The inspiration for this piece comes from my fascination with Indian culture and the religions associated with India. Much if not all of my knowledge comes with the girl i have been dating for the past three years shevani, significant information i gathered from her before making these images are that the more arms that the god or deity has the more powerful they are and the more heads they have the more wise or intelligent they are. I wanted to examine this in a modern day setting using some photoshop tech. of course.
I was not sure if i would like the images side by side or as individual images better so i offered both options for myself to examine and determine later, if you have an opinion please feel free to express
i saw Keith give a lecture a couple days ago and i was completely inspired by his philosophy of photography and his appreciation for everything that life had to offer. he is someone who really loves photography for the reason that it forces him to stop concentrating on whats going on in his head and more on whats going on around him. excellent excellent inspiration and influence for photographers as well as people who dont like photography at all because his words of wisdom are easily applicable to everyone lives.
for other photographers out there he gave a few different mantras that he tries to live by with his art along with his life i jotted them down as he was going, you can take from them what you want
1. we all need the work of others, make friends with uncertainty.
- just cause its been done before doesnt mean it cant be done again he said that its up to you to be innovative he also said that the world does not need another sally mann or anyone else they need you and your work take influence from others but dont try to emulate them for your whole life, make everything unique to you.
2. Its all about making choices
- dont second guess if something feels right, do it no matter how uncertain you are as he said in the previous mantra, make friends with uncertainty.
3.belong to a place belong to something
- whether its something physical like a place or family or its something intangible lke an idea or philosophy or culture etc, its important to have roots, make sure to never lose them or you could forget exactly who you are which is of course maybe the most important thing ever to remember.
4. the full weight and mystery of your art lies with you, dont let people discourage you.
- there will always be critics of everything you do. do not let other people discourage you. it seems to me that every great artist has always had the greatest of critics. Ansel Adams once called Egleston to tell him (in regards to an exhibit he was showing at) how much he hated his work and of course now Egleston has been called the father of color photography, Vangoah sold one painting in his entire life and is now one of the most revered dutch painters of all time and the list goes on. dont let people discourage you with anything.
in short it was a great great lecture
here is a link to his website for more on keith carter and his work: http://www.keithcarterphotographs.com/
This is just some work i did where i studied light play on skin tones and hues of darker and lighter skinned people both male and female. There are a few more but these are the ones I felt worked best together.
This is a photograph a fellow photographer named Laurie Reese took of me for a lighting assignment This image is taken at no extreme playful or dramatic angles. my gesture is of nothing in particular, there is no effort in this photo of me trying to impress you the viewer in anyway. this is to me is just an honest expression of light playing with the texture and hues of my skin. the root words of photograph are photo meaning light and graph meaning drawing or light drawing to me this is a great study of light and its relationship to my surface similar to paint and its relationship to a canvas.
