So I'm on a kick where I like taking pictures of vegetables (and some fruits). I like these photos of peppers just fine, but let's be honest, Edward Weston already did them and did them better. Of course, Weston was also using an 8x10 view camera and printing on silver gelatin paper. I'm trying to find a way to make the pepper pic my own, and I just don't think I've quite hit it yet.
I love the vibrancy of the color pictures, but I love how the texture and form come to the forefront in the black and whites. I think much could be improved by simplifying the background and finding a way to light the contours of the pepper a bit more subtly.
Why vegetables? I love the constant surprise of form, color, and texture found in all nature. But right now I'm loving me some veggies (and to a lesser extent, fruits). About peppers, Weston said:
I have done perhaps fifty negatives of peppers: because of the endless variety in form manifestations, because of their extraordinary surface texture, because of the power, the force suggested in their amazing convolutions. A box of peppers at the corner grocery hold implications to stir me emotionally more than almost any other edible form, for they run the gamut of natural forms, in experimental surprises.I love Weston's response to those who suggested he was trying to depict anything remotely "human" in his work:
The peppers which are libeled more than anything I have done, ‒ in them has been found vulvas, penises or combinations, sexual intercourse, Madonna with child, wrestlers, modern sculpture, African carving, ad nauseam, according to the state of mind of the spectator: and I have a lot of fun sizing up people from their findings! Now call the above explanation my defense mechanism become active [sic], I say that it is disgust and weariness over having my work labeled and pigeonholed by those who bring to it their own obviously abnormal, frustrated condition: the sexually unemployed belching gaseous irrelevancies from an undigested Freudian ferment.Both these quotes were taken from the Wikipedia "Pepper No. 30" article, if you care to look up the original sources.
3 comments:
Oh my gosh. I LOVE his response. I remember doing a report on Georgia O'keefe in high school and my teacher kept poking fun at me for being a Mormon talking about these "sexual" paintings. Ugh.
The peppers are beautiful. Keep taking more pictures! I love seeing them.
Isn't it a great response? Hahaha - some art teachers (and English teachers) get so caught up trying to find "meaning" in things, they miss the point entirely. Some art is probably intended to be sexual, but that's not always the point. I won't dive into a lengthy ramble about different schools of art criticism and it's impact on how students of art (and literature) then view the art/literature.
I LOVE painting fruits and veggies WITH reflective surfaces and peppers are truly one of my favorites because of their unpredictability! I think the black and whites would be made stronger by a solid color background, but I like the strong light source myself. Maybe an additional light source with more muted lighting would be interesting, but please don't lose the bright highlights, they're so delicious and define the form so beautifully!
oh, and I read all your other posts but don't have time to comment on each one. You are a great writer, so candid, and I love that you embrace the pjs all day thing :)
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