Edward Weston
Edward Western was a very well-known 20th century American photographer. His subjects varied from landscape to portrait but he often used a black background for his photographs, which inspired me to do the same.
Western’s use of a very black background can be seen in these two photos. The black background creates simplicity and draws attention to the detail object being photographed which is this case a shell. This is something I tried to create by using a black back drop in the photography studio.
Arthur Tress
Arthur Tress is a 76-year-old American photographer who is well known for surrealism and exposition of the human body.
I was made aware of Arthur Tress’ work in a workshop. In particular, his still life fish tank work is similar to what I would like to create for the Found Objet brief. Tress took a fish tank with him around America and placed it in assorted locations with different objects inside it. In this work, he captures a slightly bizarre moment inside the glass fish tank, with a natural background. The objects inside the fish tanks are often un-natural and man-made, which contradicts the natural backgrounds Tress places them in front of. This contradiction links to part two of Tress’ book, which explores the arrival of mankind and the impact this has on nature.
This photo is in part two of Tress’ book and next to it he writes “bureaucrats gained power and armies flourished while the rest of the nation remain undernourished.” (Tress, 2000)
Tress is trying to emphasise the hierarchal nature of mankind, the rich and powerful are at the top with everything they need while the rest of society is left barely getting by. The statements that accompany Tress’ work often present a deeper message that makes the view think past the interesting photo.
I included the contraction between man-made and nature in my final piece by using natural stones in the unnatural glass jar, which I place in an unnatural photography studio. I also used Tress as inspiration in the sense that I put objects in a glass container.
References:
Tress, A. (2000) Fish Tank Sonata. New York, USA: Little, Brown and Company.
This is contact sheet of some of the images I took in the photography studio. I decided on my found objects to be the three stones which I then placed in a clear jar, linking to Arthur Tress’ work with fish tanks. I chose a black background to create simplicity and not draw attention away from the object linking to Edward Weston’s work. I took photos from different angles with different numbers of stones inside the jar and created several triptychs with various combinations before deciding on my final one.
I decided to use Triptych 3 as my final image because of the ascetically pleasing horizon line that draws your eye and although it is slightly uneven, getting higher from left to right, this represents the increasing number of stones in the jar. The use of studio lighting creates a crisp object, which I am pleased with. However, some improvements could be made to the final image, such as cleaning the glass more thoroughly so no marks can be seen. Also, the background colour cold be changed to make the stones stand out more.
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