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Behind the Belle Facade…
Posted November 28, 2010 / Taken November 8, 2010
I was planning on doing a shoot of random cute things laying around my house for a layout in development at Sodapop.nu. I planned for a still-life with some attractive school supplies, my hot pink sketchbook, and some obnoxious toys I bought at Big Lots for just such an occasion (.. which made me feel really creepy when I was checking out – the things I do for my art..). The afternoon light filtering in my living room window was perfect one afternoon and I scrambled to “finish” this shoot in under 30 minutes, before the light faded. I say finish tentatively because I still plan to do many, many more of these arranged still-lifes of cute objects. Anyway, so I grabbed my cute things, and some old Sailormoon manga I recently discovered in a box of my childhood things, for good measure (really, it was the red on the side label that drew me in.. I wanted that red!), and.. voila. My cat, Michiko, also decided to crash the set (I say this like I cared, but I was hoping she would..!), so I took some pictures of her as well.
To be perfectly honest, I have a lot more fun when I’m shooting as if its for the sixth page of a spread, rather than the first, if you understand the metaphor. This impetus influenced these shots A LOT; maybe it was because I was in a hurry and this is what I tend to prioritize. But, why?
I know other people hate it; I’ve been told more than once that I take pictures of “parts of things” rather than things themselves.
The very few times in my life that I’ve looked at an entire set of photographs from a famous photographers’ photoshoot, I was always more interested in seeing all of the shots as a whole, rather than just the final shot that made the cut. I find the “outtakes” (I always suspect that they’re on purpose, but who knows) – the random shot of scenery, the picture where the subject isn’t in focus – more interesting. And so I think I have this habit because I really love the feeling that I’m telling a story. I always have the intention of showing not just one photo, but all of the photos from a shoot, and so each photo on its own isn’t supposed to be impressive. You’re supposed to look at all of them together, and have them each inform each other. I find it kind of satisfying.
I’m aware that no one else probably gets this. But, it’s what I like. And so for shoots like this, that are entirely for me, I don’t regret it. I was also thinking that I might be making some kind of collage for the Sodapop.nu layout (although it didn’t end up that way), which explains it in less abstract terms.
But maybe as I do more of these still-lives, I’ll have to put in the effort to do what other people expect. Maybe. Or get really good at telling the multi-shot story/making a multi-shot final product, because here I realize it’s not doing as much as it could be (partially, as well, because I was in such a hurry while shooting, and these aren’t the best photographs anyway, because I wasn’t shooting on the mode I thought I was, and these are exposed wrong.. ahem).
By the way, the first image in this post is the one that I ended up using for the layout.