Recreations

My current photography project has similar themes from various different artists and I am excited and inspired to look into them further by recreating their works. One of my first shoots was a recreation of the work of Duane Michaels by taking a series of photos in which a scene gradually changes via the introduction of more props, in this case, various sketchbooks, booklets, office supplies and sheets of paper. These photos were taken in my bedroom using my ceiling light as the lighting. The first photo was taken a while before the rest, so the lighting varies marginally.

This second piece took inspiration from Storm Thorgerson's work; in some of his photos, most of the sky is visible with the ground at the very bottom, or a dichotomy of land and sky. Essentially, there is a balance or imbalance of the ground and the sky which I attempted to emulate in this piece. By photographing my willow tree and having the rest of the image be the night sky, the light and dark contrast is high.

 Composition-wise, this shot was very easy to produce and only took one step—sit on the ground looking up. By sitting in my front doorway and pointing the camera upwards, maybe 45 degrees upwards, and aligning elements of the willow tree with the edges of the screen, I snapped this photo. It wasn't until after I took the photo that I noticed a streetlamp's light peering through in the background, which I found to be a nice addition, giving it a more warm, less sinister vibe.

 These next few pieces were inspired by Gregory Crewdson, whose work appears to look straight out of a movie, with characters sat or stood still in candid wide-shots of unsettling environments with an elegiac aura. Whether it's the models themselves, the environments, the tone of the image or the composition, there is always a perturbing element within Crewdson's work.

 The first piece, I took laying on my bed with my legs outstretched. I took inspiration for the composition from Thorgerson, with the balance of the bed and the curtains with a figure in the middle, although tone and colour-wise, it is Crewdson-inspired. The slight glare of the light outside seen through the curtains seems to disturb the flow of the image and distract from the center focal point, although I won't let that ruin it all for me. The lighting is simply the harsh glow of my television and computer monitor on which I had the same imagery to make the lighting fair.

 The aura of the image evokes a disturbed and attempted relaxation session whilst something is wrong in the figure's mind. The unsettled positioning of the legs, the cold lighting, the darkness across from the bed reflecting the uncertainty, and perhaps the light outside being the lingering thought or the wrong in the world that bothers them.

 The imagery on the screens across from my bed were that of the cover for the album April Fools by The Scary Jokes. I chose to listen to this album as I took this series of photos in order to help influence the vibe I was hoping these images would give off. The album itself has been described as "the best sad clown music", which is akin to what feeling I was hoping to portray in these images.

 The two smaller screens are that of my Nintendo Switch Lite and my iPhone, on which I was playing the same video. On all screens, the brightness was turned up all the way, although the sound was only playing on my television, as that would have produced the most noise. To me, this image represents addiction and obsession with a specific idea or topic which applies to myself. The album and the artist behind it are very fascinating to me and I have an odd addiction to their work, so I portrayed that addiction through this piece.

 I took this photo after applying a random setting to the DSLR camera I was borrowing at the time, which turned out to be surprisingly good. The rich, vibrant blues and purples contrasting with the oranges and yellows struck me. The lighting was produced with near similar properties to that of the previous image, with only the television screen producing the harsh light. Overall, this series of images was very fun to produce, and with further adjustments, I could see the latter two fitting into the Crewdson aesthetic, i.e. further-distanced shots, different lighting, different camera settings, further Photoshop adjustments, et cetera. However, I am happy with it as it is.

 In my graphic design course, I have produced two pieces in the style of Sister Corita Kent's work, whom I mentioned in my previous post and whom I plan to recreate for this project, too. The process will be slightly different, however. First, I plan to construct the piece as usual, with paper, a craft knife, glue and a scanner, before compiling it in Photoshop. Then, I will have the piece printed in A3, trimmed down, stuck onto a wall and then photographed with a figure alongside it. Many photos of Kent feature her and her works, so I supposed this would be an ideal addition, seeing as the theme of her work itself is fairly surreal and abstract. If it can be psychedelic, it can be surreal. I may also use the aforementioned process but attempt to create it all traditionally and then photographing it.

 I plan to execute my ideas for Spangler recreations when I have my graphics tablet, and I will also be able to further develop my Kent recreations. On top of that, I will be able to appropriately create Valezquez-inspired pieces as I can add and take away as much detail as I please and experiment with colour in a very wide variety. By using the tablet as opposed to a printed image, a lightbox and a sharpie, I can make immediate changes to parts of the raw image file rather than having to go through a long process several times with large room for errors.

 The rest of the images here are the other photos I took.