Close up

Close up nature and organic subject matter

Keith Taylor

Melissa stolte

Leon Baas

Ursula Abresch

Ursula Abresch Ursula Abresch is an art photographer based in West Kootenay’s, British Colombia, Canada Abresch states’ "There’s more to a moment than what you see with your eyes. There are the thoughts at the time, the sounds, the smells, what you touch ... and more. All these are real and integral to my photography. It’s the sum that makes the photo.”

Her superb work is based on macro landscape and nature. she edits her work in such a way that it looks surreal , dreamy and angelic, the soft tones of the landscape makes it flow just like a river. They give the photograph organic properties they represent mother nature at its finest. The details in each photograph reveal just how complex something that looks so simple is from far away .

Abresch work makes me feel at ease and relaxed due to the soft tones and undefined background which allows me to concentrate just on the foreground object. Her photographs look like they are paintings or that they have been produced using a computer software.

I hope to implement the main aspects of her work and techniques in my own work. I will try to achieve the same high standards and try to achieve the calming atmosphere that Abresch demonstrates in all her work.

Keith Taylor Keith Taylor is a landscape photographer who also produces stunning close up macro photographs of objects in nature. Taylor quotes ‘ I try to keep my photographs as faithful as possible to the original scene’ His photographs are simple but affective way to communicate nature to his viewers. He appears to photograph objects that have clean symmetry to them or clean lines without anything that would over complicate the images. In Taylors photographs there isn’t a lot of digital editing to make the image stand out more or gain character that the original object didn’t have.

I think that he wants to showcase the focus point the way that he saw it before photographing. I also think that he wants to capture the surroundings just as they are in real life without adding anything or taking away.

His photographs are all in perfect focus which suggests to me that there isn’t just one particular point that he wants the viewers to focus on, to me it suggests that he is making each little detail in his photograph just as important so nothing is missed or covered up.

Quote from Keith Taylor ‘Close-up or macro photography opens up a whole new world of vibrant colours and striking patterns. Closeup photography makes you stop, think and look closely at flowers, leaves or patterns. Many of my macro photographs are taken close to home at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge University Botanical Gardens or indeed in my very own back garden.

Perhaps much of it's appeal is that it is so easily accessible, light isn't such a limiting factor (dull days are often better than sunny!) and it's often a world that is overlooked.’

In comparison with Ursula Abresch work where she explores the details with in a flower or an object from nature by cutting it open or shining a light on it or using different techniques to expose hidden texture , she dissects her object of choice to explore the anatomy of it. Where as Keith Taylor is only taking a picture of what he can see without damaging the object. However this is only showing the beauty from the surface which can be referred to as only being skin deep.

Ursula Abresch Keith Taylor

Evaluation I have been exploring close up organic objects such as flowers in different and interesting ways. I have looked at numerous photographers that have done so with remarkable success and have achieved the perfect representation of the objects inner beauty and form. I think that the photographs that I have taken have started to look at different organic objects but they are limited to only a narrow subject matter, however I feel that I have photographed the same subject matter in numerous ways to make it more interesting and different.

I think that the photographs that I have taken re sufficient enough for the first idea because I still exploring the close up photography not in depth but just learning the basic techniques. I think that the photographs I do have do represent close up and macro photography. I also think that I have captured the inner makings of the subject matter and edited the photographs to make them even more interesting to the audience.

Furthermore, for my second idea I will be exploring the interesting and different aspect of the brief in more depth. I will try to illustrate this in more abstract looking photographs that challenge the appearance of the original object and distort it to the point of non recognition.

IDEA TWO, DECAYING NATURE

For the second idea to close up nature I am going to explore how flowers decay and die, how their appearance changes though time and what happens if I photograph the flower inside a container with water and other liquids.

Decay

Rotting

Crumbling

Disintegrate

Dying

Decompose

Billy Kidd Billy Kidd is a photographer who has experimented with a lot of different subject matters, he has taken photographs for vogue and other magazines of models and landscapes. One of his subject of interests has been ‘beautiful decay’ quote describing the photographs ‘beautiful set of photographs of decaying orchids, roses and leaves were shot by Billy Kidd, an extremely talented photographer based in New York. Usually confined to the bin at this stage of their life, Billy captures the immense beauty, faded colours, wrinkles and fine details of the decaying flowers and foliage on a black background which adds to the subtle drama.’

Kidd photographs the decaying, dead flowers/ leafs in a studio with a black background to maximize the attention to the delicate folds and creases within the object in the center of the photograph. He lightly edits his photographs to make the colour of the object balance with the black background, he also lights the object very carefully to create soft lighting that looks natural and doesn’t over power the detail in the photograph.

Rachel Levy Levy is a French photographer and artist, she photographs flowers that are past their prime and show signs of decaying such as wilting, fading. She captures the last moments of a flower before it perishes’ last breaths’. She presents her photographs in a natural only lightly edited way to let the flower speak for itself and show its dying beauty.

Her subject matter ages naturally and are exposed to elements that any other cut flower would be at home. Her style is significantly similar to portraiture because each flower is entered and photographed individually. Also the flowers are photographed just like a portrait would be with a blank white background and the flower is positioned in the middle of the photograph I have also tried to capture the last moments of roses before they fell apart and were only petals without any shape. I have also used water as a significance to water and that everything needs water to stay alive.

George Benson George Benson has a wide range of photographic skills from portraits to still life. His work is simply edited and mostly staged if he is photographing objects. Benson’s explanation about the project and what it means ‘still life studies are a classic right a passage for any artist and more so flowers for a photographer. A play on words, this series of photos studies dead/ decaying flowers and the art of still life… the flowers are left to decay exactly as they were arranged for display when alive… one images is selected to show off the finesse and delicate detail that is arguably more beautiful than the living thing.’

I have been inspired by how Benson has said that he photographs different stages of decaying flowers and has chosen the best one to represent the whole process. I will try to achieve different stages of decaying by using Photoshop techniques

Overall Evaluation I think that my second project was stronger with communication the idea of decay and had more development throughout. I think that I also had a better understanding of what I had to do and they idea flows more fluently than idea one, in which I didn’t know what my final outcomes were going to be and I didn’t really have a good understanding of the theme.

However I think that the first ideas photographs where a lot stronger comparing to my second ide, however the second idea was more developed and edited. I have also looked ad different artist to help me generate ideas for final outcomes. I have been inspired by George Benson to create a sequence of the same photograph but with changes to indicate that the subject matter is decaying and dying I think that for both ideas the final outcomes have been different and unusual but do address the primary idea of close up and decay.

Although if I had to do the same project again I would make a plan and use a wider range of flowers and photograph the different stages of decay to show the process and how it changes.