I’m inclined to answer with “just depends”, but that’s hardly helpful. Sculptural photography can be problematic. One variable can be thought of as dimensionality, with an extreme being a homogeneous sphere and the other a virtual plane. The sphere presents robust opportunities while the “plane” – understood as having at least some thickness – presents the kind of issues with which you are dealing. And of course there can be fronts and backs, etc.

Speaking of gallerists (I just love that term.), committing one’s work to a given space and sensibility is usually inevitable, and the dealer will want to present things so as to maximize the sales potential.

Just wondering what Mr. Rankin’s take is on this…

Yes, it was definitely my intention to make abstractions playing off the sculptures, rather than illustrate them. That’s part of the reason for the defocus: without detail, it’s not clear there’s even a wall. I can almost imagine it’s just objectless light, or something aura projected from the black “monolith.”

The color in the photographs is dominated by the strong contrast in value, white to black, and the color change from the light sources is minimal, a bit of slightly cool light in a few places, against the overall warm yellow. The shadows seem almost gray.

To emphasize shifts in color from different light sources we need to see color passing from one light condition to another…like a white wall, or anything, passing from a warm to a cool light, or from a red to a green light…etc. Here’s an example, a Vermeer, where the white wall in the background passes from warm to cool….subtley but with a powerful effect in creating a sense of space and presence.
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/young_woman_with_a_water_pitcher.jpg

An interesting notion is that of ambient light. This is to suggest that there is a general overall level of light in a space, and lights of different colors are introduced. In 3D modeling software you can specify the color of ‘ambient’ light, which then makes strong color contrasts with individual lights of a different color. To wit…if the ambient light is blue, and a strong yellow spot light is played on a red object, the lit area will have an orange cast, while the shadows, lit by blue light, will have a violet cast.

In a sunlit landscape the shadows are ‘lit’ by the light of the sky….blue….note the strong blue shadows of the impressionists.

Also…contrasts of color are enhanced and made emphatic by minimalizing the contrast of value. Again..look at the impressionist to see overall contrasts of light and dark are so much less than in earlier painting.

I shouldn’t be surprised, after all the faces seen in rocks, cars, etc. But somehow, the thought never quite reached consciousness with me. Even the hinge interpretation–quite strong even though the actual sculpture is flat, in a single plane–was not evident to me at first glance. I suspect it’s because I’ve been working to do the opposite for photography, i.e. see the 2-D shapes that will lie in the print plane, derived from the 3-D subject before me.

Verry interesting…

I tend to see faces in the laundry basket – thus illustrating where I’m coming from. But, instead of a stark minimalism in Mr. Rankin’s work, I’m seeing some Muppet-like first responders – might be laptop computers with mouths where hinges usually are – agape at their shadows. The one in the middle especially seems threatened. Such timidity! Afraid of one’s own shadow indeed! The human face of minimalism.