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Photographer's Comments |
Challenge: Empty (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: Blandscapes
Camera: Canon EOS-40D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Location: Allamuchy, NJ
Date: May 6, 2012
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 400
Shutter: 60
Date Uploaded: May 6, 2012
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This challenge had given me much to think. What is the empty, and how would I capture it in a photograph. One thing I knew for sure, it would take a lot of work to do it correctly. So I thought about this idea of empty, how it is not an idea, and what is the thing that is idealess? I realized it must be television. But that wasn't empty enough, so that is where my real genius came in. I would make an empty television. To do this was simple. First, I made friends with an old man who lives next door to me. He is very lonely so he trusts me. After two days of pleasant conversations he lets me into his house. Very good. He has exactly the television I am looking for, an old television. Because I find that the old televisions are more television-like. Now he is a sad old man because he can't find his television, haha. Plus I am not visiting anymore. But I work full-time plus twenty hours a week winning ribbons on DPC, so who has the time? But I will mow his lawn next week. I am not a bad person.
Next, I decide for my television environment I need to emphasize the emptiness of the empty television, so I think there must be flowers growing through it. This is simple enough. I go to the local florist and purchase a very thick growth of flowers, resembling the wildflowers one might see on the lawn. To me, these flowers look very much like the garlic mustard, an invasive species very prevalent in this region. Then I decide for contrast I will need a stone wall, because there is something about walls that says empty to me. After all, it is just the wall. It blocks you. You cannot see anything. This is what emptiness is like. So I drive through my neighborhood with a sledgehammer looking for stone walls. For an expedition like this, it is best to go in the very early hours when it is still dark. After much driving and pile-driving I finally have the wall I need, which I bring back to my studio. While I have the sledgehammer out, I take care of the television, giving it a nice empty feeling that I need for my vision.
The last step is the lighting. I want to simulate the harsh sun of afternoon, so I set up three alien bees on highest setting, all pointing down in the same direction. This completes my vision, of the harsh sun punishing the poor television set, who has lost his "mind" and now can think only in flowers. This is of course on the symbolic level. Art is the symbolizing of images to states of mind.
I am very pleased with this image. Even if it only gets a 7.5 I think the effort is worth it. |
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