Connecting Essay 2

Connecting Essay:

The above image is my photograph from my shoot number nine, which I shot in the studio. In this shoot I wanted to explore cave-like structures, through the use of various lights (reflector dish and snoot) in the studio. My image explores a narrow depth of field, as the stringy matter hanging from the celling of the squash is in focus in the foreground of my image, but blurred in the background of this, I believe that this creates depth within my image as the viewer is restricted with what they can see. The orange colouring creates a warm vibe, combined with the light coming in from the side of the cave, whereby I had cut a hole and placed a snoot, in order to achieve more depth within my image; this warm lighting makes the viewer think that this image would have been photographed at day time, not during the night. 

This above photograph is one taken by Nadege Meriau, and this photograph is of a pumpkin. Meriau has cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin, and edited the image so it appears that there's a starry night sky outside the cave-like structure. The stringy matter hanging from the ceiling and the walls appears to be a lava, as it looks gooey and wet on the flooring of the object. Meriau's aim for this image was to show how using organic objects you can create ambiguous environments beyond the viewers imagination, also you can make them guess about what this object is. By adding a starry night sky to the image it creates an image in the viewers head that it's night time outside, which creates a creepy feel for the viewer as it raises questions as to what is inside this cave? 

Overall, I chose to compare mine and Nadege's images as they both explore depth through the use of lighting, despite my photograph being of a squash, whereas Nadege's photograph is of a pumpkin. Within both the photographs there's stringy matter hanging from the ceilings of the objects, this adds texture and detail in the images and creates an uneasy and slightly ambiguous atmosphere as the viewer cannot work out what these photographs are of. I cut a hole in the side of my squash and had light coming in horizontally; whereas, Meriau cut a hole in the top of her pumpkin and had light coming into the image from above, this may have been done to suggest that a God-like figure was present within this image, as people often look to the sky for hope. The angle which both of our photographs are taken are similar, as they are both from a hole in the front of the object, looking into the object itself. The bright orange colouring within both of the images grab the viewers attention, and then retain this attention as the images are extremely bright as a hole despite having dark, cave-like connotations associated with them. Both my image and Nadege's explore cave-like structuring through depth and lighting techniques (e.g. using a snoot), this again makes them similar aesthetically.