Monochrome speaks of abstract seriousness

I usually shoot black and white photography.  Lately, colour has dominated my visual landscape; not sure why.

Here are black and whites from the petal and skull photos.  Colour can be evocative but monochrome speaks of abstract seriousness; the philosophical dimension of the medium.

Hero descends headlong to oblivion in ecstatic rage

As the tulips in my studio faded, I thought again of the memento mori.  So it was natural to do a skull redux with the last petals of the tulips.  The dry petals literally fell off the flowers and curled, their colour intensified.  I imagined them falling out of skulls eyes;  Weeping flower petals.

It conjures up a whole lot of poetry for me: Baudelaire's  Les Fleurs du mal; james joyce's "apologize, apologize pluck out his eyes" and the wondrous drunken rant in Malcolm Lowrey's Under the Volcano, where in the day of the dead scene, the hero descends headlong to oblivion in an ecstatic rage.

And yet, it can all be beautiful too, as an image.

Tulips 18...Merce Cunningham edition

This morning I officially ended the current tulip shoot.  I thought they would just look drained.  But I noticed how the orange one was resting on the brick: that was it.

I dragged it back to the studio for another go.

I had modern dance in mind here: Merce Cunningham. Martha Graham.  Flowing sculpture on stage, hugging, forming.

Tulip series 15.....a cup of them

These tulips are more interesting than the last ones.  But that's how it is with photography.  People always ask photographers what their favourite photo is and they invariably say "the next one".  It's taking and making that keeps us going for the most part.

The black espresso cups still sit around from the coffee series and I decided to lay the tulip, now on its last breath, in the cup.  I love the idea of the blazing, curling, intensely fading flower in the black cup. (The soft box light was high on the left.)

Wittgenstein used to say that metaphor was hammering with a saw.  Art is like that too.

Good art says, "Hey.  What about this?"

Tulip in colour...part 14

Here are two more tulips in colour: one on seamless grey and one backlit. I was trying to get a ghosty effect with the backlit so I popped the skull into the frame for a lark

Tulip series version 12a....black and white photos

Here are the monochrome version of the recent tulip files.  I think they translate very well.  All were made from a finished colour version using LightRoom 4 and then Silver Efex Pro to convert to black and white.

Tulip series part eleven...reprise encore

The tulips in the front garden are almost done.  I decided that I wouldn't diminish their beautiful lives much by cutting them and photographing them.  They are big, colourful and just past their prime.  The red ones have already lost petals in the slight wind and rain.

That I cut them just before they were about to expire reminded me of my ongoing memento mori series. Therefore, the second image is with the skull.  In fact, I have added cracks and white teeth to my skull with paint to spruce it up. Looking good!    I blame Damien Hirst.

The skull is ready for her/his cameo however.

Tulip series ....9

Here is a little detail of the tulip series.

Light reveals the form more naturally

I have quite a few projects active currently.  Consequently, I didn't post two of my favourite shots from the tulip series.  Here they are.

I quite like the way the beauty light (soft box positioned beside the camera at the front and up at the ceiling) forms the subject.

It takes quite a lot of work to get these images to reveal their secrets, but it is well worth it.  I think the modelling is very interesting.

It is a more naturalistic view in that the forms are lightest on the close surface and darker on the surfaces that are further away.

Tulips....part 7 epilogue

I really intended the last tulip blog to be the last tulip blog.  I emptied out the vase of water, laid the tulips out on the table for one last look, as I dismantled the still life.

Then it occurred to me that the tulips were both themselves lying in the final state (dead), as it were, and a kind of memorial.  For some reason we always put flowers on graves.  I had never thought about why.  So it occurred to me to do one last few shots of the tulips en soi (as themselves deceased) and pour soi (as memorial to themselves) , as Sartre might have said, and it just seemed best in colour.  They really were intense at the very end.
Bravo tulips!

BTW if you'd like to look at or purchase my latest photo books, they are here:  Tools and Silhouettes

Gorgeous tulips age admirably....part 6

What can I say?  I'm into decay?

I loved that flower with my eyes, nose

when it was fresh, young. 

but when used, experienced;
I love it with my soul.