While I was doing some research in connection with the last picture for our children's Bible, which is the 'Crossing of the Red Sea', I came across an interesting online article titled 'The Bible according to Google Earth' on the 'Creative Review' blog.
Have no ever wondered what all the well known biblical events would have looked like if photographed from space? Er....no, probably not! But, if for some strange reason you had, wonder no longer, because a creative company called the 'Glue Society' based in Sydney, Australia has produced a set of pictures showing what these biblical events might have looked like if photographed at the time by satellite.
A pointless exercise? The Glue Society's James Dive's comments as to why they produced the pictures are revealing. I'll let you decide.
Picture © The Glue Society 2007
8 comments:
Unless you were told what these represent you wouldn't have a clue. The Garden of Eden could be any garden viewed from the air. The crucifixion from the air conveys none of the power of the crucifixion. It's just three crosses. It all looks quite dispassionate and pointless. I understand the reasoning to an extent. But this is art without emotion and as such fails because of that lack of involvement.
Also, the crossing of the Red Sea was at night and where's the pillar of fire?
;0)
Graham, Just curious, how does one obtain a 'satellite' picture of something one was not there to witness? Just curious...smile. Deboraw
Oh, a question. I've printed a couple of sample pictures off of one of your sites. One was a (both are black and white--with pink 'sample art.com' across the front, smile) Jewish male clothing, and the other a Jewish gentleman in full dress. If I were to use the clothing styles for 'the rich farmer' in Luke 12:13ff, which one would most closely resemble my desired finished product? Deboraw
It certainly doesn't help the credibility of the company when they don't appear to have a complete knowledge of their subject.
Deboraw:
Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you on this Deboraw. I think that you are referring to the samples from the 'Christian Computer Art' website. I would use either as they both look fairly wealthy in comparison to the average biblical clothing for a man. I must do a post on Bible costume as I get more emails about this than anything else.
Paul:
This is true. Although to be fair to them, many Bible illustrators don't realize that this event was at night either! Everybody just thinks of the Cecille B. DeMille film!
Graham, Thank you for responding. I know you are busy, so, da nada. Smile. I thought the one looked perhaps a wee bit more nomadic than the other, but was thinking of combining the two, as a 'town' gentleman and a 'farm' gentleman might be somewhat different? Thank you again. Deboraw
"The crucifixion from the air conveys none of the power of the crucifixion. It's just three crosses. It all looks quite dispassionate and pointless."
Which kinda reminds me about the other possibility: Golgotha could have literally been filled with crosses, rotting corpses, swarms of flies, bodily waste, and predators feasting on the dead. The area in the pic, by contrast, actually looks pretty clean and sanitary. Golgotha was an execution site, folks! ;)
A final poke at the Red Sea pic: where the reeds? It's not called Yam Suph ('Reed Sea') for nothing! ;)
But you gotta give credit where credit is due. The pictures by themselves are actually pretty good, almost realistic (the Noah one is particularly nice).
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