Concept
For this brief, I had to find everyday still life objects that didn’t belong to me and give them a new lease of life. I had to change the object to give it a different context and relocate it to photograph it. From doing this, I had full control over the lighting as well as how I want these objects to be staged. The final images have to be shown in a triptych, a series of 3 images, showing movement and direction of the 3 photographs.
Influences
Marc Fichou
When looking at the work of photographers who create images using paper, I looked at images of origami. I came across the work of Marc Fichou who’s work consisted of photographing origami animals. The background of each of the origami animals is of an unfolded piece of paper of the animal. Each of the origami animals is located centrally to the image. Each of the animals that he creates in origami form isn’t to scale to the animal that it is based on, but it is in scale regarding the background which is an unfolded piece of paper of the origami animal. In an interview with ‘The Raw Book’ Marc speaks about the meaning behind his work in regards to what he wants his audience to see from these images, why he chose these animals to make into origami, as well as the role that colour plays in his work and his influences for this project. http://www.therawbook.com/2013/05/24/marc/
I like how these images are shown because despite the overall images are made out of still life products, the images show an animal in a different form rather than an actual image of the animal. As for the lighting used in the images, the animal is shown darker compared to the background, this creates more depth and a 3D look to the origami.
Jenny Van Sommers
The second photographer that I came across was Jenny Van Sommers. Work of hers that I was interested in was of these two pieces of paper scrunched up into a ball. These images show how a plain piece of paper can be changed through the use of violence in still life photography to create a new meaning and feeling towards who is looking at the image. At first look at this image, you just see a scrunched up piece of paper with a plain non-creased background, this represents the before and after of the life of this piece of paper. These 2 images are part of a project called Wood Sphere and Paper, which are stored under her non-commissioned work on her website. Both of these images show the violence in the object through the creases. From having violence in these objects, it gives the object a new meaning and life even though the are the same object to what they were prior to been scrunched up.
As these images are of white pieces of paper, the use of lighting changes this. On the first image, the scrunched up piece of paper looks a lot darker with shows more in the creases and creates depth. The second image is more obvious that it is a white piece of paper because the lighting isn’t as dark. The creases on the paper aren’t as prominent compared to the first image, but the lighting still casts a shadow on the left of the object.
http://www.jennyvansommers.com/non-commissioned/woodsphereandpaper/#313
Stephan Gill
Another photographer who’s work I came across was Stephan Gill. I found a collection of his work called ‘A Series of Disappointments’. This consisted of images of betting slips either folded, crunched up, ripped or bent. I was interested in this project that he had created because it’s so simple yet gives a whole different meaning to the piece of paper due to somebody’s emotions when it comes to losing a bet. Each of the images that are part of the project show betting slips in a different way after the owner of them has lost their bet; these consists of the paper been ripped, rolled, folded, bent and scrunched up. These images are shown in a book that you are able to purchase, alongside other pieces of his work. http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/3375/Stephen-Gill-A-Series-of-Disappointments/239
I like the way Stephan has photographed these piece of paper because each one has a different meaning behind them, showing how different people react when losing a bet. The first image shows a betting slip folded and then ripped almost in half down the middle, whereas the second image shows the betting slip folded into a zigzag shape. Again, these show emotion from the owner, but each image shows a different way that the owner has dealt with losing their bet, shown through different forms of violence towards the paper.
As the original colours of the pieces of paper are black and white, these have been kept within the final edit of these images. The colours also have connotations of disappointment, end of a cycle and emptiness.
Reflection
When I first looked at the brief and it said about photography found object, I had no idea what objects I wanted to photograph. I started with researching different still life images and a lot came up with bottles. I found a bottle and crushed it slightly and photographed it, but I wasn’t really happy with the results that I got from my photographs. I started again with more research and that is when I came across the work of Marc Fichou, Jenny Van Sommers and Stephan Gill, and how the photograph pieces of paper in different forms. Marc’s work shows origami animals, I didn’t want to do origami for my final 3 images, but the way he photographs them to create the 3D look with lighting is something that helped me with my final photographs. Jenny Van Sommers work was something that I was more interested in. Her photography shows how the use of light can differ the amount of violence that is shown on the image. Her images are also a lot more simple compared to Marc’s and that is the type of look I am going for. Stephan’s work also gave me ideas that I could corporate into my own work. Instead of using plain paper like the other 2 artists in his work, the paper shown is printed with words on it which give the image more detail and creates more of a narrative behind the piece of paper.
For my final triptych, I photographed images of receipts that I found in my friend’s wallet. This was influenced by Marc’s work. The meaning behind this was to show how people keep receipts to remember what they have bought or where they have been.
Some of the examples of my photographs:
