Recently, I embarked on a little mini project in a bid to better understand the vagaries of photography. I find photography a hard master and am still unable to photograph my paintings to the level of detail I want… This mini-project may just be regarded as another attempt at understating photography better. The premise was simple: Instead of turning the camera to outside subjects like “people, landscape, houses, family’, I decided to turn it inwards. I decided that I was going to photograph just objects in and around the confines of our home. What initially was envisaged as a dull chronicle of household items turned out to be quite an exciting one (at least for me).
Sunil Gangadharan, ‘Juxtaposition’, digital photograph
I took about 50 pictures in a space of about two hours. All of them shot inside. I have posted a majority of them to the flickr site here. To see as slideshow click here.
So, instead of asking some serious art question (which I frequently find myself thinking more and more), I decided to take it easy and play.
I like your photos, Sunil. Why not take close ups of your paintings to show the details alongside one of the entire piece?
I love the door knob picture.
Sunil, this is a great project! It’s a great way to jog yourself out of any seeing ruts you might be in (meaning the general you that includes me, not just you Sunil). Not only do you really look at some things you wouldn’t much notice otherwise, but the necessity of framing what you are looking at prods you to engage a little more and to think artistically.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a Clyfford Still monster delivering “Big Hugs?”
Sunil, I love these photos. Thinking is fine, but it’s no substitute for looking.
Glad all of you enjoyed the pictures. Sometimes the act of looking at a mundane object in a non-critical but a novel way opens up a whole range of possibilities. I have been looking into the photogenic aspects of crevices, nooks and crannies recently much to the chagrin of family members.
Sunil:
I can understand your family’s reaction as none of my crevices, nooks and crannie are in the least photogenic.
Hmmm.
I need to contmplate that one, Jay.
By ‘my’, I am assuming you mean your house… or is it more of your cunning play on words…
Sunil:
I meant the one thing, but the other will do as well.
Sunil
I like how inner space reflects a personla inner space. I really dig your photos Sunil, I like how the every-day surroundings can become an endless pot of creative material and you certainly have an eye for this – they remind me a lot of the work I was doing at the turn of this year. At the time I think Steve commented on my photography being different and contrasting to my abstract paintings. Overtime however, my photography and painting are becoming more similar as I delve deeper into my realms of abstraction.
My photography (and painting) has evolved significantly and I am now using base images like these on your flickr page and then taking them into new dimensions e.g. I have a photo of the base of a wet baking tray – this has now become the photowork titled “Elements” – you can see it along with the rest at http://www.ifitrains.com/Photography.html
Would you consider doing work on your photos to fit with your own painting style.
Does anyone else take their photogrpahic art down this path?
Steve – how do you feel about this from your perspective?
It will be interesting to hear out from Steve as he is the real photographer – I am just a wannabe…
Mark,
Funny: I just went to your photo page, clicked first on the one that caught my eye because it was like my Patina abstracts (see following post), and it turned out to be “Elements.” A number of the others are also similar. So it seems we do share an interest in this kind of abstraction. It has been done by a lot of photographers, but usually they do less transformation of the images.
Offhand, I don’t know of any painters who have based their work on these ideas — despite resemblance to various abstract artists — but that could be very fruitful, I think.
Sunil’s work is based on transforming photographs, so he could easily do paintings from his own. I think what he would need to photograph something that had a very strong emotional significance for him, as that appears to be of major importance.
Sunil,
real photographer
As June says: snort!
Looks like my initial comment to Mark got eaten up by the ‘moderation’ engine…
Mark,
I will type it up again tomorrow.
[Steve] Sorry about that. You’d make mistakes too if you had to read all that spam. Here’s the original comment:
Mark,
Good to hear from you. I am glad you liked my very amateur explorations as I try and understand photography. The abstractions that you have on your site seem to be of a much higher order than what I have attempted here. I liked them and enjoyed them very much. I wonder if you still follow your old principles of letting the music flow as you photograph or was it just for your paintings only?
I still have that painting of yours ‘the three buddhas’ (did I get that right?) etched on my sub conscious…
Would I consider doing photos that fit with your painting style? Hmmm..
I am not so sure if I have it all so planned out like that. Projects like this were done on a whim – I got the idea the night before and decided to execute on it.
More of the serious stuff like the source for my face paintings – either I go out and photograph people or I scour magazines and the web for compelling faces that tell stories…
Steve and Mark,
A lot of textile artists are working in the “patina” style, in part because it’s relatively easy to achieve with dyeing techniques. In fact, a current craze is what they call “rust dyeing” or “compost dyeing” which is pretty much what it sounds like.
Claire Fenton, from Louisiana, has a whole series of rust-dyed fabrics from which she composed a number of pieces about the New Orleans catastrophe. Check out her Quilt Gallery:
http://www.clairefenton.com/quilt-gallery.asp
Good to hear from you, Mark. I am glad you liked my very amateur explorations as I try and understand photography. The abstractions that you have on your site seem to be of a much higher order than what I have attempted here. I liked them and enjoyed them very much. I wonder if you still follow your old principles of letting the music flow as you photograph or was it just for your paintings only? I still have that painting of yours ‘the three buddhas’ (did I get that right?) etched on my sub conscious… Would I consider doing photos that fit with your painting style? Hmmm..
I am not so sure if I have it all so planned out like that. Projects like this were done on a whim – I got the idea the night before and decided to execute on it. More of the serious stuff like the source for my face paintings – either I go out and photograph people or I scour magazines and the web for compelling faces that tell stories…
Sunil,
You are an artist and your photgraphs display another aspect of your creative mind. I therefore reckon that you have gone beyond wannabe.
I’m glad you like my abstract photography. The music is always flowing in my world, but not necessarily at the time of taking the picture; it’s at the time of transformation and creation that music aids my creative senses. The initial photo is the base idea in the same way my sketches, photos and memory are the base ideas for my paintings – I then introduce music to develop the base idea and let the painting, or in this case photographic transformation, take a firm hold on what I feel as I apply paint to the canvas or tweak a photographic image.
And wow, I’m glad the three buddha radiated so well – yes “Trikaya” was the one.
Your own process of seeking out “faces that tell stories” sounds similar to my seeking out images, compositions, scences, things, sounds etc that evoke a feeling, a sense of beauty and in way tell a story or a sense of something (not always comprehensible though in my case). Its about evoking some feeling in the final image for us both would you say?
Steve
Very interesting, and it must be a sign of our similar interest in abstraction. I had no idea.
I hope my further reaching transformation of images isn’t a bad thing in constrast to those who’ve work in this area previously. I plan for my paintings to incorporate more of the effects of my photography as time goes on. I’m trying to tap into digitial audio and digital visual imagery to push the boundaries of my painting. Maybe our work will inspire each other – certainly your work in the “Complications” posting (http://www.artandperception.com/2007/09/complications.html) excites my mind to push on with what I’m trying to do.
June
Thanks for the pointer. In a world where regeneration is important it’s good to know that lots of artists see beauty in decay and rust and compost….compost what a great idea!
In some of my work I switch from the harder elements to softer water elements. Fluidity features and is a reflection of the respect for water aspect of your world. In some aspects wind and fire figure too in my photography…and no! before anyone jokes, I wasn’t listening to Earth, Wind and Fire!!!!
PS Good to be back.