I recently stole DePaul's Canon 5D. Whenever I have to use the internet communications department's 5D to take photographs for the website, I usually work it out so I can take it home for the night. Here are a couple shots from a recent shoot with the 5D. I've been experimenting with making Ikebana inspired flower arrangements with dead/dying flowers. I also forced my boyfriend to let me photograph him - which he was not a fan of. I have a lot of "disclaimers" with these, but I figured I would just post them. Oh one disclaimer. I have much higher-res nondestructive .cr2 .psd versions of these, but I used photoshop CS1 to resize them, which doesn't have the ability to edit camera raw files. The color/quality is not what I want - but it's close enough for the blog. I've had more desire to make "real" "pictures" recently. I don't think any of you saw work like this from me in any of our critiques.
Hunter - I am adding to your post - cause I think this picture is germane to the conversation. Sorry.
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| I have been calling it 'Hermit' because I think it sort of looks like a hermit crab. But I was also trying to speak to an isolation similar to 'the little prince' (did you all grow up reading that book?) or a desert island. |
This may also be related - I have thought about this one less - there is no title.
Hey Hunter - Cool to see new images on here this morning.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot to say.
First. Your disclaimers. I don't know how much of the image quality stuff I/we can, or is worth commenting on with an online posted image. It sounds like you are having some technical/procedural frustrations - I can't can't tell from the images you have posted that there are any problems though. Which is not to say we shouldn't discuss them - maybe just more info about how we can help with them, if we can.
I noticed the flower/ikebana piece/pieces on your website and was struck by them. I assume by 'real' photography you mean that in opposition to the digital collage works that we are more used to you making. Yes? On your website, I was also stuck by how your 'real photographs' works were interspersed with you 'collage' works quite seamlessly. (okay I am going to stop using the quotes around these terms - and we can just know that I am still using the terms gingerly). I think there is something nice about how unapologetic you are about transitioning between the two.
But, I was also struck by these flower pictures in their own right. How harsh the flash is. How stark the back ground is. How flat the background is. How the blackness seems to seep over the top of the object in certain places, so that the blackness is almost more like a liquid than darkness or space.
The portrait, is also interesting. It is more spacial and softly rendered.
I made a piece when I first got here that I think sort of fits in with these. Clearly, it also has this black background - but I think it also has a similar play between the flatness and form.
(I am not sure, what the best way to post it is so that it is associated wit this thread - it seems that I can't post a picture in comments - can I? Should I add it to the original post? Is that too meddlesome or presumptuous? Does that offend you? I am going to go out on a limb and do it and you can tell me to take it down.)
Ok. I really need to get better at just replying as soon as I see the comment. I read this on September 7th and thought about what I wanted to say - and it hasn't changed since then.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you added your image to the entry. I was not offended at all because that photograph was one of the reasons I started photographing dead plants. I remember seeing it a long time ago when it was your facebook cover image. I would keep thinking about it, and referencing it in my mind when I looked at other photographs of plants/flowers.
I like the little prince reference - I didn't get it until you mentioned it, but I see it now.
I'm still trying to analyze my obsession with dead plants. Maybe I will try to flesh that idea out a little more in another blog post so this comment isn't a novel. It makes sense that you would be inspired by the plants in fiji - seeing as you are probably surrounded by plants you've never seen before. It also makes sense that you would photograph them in an such an "isolating" style, you probably felt uprooted (HA get it?!) at the time. Did you make any more photographs like that one? Or did you move on from those sort of images fairly quickly?
I'm glad you brought up the idea of the blackness in a conceptual sense. To be honest these images are mostly just me teaching myself how to photograph things. I spent so much time in college digitally fucking photographs up, that I never really learned how to take a good photograph. These photographs (the flower and the portrait) were me experimenting with a single light source and a black backdrop. But yes, when you are working on process it is easy to forget that each technical decision you make will have a conceptual result.
Unapologetic is a good word for the transitioning between digital collage and real photograph. (pretend the quotes are there) I have been feeling like the relationship between the two are going to become increasingly important as my work progresses. Maybe I will make a more elaborate post about that later too. That's why I have been trying to gain access to better photography equipment and teach myself lighting and things.
Dead things are cool.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your use of blackness. . . This is something you have been doing for a while in different works. I like the way you are using it in the series on your website that is titled by way of a circle with with a cross through it symbol. Where the figure is standing and there is collage-motion-y stuff happening on top but eventually it all gets lost in the black.
ReplyDelete