BACKSTORY:I was on my way to take photos for a project I've been working on for over a year. Our hollyhock plant is devoured by insects, but in an artistic way. I've taken THOUSANDS of pictures of it... every day I take a set so I can sometime later do a presentation of how the plant or any given leaf has changed over the course of time.
To the right you see an example image. Note the interesting patterns created by the voracious vermin.
As I was walking down the driveway, I noticed my shadow as it fell across some cracked parts of asphalt. I was blown away... the cracks in the asphalt seemed to speak to the existential reality (yes, your mind should be locking up on that 
) I and so many others like me and my wife live, and- let's just say the humidity was about 457%, so it was a very bad hair day- so my head's shadow had a very interesting look to it.
) I and so many others like me and my wife live, and- let's just say the humidity was about 457%, so it was a very bad hair day- so my head's shadow had a very interesting look to it.I took two sets of pictures to reassemble with Microsoft's Image Composite Editor, and a few stills of just my head. This project grew out of the best set.
Here are the constituent images:
Left 1/3 image
Left 1/3 image
Right 1/3
Bottom 1/3 - Torso
MS-ICE assembled these into this, using the rotating mode.
I used PhotoFiltre for each of the variants save one, where I used Image Analyzer. The details of the fx are in the file name and captions.
The Process of Choosing FX:
It was an ongoing interplay between my eye and my heart/soul/psyche. I know pretty well which sort of special filters will work well with a given image, I have done this a lot for a long time (going back to my early solarazing and sepia toning using volatile chemicals in my darkroom.)
I methodically went through the various ones which would work well. When they were harmonious with the inner concept behind the photo, I kept it and honed it. When they were dissonant, I kept on going.
Therefor, each image you see represents a facet or element of the concept of "Overt and Covert Pain."
I will tell you that, but I will not tell you what those facets are. I am expressing this visually precisely because words utterly fail when attempting to convey such things.
Additionally, I do not want my descriptions of my work to become prescriptions for how you are to interpret or be affected by it.
The Concept of Overt & Covert Pain
This is something which just came to me as I was wondering how I could possibly convey the enormous and far reaching effects of overwhelming, constant, chronic pain to people who have not experienced it.
The term "covert pain" seems to have some currency in relationship to hypnosis, but I am not up to schlogging through that. I've asked someone I know who is wise in the ways of such things if he can find me a good summary about its usage there so I can determine whether that use has any relationship with mine. This article did look intriguing though.
I put "overt" and "covert" in apposition because I am using them to describe two very different aspects of the reality of chronic constant crushing pain.
OVERT PAIN = the sort of sensation all people are familiar with, the sort which makes you say "ow" (at least if there are children around ) With chronic pain such as that I'm discussing, it is far more intense... as, say, a machete to a cheese slicer, but you get the idea. Its located somewhere, feels like something in particular.
) With chronic pain such as that I'm discussing, it is far more intense... as, say, a machete to a cheese slicer, but you get the idea. Its located somewhere, feels like something in particular.COVERT PAIN = the other effects pain has on the body/soul/mind/psyche ... these are not different from the pain, but rather they are when the overt pain is so great that it overflows the pain receptors of the mind and is experienced as other unpleasant sensations.
Indeed, it is not uncommon for the covert pain to be greater than the overt pain simply because the body's nervous system is so shot from the never ending deluge of overt pain, such that it cannot feel more.
I dare say this concept might also be applicable to other sorts of pain- emotional and spiritual for example- but as it just came to me the same time as the photo, and I've spent the better part of this weekend in "strategic retreat" (I'll have to explain that some day) I've not given any energy into pondering that, but I'd be interested in others responses.
As indeed would I especially from other chronic sufferers- do you find that this concept helps explain the overwhelmingly vast amount of agony you are in, pain which goes so far beyond pain...?
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