Light Painting Studies: 11.12.2010
These shots are all light painting studies: working with using the space better (all three dimensions) in order to create a stronger composition that in past light paintings. None of these are final images, but projects that I would like to spend more time on.
Light Painting: 12.5.2008
I had help with these photos, taken in 2008. About 18of us all had different types of lights that we used during the long exposure - the first two are really more works in progress than anything (too much clutter in the background) but I think that the third one functions as a finished work: yet if I were to shoot it now I would change the color balance significantly. These photos were taken on the west border of Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
Light Juggling 10.28.2007
I hope to do more work on this series in the future. In this photo I'm juggling (only three) light changing juggling balls and moving side to side in the room. It's hard to create decent composition when juggling around a dark room but I think there's some great potential here. This photo is over three years old as of the date of this posting.
World Trade Center Site: May 2nd, 2011 - Approx. 1:50 - 2:30am
The below photographs are from the World Trade Center Site in Manattan which I took between roughly 1:50am and 2:30am, hours after President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden. The ethics of this will be debated for centuries, conspiracy theorists are already eating it up as one more reason the government's out to get us, and where there's a crowd for whatever reason the people turn into a crowd and act as crowds do (not very intelligently). These photos are about none of that. I did not go to WTC to celebrate; I went to watch history - history to whatever end. Of the 227 photos that I took, the four below best captured for me the feeling of the night.
תהו ובהו: Framed: 8" x 27" - Completed 4.27.2011
ויקרא: Framed: 8" x 13" - Completed 3.17.2011
The drawing is about the altar in the Torah and the types of offerings offered on it to השם (i.e. "The Name" - this in place of the Tetragrammaton, God's proper name in the Tanakh). The Hebrew words in and above the altar in the flames name the six types of offerings discussed early in the book of Leviticus (Hebrew - ויקרא) including the following: עולה, מנחה, מנחה תמיד, חטאת, אשם, and זבח השלמים.
After I had done the Initial altar drawing and had started on the text in the altar I made an interesting mistake: I dropped a blob of ink right near the center of the panel on the right. That gave me two options: either I could scratch it out and leave a rough spot in the drawing, or I could go with it and see what happened. I decided to go with it, and I'm glad that I did. I created the drop on the other side as well, and then started drawing lines out to the drops. After only drawing three lines on each side total, I realized that the drawing had taken a very 'feminine' shape: the lines and ink blots had started looking like ovaries and fallopian tubes, which placed the altar where the uterus is in the female reproductive system.
Even though I had not initially planned on it, the parallels between the altar in the reproductive system made so much sense to me that I took the drawing in that direction full force. I next drew what would be equivelant to the top of the birth canal under the front corner of the altar, and then blotted red ink along the top walls of the altar drawing, which I then slammed down on the table to make the ink run and give it the appearance of blood: both blood poured out on the altar, and blood [poured out] through childbirth as I routed the red ink down the birth canal as well.
As both altar and the reproductive system are givers of life through pain and sacrifice I believe that a drawing which merges them into one is most appropriate: and I find the imagery powerful - this is my favorite of my ink drawings to date.
עמנו אל: Framed: 8" x 13" - Completed 3.4.2011
עמנו אל ('Immanu-El) means "God with us." The smaller writing in blue above עמנו אל is Isaiah 7:14 - "Assuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him" (then the large word 'Immanu El finishes the verse) (NJPS). Behind and below the words עמנו אל is the phrase תהו ובהו (tōhū-vabōhū) which is the 'formless and void' state of the earth mentioned in Genesis 1:2. By juxtaposing עמנו אל and תהו ובהו together my message is that God is will us even when we're experiencing the formless and void times of our lives. This drawing was done as a gift for my wonderful wife.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)