Posts Tagged ‘abstract’
Francesca Balaguer-Mercado’s Photographs and Other News
The week gets underway with our weekly three-pack on whimsical and offbeat news.
Abstract Art in Soap Bubbles
For the ultimate in Abstract Art by way of Photography, look no further than soap bubbles in your wash. Actually, creating the Abstract Art may be another matter entirely, for you’ll need specialized skills as well as specialized gear.
You need high-speed flashes and reflective panels and a whole lot of experience to capture a bubble at the precise nano-second that it’s bursting. However, the charm and attraction of this gallery are in the vivid, saturated hues and arresting globular designs on display.
Read Michael Zhang’s write-up on photographer Fabian Oefner’s newest obsession on PetaPixel.
Exotic Animals on Gurneys
Exotic Animals Far from Home by Jordan G. Teicher features the photographs of Linda Kuo. This is a gallery that will appeal to animal lovers and those interested in veterinary sciences because they document a veterinary hospital for exotic animals.
The value of these photographs is in their straightforward portrayals of (exotic) small animals and birds in a hospital setting, far removed from their natural habitat. This leads to two outcomes. First, the focus is squarely on the bird or animal and nothing else. Second, it seems to lend a vulnerable and frightened air to the subject, which would exude no such air in its native habitat, especially when it is at the mercy of some human.
Women in Intriguing Situations
Upon reading Peter Imbong’s intro, in which he talks about breaking stereotypes and “women in traditional roles gone bad,” for Anti-stereotypes in ‘Blame it on the Heat’ you may prep yourself to view something edgy, dark, disturbing. What a surprise, then, to run into images that are colourful, pleasing, and even gorgeous.
The article is about an exhibition of photographs by Francesca Balaguer-Mercado in which women are posed in non-traditional situations to break supposed stereotypes.
However, the photography of a hostess serving up a handgun, ostensibly to unwelcome guests, is simultaneously fashionable, sexy and humourous! Which housewife, at some point or another, hasn’t wanted to take a gun to uninvited guests who just won’t leave?
How about a young lass who, harried by old-fashioned telephones all over the place, has broken out in spots? And against a Roy Lichtenstein-type of colour-explosion background! Nothing iconoclastic or ‘bad girl’ here; indeed, gals going bananas with phones is actually a classic stereotype!
Balaguer-Mercado’s photographs have amazing breadth and variety. You’ll find an atmospheric image of a ‘bad girl’ in some dive reminiscent of film noir (a wonderful contrast to the ‘Lichtenstein Girl’) while a gorgeous, pastel-tints image of an East Asian beauty with a parasol is reminiscent of Japanese camera-makers’ ad campaigns from back in the 1980s!
Compliments to VASK Gallery in Bonifacio Global City for giving this very talented photographer a solo exhibition.
Street Shooting — and ‘Home Shooting’!
If you’ve got into the groove of ‘street shooting’, it’s no big deal to you. But if you haven’t, the idea of pointing your lens at strangers may seem a little intimidating.
In The Ethics of Photographing Random Strangers on the Street, Ming Thein provides, not only a sketch of the ethical issues involved, but, tips and techniques as to how to go about doing something that, according to him, “requires balls.”
The idea behind street shooting is to document a ‘slice of life’; to capture the unguarded moment. For this reason, stealth is important; as Thein puts it, “the more subtle issue of ‘quantum mechanics’ . . . if you become a participant in the image, then the reaction you provoke from your subjects will necessarily disrupt whatever it was you initially wanted to capture.”
And that is the heart and soul of authentic street shooting. The article lays out a few ‘hows’ and Thein explains what works for him. To his tips one may add: either remain still or be constantly on the move, do not follow anybody, ensure that flash is off, wear clothes that make you invisible, and don’t look like a photographer – look like a darn tourist!
If street shooting’s not your cup of tea and Thein fails to convince you to take the plunge, let John Gravett show you how you don’t even have to stray from home to capture some amazing images in Photographing Household Objects.
Gravett’s imaginative techniques allow you to create fascinating, abstract, images without using anything more specialized than a sheet of polarizing gel or macro lens!
Shooting plastic cutlery through a polarizer introduces a delightful effect of interlacing colours. (Note how Gravett arranged the cutlery and composed his shot.) How about giving the same treatment to a textured or embossed plastic bottle?
The techniques Gravett brings to bear on a paperweight and a Slinky are nice but the pick of the bunch has to be his experiment with water, oil, colour paper and angled flash. Not only are the forms, colours and ‘scene’ quite arresting, the final image makes for quite a pretty artwork that NASA may like to post on its website, if only to befuddle an astronomer or two!
Merry Christmas to all our readers!
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