Figure 1 – An empty bar through wavy glass, Natick, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2019.

I took the image of Figure 1 of an empty bar scene through a pane of wavy or rippled glass – the kind they use to provide privacy on shower doors. Because the glass distorts rather than adding noise to the image, I’m not going to call this a photopictorialism study. Noise most accurately is the addition of a stochastic fluctuation into the intensity pattern; so really it is a distortion of intensity. Here, in contrast, the intensities are maintained but their position thrown into partial chaos. Additionally since the waves in the glass act as miniature lenses, there is a spatial correlation, at least over moderate lengths, within the image. The effect is a “pleasing one,” not so dissimilar to what the drunk at the bar would see.