Connecting Essay - Andre kertesz

Here is an image from my third shoot, which took place in my kitchen and involved capturing plates with food waste left on them after a meal. The image was taken from a high angle and depicts two spoons and a fork that have been left in a bowl. It was taken from an incredibly close up perspective with a narrow aperture, meaning the cutlery appears to be larger than life. This could be portraying cutlery as a tool with a lot of power; it is the tool which is used to feed yourself, and it's therefore, in a sense part of keeping you alive. I took care in capturing texture in this image, selecting cutlery that has had some wear from extensive use and therefore presented some scratched and rusted textures. This helps portray cutlery as an object that is used very frequently, as well as having a long lifespan, as it is still in use despite these textures being present.

This is an image by famous still life photographer Andre Kertesz, who often captured everyday objects in everyday settings such as restaurants. This has been taken from a very high angle, being close to a bird's eye view shot, and depicts a clean bowl with a spoon in it and what looks like three sugar cubes. The image has been taken using a very greyscale black and white film, meaning a monotone effect is created, however, there is some tonal contrast created by the low-key lighting used in the shoot, which casts a hard shadow both inside the bowl as well as on the table, which is cast by the bowl. This could be linked to the presence of sugar cubes, creating connotations of the good side and bad side of eating one. On the plus side, a sugar cube tastes nice, whereas it has a bad side in that it's poor for your health, as it's excessive amounts of sugar.

My image drew inspiration from Kertesz' image, mostly in composition. I liked kertesz' use of high angle shots to create a sort of architectural type plan shot, in which you can see the whole scene, therefore I shot from a high angle to try and recreate this atmosphere. I also took note of kertesz use of texture; he used mostly smooth textures apart from some contrasting rough textures shown on the table, and this texture contrast is something I tried to replicate through displaying rough textures in the cutlery and contrasting them with the smooth textures of the bowl they are in.

Connecting Essay - Suzanne Cummings

This is one of my images from my fifth preparatory shoot. This has a very narrow depth of field, with only a small section of the wires in the image being in focus and the focus dropping out for the rest of the image. There are several red and black wires shown in the foreground of the image, and the background displays a black surface to the right and a red plug adapter to the left of the background. Since the composition consists of almost entirely black and red, a duotone style effect is created, in which red presents light tones and black presents dark tones. The red could create connotations of love, while the black creates connotations of hate, meaning this image could be a metaphorical representation of what the person who uses this work space feels about their work; part of them loves it and part of them hates it.



Above is an image by Suzanne Cummings, as part of her "Be Still" series of still life photographs. This has been heavily edited in photoshop, using a filter that makes the image appear as if it is an oil painting. Some scratches have also been made across the image, creating an agitated mood. The lighting in the image is low key has been positioned behind the subject, meaning the subject of the image, which is a fruit bowl, casts a hard shadow in the foreground of the composition. Tone has been used effectively throughout the composition of this image, with there being strong dark tones featured in the foreground, further creating a dark atmosphere and a dark representation of everyday objects.

My image bears some similarities and connections to Suzanne Cummings' image. One example would be the use of tone; Cummings' image presents a strong tonal contrast between the light and dark tones of the image, which is something I carried into my image, using the red and black, as well as the hard shadow from my camera flash. Cummings' use of blur is another part of her composition that I attempted to carry over to mine; she used motion blur to blur the image and create a sense of motion, while I used depth blur to eliminate background detail and keep the focus of the image as the wires in the foreground.

Connecting Essay - Sam Kaplan

Here is one my images from my third shoot. I focused my camera on the fork in the shot, and due to the narrow depth of field used, this meant the rest of the image was out of focus. The spoon displays a smooth and shiny texture, with there being some small interruptions to this in the form of scratches on the metal. In the background, there is remainders of tomato based pasta sauce in the bowl, which presents the shade of muted red that makes up most of the composition. This shade of red could represent the person who is eating losing their love of food, and a result, there is an amount of sauce that was left in the bowl to be wasted. The use of the smooth texture with scratches interrupting the smoothness could act as a representation of the spoon's current state of usefulness; though it is old, which is clearly shown through the scratches, yet the shine left on it shows that it is still a useful object.



This is an image by still life photographer Sam Kaplan. It has been taken from a low angle, facing down upon the subjects of the photo. The image depicts several wooden plates with platters of various foods neatly organised on them and decorated. Kaplan has made strong use of colour throughout his image, with there being prominent saturated shades of yellow present in the corn in the foreground. The lighting appears to have been natural and is very bright, as it casts a hard shadow on the table coming from the plates and glasses; this creates a clear tonal contrast between the light tones shown on the plates and these shadows, presenting the fact that while the food looks appealing, it is of a large quantity and therefore will likely not be good for you. There is a large amount of salad on the plates, which could represent the presence of natural ingredients in cooking, and the yellow tones throughout the image create a sense of hope for natural and healthy food.

These two images have some clear links. The both follow the same topics of food, and therefore everyday objects, and both present a sense of excess in foods, with mine showing food waste from excess and Kaplan's image showing excess from having large amounts of food in the frame at once. They also both make use of texture, with mine showing some scratched textures on cutlery, indicating that while it's old and has been used, it still functions. Kaplan uses texture to present a sense of the outdoors; there are lots of bumpy, natural looking textures throughout the image, shown both on the plates and the table they were photographed on.

Connecting Essay - Laurens Kaldeway

 
Here is one of the images from my fourth shoot. I set my aperture f5.6, in order to create a very narrow depth of field, and focused on the centre of the note in foreground of the image. On the note, written in thick black ink,  reads "sometimes I wonder why. But I'll be OK now.", which could be a representation of the writer's self doubts, as well as their eventual reassurance of these doubts. The use of black ink is significant, as black can represent their overall strength after having periods of self doubt. Though the background is out of focus, you can see another post it note behind the one with black text on it, which has unreadable writing in blue ink on it; this could represent a different mindset of the writer, in which they were less sure of themself, creating a narrative in that that mindset is a thing of the past, which is why it's in the background and the one with black ink is in focus in the foreground.

 
 Here is an image by Laurens Kaldeway, which is titled "On the table". This has a narrow depth of field, in which the cup in the foreground is in focus and the book in the midground as well as the chess board in the background are out of focus. White and brown are prominent colours in the composition of this image, with white being present on the cup and saucer and the book and brown being present on the table and the book. White can represent innocence, whereas brown can represent health, therefore the viewer could draw from the use of these colours together that the person who's table is depicted in the image is innocent and therefore leads a healthy lifestyle.

My image connects well with Kaldeway's image. They both take place in similar home settings, with my image being in a kitchen and Kaldeway's being in what appears to be a living room, linking them both to the subject of everyday objects. I was inspired by Kaldeway's framing when I took my image, attempting to use the composition of having my focal point in the foreground, and then dropping my focus out of the course of the rest of the image, having things visible behind the focal point that help create the narrative.