Brief
This assignment is 'SIGNS OF LIFE' which will require us to investigate the world of fine art / Photographic 'Still Life', we must respond to one of these words.
DEAD, FRAGILE, BROKEN, DELICATE, OLD, MEMORY, TIME, PLACE, STRUCTURE
Artist Research
Olivia Parker began her career as a painter, she self taught herself photography in 1970. Her photographs are inspired by Dutch art. Her first book 'Signs of Life' featured simple images. A perfect white orchid, a pair of baller slippers, pea pods sitting on a counter.This set of work is exclusivly black and white, using large format cameras 8 x 10 up to 12 x 20, then turned to poloroid and cibachrome materials and returned to painting and creating preperations and background materials for her individual images. All her work is composed and shot on copy stand.
Olivia Parker has had more than on houndred one-person exhibitions in the United States and abroad and her work is represented in several major private and museum collections.
Her perfectly lit work explains their venerability, making very beautiful images. I think her images look very feminine, and innocent. I am really fond of them, i like the simility of the white in the images, making them look so elegent. Her photographs ask viewers to continually evaluate their meaning by never truly defining where the eye comes to rest.
For this assignment i want to respond to DELICATE
DELICATE - exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing.
My idea
I want to photograph what i consider delicate or fragile objects, i plan to photograph a pearls on a white sheet in the style of Olivia Parker. I am going to photograph the object on a white peace of paper next to a window to create the same kind of style as Parker. I think her images look very pretty and feminine and i like this that is why i picked delicate and fragile for my still life project.
My Images
How i created my images
I set my camera to the 'A' setting, i created a narrow depth of field by setting my f stop to 5.6 as this is the lowest it would go on my camera. I lay my pearls on a pillow case by my kitchen window as i felt it was the best place for light in my house. It was a dull day, so i set the I.S.O on my camera to 400. I messed around to see what kind of picture i wanted to create, still trying to copy the style of Olivia Parker. I used a white peace of paper to try and bounce some of the light onto the pearls. I like the images i turned out with although they are not as vibrant as Parkers work i think they will look successful once theyve been Photoshopped.
My Final Image
This is my final image, i picked this image as it was my favourite of my set of photographs and had positive comments from my class mates. I messed around with the levels and contrast and came out with this image. Unlike Olivia Parkers work mine has more colour to it which i decided to keep because i felt it looked better than purely black and white.
I like the way the pearl flows through the picture like a line that blurs. You can see a slight reflection in the pearls which i also like, although it was not intended.
The lense has focused on the front of the image which allows you to see the texture and fibres in the material the pearls are layed on which i think is nice. I also created a black border around the image to copy the style of Olivia Parkers work, i think this looks effective on my image and i like that is isnt a plain black border.
