Interm Review: Object

Lost and Found Still-life

In my project, I focused on the issue which is bothering millions of people but obviously it is those millions people fault – pollution.

People throwing away things which are still useful and not broken. It happens because of that we are living in post consumption generation, where we are not paying much attention to objects. If it is something broken we just throw it away and buy new one instead of trying to repair it somehow. In some situations we can call it laziness.

My research started from Todd McLellan who specializes in automotive, commercial and conceptual work. 

'Disassembled' is his latest series of photographs of object from the past (vintage gadgets) which are in dismantled form. There are items such as a typewriter (which I like the most),  Pentax camera and alarm clock, the collection shows the craft of these mechanical objects.  Every single piece is positioned in an almost obsessive arrangement - by type, 

size and function - resulting in a clear portrait of an era that we've left behind.

Then I went through Christian Vogt gallery where I found series called ‘In Camera: Eight-two Images by Fifty-Two women’ which I found really interesting because of the usage the wooden box.

There are pictures of women, but in every single portrait was this box.

Sometimes viewer can think that the box is more important than a model in the picture. But I think that that’s the thing which makes these pictures more interesting. For this reason, pictures got another value, they become more interesting; sometimes a bit funny.

I found something very interesting in Edward Westons photographs of peppers. They are quite sexual but at the same time really soft and so normal because it's just a vegetable..,

I love the way how the light and shape of the object are working together. Basically shape is doing its work and I guess pepper from the picture 'Pepper No.30' is not just a random vegetable bought in the market place. 

"It is classic, completely satisfying – a pepper – but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter." 

This photograph made me think how to present object in other way...

Also I looked at Chris Jordan’s series called 'Running the Numebrs: An American Self-Portrait' where I found perfect responding to my project. 

This series is based on massive pollution, but his photographs – which are breathtaking – are not at all what I was looking for...

Pictures production

All objects in my picture are founded objects. Not in the charity shop or even in the bin, just on the street. It may sound ridiculous, but it’s true. Some people don’t pay attention on what and where they are throwing away things, they just want to get rid of them.

I’ve chosen the smallest objects which I’ve found in the past. I found them very useful and by my picture I would like to show that they are still ready to use.

Large Format Camera

When Johnathan started to talk about large format camera I was just terrified. I’m using my 35mm camera all the time, so obviously I know what film camera means and how to use it. But this one… So big with lots of new things...

I found 5x4 camera workshops really helpful for practice and develop ideas for this unit. During the workshops I was practicing with objects which I knew that I’m going to use for my final image.

 I was quite confused about composition of the image, because pollution is on the top of world’s issues. I wanted to compose it in more modern version; taking inspiration from Todd McLellan.

But then I decided to use a kind of modern idea with more still-life composition.

It was really hard to print my final image. I thought that I knew how colors are going to work, because I was printing my test shoots, with same objects before. But because I used cream color background it became more difficult and complicated.

I spent long hours in the darkroom to print my image in proper colors.

When at least I’ve found proper colors I could not hide my happiness about. Basically I’m not fully satisfied about this picture. I’m not sure that it show my concept at all.

But on the other hand I’m happy that I took that picture because it show random objects which are not making sense at all which I can link with pollution.