Jesus and hot dogs
I have some time to kill before catching the bus back up north to the brown line, so I stop in Tina’s Hot Dog Place on Montrose for a quick hot dog. With nativity in hand, I couldn’t resist photographing it on the table next to the ketchup and mustard.
That’s one of things about this photo series, that I was concerned about. Would my series be interpreted as being too disrepectful? Some people might have a problem with having the nativity on the dumpster.
But really. Look at Christ’s birth. It’s very disturbing. God of the universe born. He doesn’t come born to royalty. He’s born to poor parents. He’s not born in Jerusalem where all the high people are, but in lowly Bethlehem. Essentially Jesus was born in an alley. So a nativity next to mustard and ketchup? I like to think of that as Christ as reaching out to the everyday person.
Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2)
I posted this image on facebook as a note. Someone whose opinion I greatly respect left a very thoughtful comment:
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there is a fine line between showing honor to the LORD’s incarnation among us and dishonoring Him for it by tarnishing Him with our imperfect brush. For me, the Jesus in the alley had a reverence, a mystery feeling to it, a sense of the nativity penetrating something urban and forlorn and raw. but the ketchup and mustard seemed a bit too trite, … See Morecommonplace, equating Jesus with an everyday, quicky, american convenience meal. This is a fine line, but to state the extreme, Jesus is there when we relieve ourselves every day, but that doesn’t mean it is appropriate or honoring to display the two together. absolutely no offense taken, my friend, i’m just letting you know how i see it.
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Here’s my response:
I totally understand your point. I very much appreciate it. I feel the same way about Biblical action figures. Something always sat kinda weird with me about them. But at the same time, there’s something that like about Biblical action figures.
Something similar can be said about this photo. There’s some ideas that I like and others that I don’t like, the commonplace, quickiness.
Cathy brought up a very good point about the cathedral. Actually when I was taking the photo, I liked the composition as it related to the Madonna paintings of Baroquey times. (I say Baroquey, cuz my art history is very rough, not sure what the classification is). … See More
Here’s a few links of the sort of composition that I’m talking about from Madonna paintings of the past:
• http://bemuseme.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/madonna-and-child-enthroned-by-jan-van-eyck/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madonna_and_Child_(Filippo_Lippi).jpg
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Angelico_037.jpg
Oh and then while doing a Google image search for Madonna and Child by Van Dyke, this fun page came up of people backpacking with babies:
• http://www.toughtraveler.com/photos.asp
(that’s a total side point)
But in the Madonna paintings, you see the sort of architectural composition where the structure provides a sort of framing effect for the Madonna. I did some shots of this tabletop scene from an angle, you totally lose this historical reference. That’s why the straight-on shot here is important to the concept behind this photo.
The same can also be said of the manger photos under the L tracks. The structure of the train tracks gives the same reference to the Madonna paintings with their composition.