But What Exactly Is Wrong With This Picture? Why? This is a Photo known as Wrong. It was taken in 1967 by famous conceptual artist John Baldessari in a suburb of California.
It is overexposed. The horizon is not level. The focus is poor. The contrast between the tree and the man is horrible, and it is growing from his head. Even that is cut by telephone wires.
It's terrible. In fact, it's just plain wrong. But why would such well known artist publish such a horrible mistake?
To answer this question, we must take a look at the artists thoughts. In fact, Baldessari knew exactly what he was doing. It's anything but a mistake. He deliberately broke the conventional rules of photography to create something very interesting. Baldessari uses and breaks the rules to create a surreal image of a man with a tree growing from his head. Baldessari's work often had a sense of humour, where nothing was quite as it seemed. From that perspective, it is a not wrong at all.