lindes
Pyro Poi
py·ro·tech·nic (pr-tknk) also py·ro·tech·ni·cal (-n-kl)
adj
1. Of or relating to fireworks.
2. Resembling fireworks; brilliant: a pyrotechnic wit; pyrotechnic keyboard virtuosity.
There are many things to love about this photograph, but the thing about it that I love the most is the total nonchalance with which the person in the center of the picture appears to be moving across our field of view, despite being surrounded by a fury of spectacular pyrotechnics.
Our subject stands framed in a bright archway, the ring of fire so close it resembles a fluffy golden tail curling over the head of a strange new creature fashioned out of heat and light and boldness. A tumult of small fireworks explodes all around, pretty white daisies that bite through the darkness and bloom in fast-motion next to the fire dancer’s steady feet, steady hands. We can’t see it, but the air surely burns and smokes. And through it all the dancer moves, quite calm and sanguine, from left to right, seemingly indifferent.
Yet we know better — we know that she is not merely a placid bystander in the face of these perturbations of the air. Rather, she has created them.
Indeed, she controls them, though she seems untouched by them. She herself has lit the sparks that fly about her body, and because she knows their trajectories by heart, she steps between the stinging darts of light with the confident ease that comes from having tamed a wild thing.
It is that composure, that hush in the middle of a spitting storm, that so compels our sustained attention. There is a pyrotechnic display here, to be sure. And it is a wonderful sight to behold. But more interesting even than the fire’s sound and fury is the fire dancer herself, whose skill allows her to walk amidst her own electric conflagration without fear. If we are to take a lesson from this picture, let it be this: that we should fill our lives with both poise and fire — that in fact it is poise that lets us create fire…
…and that we should always, always, wear protective gear.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, meerasethi and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
