Puzzles

As a mathematician I love solving problems and puzzles; as a photographer I love creating them.

An artist can use ambiguity to create a puzzle, engaging the viewer’s curiosity and drawing them into the composition. I think that the skills needed to solve the puzzle are similar to those used by mathematicians to solve bigger problems and by viewers looking at a work  by Escher.

This image capitalises on the fact that we use numbers to interpret the world and in some cases identify our location. The odometer reading here tells you how far we have moved from the start of our journey. So where are we?

Below, in the first image is a “Hidden Ring”; hidden by the autumn leaves. However, we ought to say that the ring is “not easy to see”, rather than hidden, because in the second image the circle is genuinely hidden. It cannot be seen.

 

 

In the second case, based on the evidence of careful observation, you reason that there is a circle there even though you cannot see it. Much of modern physics is like this, it uses the data from careful observation, along with mathematics, to reason that what cannot be seen is nevertheless there, and has a particular shape or colour.