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Night Blooms

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Artist Statement: Night Blooms

My photography explores themes of beauty via the shadow side of humanity. I used a scanner to create a quality of light that falls away into obscurity, creating an illusion of elements materializing from darkness. This medium spoke to me not only because of the light quality, but also because I could make imagery that reflected another aspect we often associate with nighttime: dreams. A realm in which we can integrate our shadow side and learn to be brave in the face of our inner fantasies.

Night Blooms is a study about the body, botanicals and adornments blossoming from the dark haze of the unknown. This work calls to mind an ancestral woman, playing with aspects of her paradise in a night garden. She sees fruits budding from pollinated flowers and visions emerging from her subconscious. She contemplates how to adorn the body inside and out with the beauty reflected back from nature.

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Artist Statement Draft: Night Blooms

My photography explores themes of beauty via the shadow side of humanity. Night Blooms is a study about the body, botanicals and adornments blossoming from the darkness. Using a scanner to create a quality of light that falls away into obscurity, this work calls to mind an ancestral woman, playing with elements of her paradise in a night garden. This medium spoke to me not only because of the light quality, but also because I could create imagery that reflected another aspect we often associate with nighttime: dreams. A realm in which we can integrate our shadow side and learn to be brave in the face of our inner fantasies.

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Project Iterations: First Edit

The first twelve photos that I think could make it into the project...

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Scanography Artists: Mac McArthur

©Mac McArthur 2008

Mac McArthur is a scanography still life artist who primarily scans sculptures and botanicals together. I like the abstract nature of his compositions and the depth of field he is able to eek out of his three scanners that he rotates to make his artwork.

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Project Iteration: Getting Somewhere

I’m finally getting somewhere with these images and making some that I want to keep for the final edit. These three make the cut!

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Scanography Artists: Rebecca Wild

Rebecca Wild is an artist who combines painting and scanning to create some magnificent textures. According to Wild, she is concerned with bringing the messy aspects of making art into the public eye. Her work is abstract and moody with saturated colors against dark backgrounds, exactly the kind of contrast I look to embody in this project.

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Project Iterations: Circling Back

With these photos I felt that I was finally circling back towards my original vision for this project, which all centered around a certain light quality that I was trying to mimic. These photos did not make the edit because they don’t quite follow any narrative yet.

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Scanography artist: Elena Kropaneva

©Elena Kropaneva 2008

I remember making photocopies of my face and hands back in the day, but I hadn’t thought about using a scanner as a camera. After hearing about Harold Feinstein and doing my own rudimentary experiments, I started looking into what other people were doing with scanners. 

I’m not sure what Elena Kropaneva is into now (at the time of making this image she was an architecture student in Russia), but I was inspired by her self portraits. Like me, she combined flowers and flesh into some pretty and ethereal compositions. I knew that I wanted my work to have a dark feeling and the dreaminess of her imagery resonated with some visual elements that I liked.

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Project Iterations: Uphill Battle

The first frame in 40 where I first thought I may be getting the hang of things. Not quite right but I had finally stopped smushing myself against the scanner. I realized after doing that for a while that I didn’t like calling the viewer’s attention to the fact that the “camera” is a scanner.

I thought this one was pretty cool with the hand pose but I didn’t like the way my face is blanked out.

Aha! I finally got one I like! Things got even more fun for me after this point...

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Discovery: Scanography Self Portraits

Hmmmm...now this is special, but not in a good way. My very first scanner selfie and I look like a smooshed Hobbit trying to conjure the Eye of Sauron with my amulet. Eeeek.

Ouch, this one hurt. Interesting pose but none of it says anything.

Still looking like a Hobbit, but I am starting to see why the scanner is such a fascinating way for people to make images. I think I’m hooked.

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Night Blooms: Failing Upwards

My very first scan. Flowers and jewels, I thought it would be easy. I quickly learned that this new tool had some peculiarities to explore. From this photo I learned that I needed to finesse the objects way more. I was up for the challenge with three weeks to go on my project.

I tried to shine a LED flashlight behind the jewels to give them some extra glimmer. Interesting effect but it didn’t work. I had to try something else...

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Harold Feinstein: Faded Glory

Thank you to my incredible Professor for sending me a link to the unforgettable scanner photography of Harold Feinstein. Seeing his work shifted my perspective on my final project from one of struggle to one of joy and experimentation.

Feinstein began photographing flowers in the 1990′s and once digital photography was on the rise, he began using a scanner to make images. In the year 2000, he was awarded the Smithsonian Computerworld Award for digital photography. Seven published books of scanner photography later, Feinstein made an another indelible mark on the world of photography.

Feinstein started photography at the tender age of 15, by the time he was 19 Edward Steichen had purchased his imagery for the permanent collection at MOMA. He made his name in the photo world via a number of paths: documenting the streets of New York, an inside look at the Korean War from his own perspective as a soldier, a six decade long Coney Island project, abstract architectural photography using a kaleidoscopic lens, making images in the jazz scene via the Jazz Loft and then continuing on to become a pioneering figure in the digital world with his scanner and lots of luscious blooms.

Feinstein is a true legend, he was fearless in the pursuit of his vision and his desire to share it with the world.

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Peer evaluation: Sarah James

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Paolo Roversi: Twilight Textures

Anna, Tokyo ©Paolo Roversi 2016

Another master of mood, Paolo Roversi started his career as a photojournalist for AP in 1970. Soon thereafter, he migrated to fashion photography, realizing during assisting British photographer Lawrence Sackmann that he wanted a different approach to the medium. Roversi mastered the darkroom and began to shoot with an 8X10 camera, making memorable chromogenic prints where he played with lighting, pose and tonality to signal that we are glimpsing his inner utopia. The fashion world fell in love with these exquisitely textured photos that bridge a gap between commercial and fine art photography. Roversi found great commercial success with large fashion houses and continues to shoot fashion and celebrity portraiture.

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Basement blooms - Take 2

I tried again, this time I built a flower wreath mixing real and fake foliage and used it as a prop to enhance the hands and jewelry. I didn’t get the type or colors of the flowers right, and once again it was feats of super human flexibility to trigger the remote release. Still, the jewelry wasn’t looking nice either...

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Sarah Moon: High Priestess

©Sarah Moon

Sarah Moon started her career as a model and I believe this led to her unique and ethereal style as a fashion photographer who knew exactly how to get the most from her models. Blurring the lines between fashion and fine art, Moon has carved a career out of making dreamy portraits where texture and tone are the stars.

Moon is mostly labeled a fashion photographer which is ironic because in her most well known work it is impossible to see any details of the clothing. BUT! This doesn’t matter much because what Moon is a master at is creating a mood, and that’s more than half the battle when attempting to tell a fashion story through imagery.