The first idea I began to experiment with for Objects of Desire was photographing flowers. I enjoy receiving flowers as a token of appreciation; it is a small gesture that is greatly appreciated by many. It could be said that many women in particular enjoy receiving flowers and they are a popular gift for the special women in people’s lives, often sold and advertised around special occasions such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Of course this is a stereotype and flowers can be purchased by or as a gift for anyone, for any occasion.
03/03/19 – First, I made a trip to the local supermarket to purchase a large, beautiful bouquet of roses. Although cliche, I was drawn to the romantic and desirable nature of roses, but wanted more than just the standard bouquet of red roses, and therefore bought a mixture of yellow, orange and red flowers with additional foliage. When I got home, I placed the roses in a clear glass vase, so not to distract from the main subject. I wanted to see how the images would look if I kept the flowers in their additional wrapping, as I think flowers often look their best when they are fastened together in a tight, organised bouquet, and this is why they are sold and displayed this way, to evoke desire from customers. Although this gave a sense of order, it also gave the flowers that “freshly bought from the shop” feel, which may indicate a rushed and unplanned photo opportunity, and the paper also covered up much of the subject which wasn’t ideal.
After photographing from a variety of angles, I had the idea to incorporate other items into the shoot that were similarly romantic and desirable objects, such as chocolates and teddy bears. Both of these items are frequently sold within stores to advertise Valentine’s Day, and having personally been in a relationship for the past 6 years, I have received many of these gifts in the past, and so I added these items as a personal touch to the photographs, and to add a sense of “me” within the images. Other props I had ordered specifically to incorporate into this set of images were two pieces of fabric with a velvet look/feel, in the colours red and gold; this material and the chosen colours are often associated with desire, lust, romance and wealth, therefore this seemed like a perfectly fitting background for the main subjects, to carry the theme throughout and keep the images consistent. I realised that I could lay this material over a cushion, which would act as a base/platform for the flowers to sit on and allow me to get a straight on view of the flowers themselves, without anything obstructing them. I continued to experiment with the lighting within my photography studio/tent throughout the entire shoot, altering the angles of the light and subjects to gain the most successful results; this included the dilemma of trying to get the background as black as possible, while keeping sufficient lighting on the flowers themselves. I photographed the subjects from different angles, varying lighting and composition until I was happy with the results I had.
The contact sheets are below:
And the contact sheet of the most successful, edited images:
After presenting the images to my peers during a tutorial, I received feedback saying that the teddy bears in my shoot gave a juvenile and childish feel to the images, therefore I decided to steer clear of this subject to avoid unnecessary associations from my images. I was also advised that the subject was quite cliche and that I should seek a more creative approach to the assignment. Although this was only ever intended as a starting point, I will take this feedback on board and build from this. One of the more successful comments I received said that one of my images, “DSC_0728.jpg” would stick in the person’s mind for days because it was beautiful, in focus and detailed, and romantic with the red velvet base. Therefore I would like to experiment and see if I can still use or further improve this image somehow.
Further development and re-shoot: 12/03/19 – Responding to feedback, I initially wanted to try using a similar romantic theme to portray “the desirable” and so I experimented with other subjects, such as my mum’s necklace gifted by my brother and I, to show love through family relationships; and my Pandora bracelet and charms, each one gifted to me with love and with a personal reason behind them all. I continued using the red velvet fabric to continue the theme, as this seemed well received by my peers and tutor alike when presenting. I used my Macro lens for the first time to try and get some close-up detailed shots of the necklace, however the results weren’t quite as sharp as I would’ve liked, and I think this partly was due to my underestimation of how important a tripod would be to keep the camera completely still when pressing the shutter, and also slight trouble with focusing. I also liked the contrast between the gold, red and silver tones of the necklace with the black PVC background roll in my studio; black can also resemble elegance and sophistication, both words associated with jewellery. Similarly, the white background offers a clear contrast between background and subject to fully show off the details and colours of the subject.
While doing this, I also thought back to my previous research about Wilson Hennessy who specialises in still life photography, and took the chance to experiment with commercial photography in the studio. I found a brand new pair of trainers; Nike to be exact, a very popular and worldwide brand that many people, especially the youth of today, like to consume and purchase as expensive brands give the illusion of “relevancy and importance.” I tried to recreate, as well as create my own, compositions and poses for the subject to showcase the best angles and evoke desire from the viewer. Using the black background ensured a consistent, monochrome colour scheme that creates harmony within the image. I really enjoyed my attempt at still life photography and would like to experiment further with this approach for the assignment.