again it evolved into something richer than what I had invested into it. It was like I had fathered the picture, but from that moment on it evolved on its own, just like a child does; and when it was born, I did try to improve it - but failed: I wasn't meant to fit it to plans of my own. I was just meant to love and raise it, and carefully guide it where it will go, like parents will love and raise and guide their child.

My original idea was just to depict one of the most precious moments in the lives of two - and soon possibly three - humans, as a piece of Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature, and leave all interpretation of this piece of evidence to the jury.

But the picture grew: The couple became two statues, partially overgrown with ivy. I did not choose this form; but finding that the symbolism was compelling, I agreed, and did my best to support this development. The picture was now bound to also show the duality of Man's Place in Nature, with the stone material symbolizing the rational which sets man apart from nature; the ivy symbolizing that even so man is still part of nature; and the flower in the woman's hair giving a hint that the rational is not necessarily superior.

However, it was only in an e-mail discussion with DrNo that I probably touched the true heart of this shot, when he questioned the couple's shameless nakedness. I'll just quote my response:

"My two characters are not ashamed of their place in nature; they are set apart from animals not by 'conquering' their natural instincts, but by their ability to reflect these instincts, become aware of their ultimate purpose, and cherish and celebrate in fullness every facet of this miracle.

I think there are few things in this world as sacred - and in this sense also flawless and without intrinsic fault - as the very act of causing new life to come into existence.

Obviously, merely being able to perform this act does not distinguish man from animal; yet being ashamed of this act is not the thing intended to be the distinguishing criterion either. The difference is man's (and woman's) ability to reflect and marvel at - not neglect - the beauty of the nature which they are also part of.

[...]

This is the reason why I'm depicting them the way I do: Not only surrounded by nature, but partially 'wrapped' in it; the stone material, in contrast, symbolizes the rational; and, ultimately, the blossom in the woman's hair hints that the rational is not superior - it is the combination of both aspects that makes us truly human."

Update: As DrNo pointed out, it may not be immediately evident (pun intended) how this is Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature.

The evidence is in the testimonies of all who have - like the couple depicted - touched, explored, experienced and witnessed in the depth of their heart what this picture can only hint at. Testimonies that are often subtle and quiet, and seldom written in prose, as it is difficult to find suitable words that don't rhyme. Testimonies that are much easier to be played on an instrument, or painted on canvas. Or rendered, for that matter.

I hope I succeeded with this picture. For it, too, is intended to be such a testimony.

All the geometry in the shot is Poser characters and props, except for the ivy, which was generated using Thomas Luft's fabulous Ivy Generator. All the geometry and materials were then converted to POV-Ray format using PoseRay, and most materials edited manually. The grass is 8 different grass patch meshes, "planted" in abundance using POV-Ray SDL (making use of the trace() macro to prevent grass from growing through the statues).

All lighting in the scene is from a HDR light probe sky sphere, using an AOI pattern pigment to focus the light on the center of the scene and put the back of the shot in deep shadows.

The shot was rendered simultaneously in multiple instances of the POV-Ray 3.6 based MCPov 0.0.5 monte-carlo renderer, with up to 5 instances running in parallel (4 on an AMD QuadCore Linux system, with another instance started later on an Intel P4 Windows XP system). The HDR output images were then individually brightness adjusted and converted to BMP using HDRShop, and finally averaged into a single shot (and the signature added) using Photoshop 6.