Dirty Pictures

mabelsound · 08-16-2008

EDIT: The show is now called "Haunted"--please check out the last post!

That's the name of a little mini-show I'm pitching to a local coffee shop. I made a small web gallery of it and I'm wondering if you guys think these pictures work together. They're from film and digital cameras both. The collection is supposed to be about different kinds of visual distortion, and is supposed to look slightly, ah, haunted. here's the link:

[see last post!]

That one of the completely blurry forest--it's all bokeh--I would never really like on its own, but I kind of like it in this context.

Any of these absolutely not working with the others? Is the concept tight enough? I feel as though they all go together, but it might be because of all kinds of associations I have in my head that a viewer wouldn't catch on to.

crawdiddy · 08-16-2008

I like them, but the one of the religious painting does not fit. I'm not sure about the one of the TV, either. I actually like both shots. Just not sure if they're "dirty" enough.

mabelsound · 08-16-2008

Yeah, it's a good question, how "dirty" do they have to be? The distortion in question in the TV pic is of course just on the TV itself...and there's the blast of light in the window on the other, and the corner distortion that seems to be sucking the chair away. I can't decide.

retnull · 08-16-2008

I like the first 4 a lot, less so the last 4.
#2, the square cropped to 6:4 with other frames, is brilliant. And "dirty".

mabelsound · 08-16-2008

Thank you! That one and the chicken one were taking with a Robot Star. I was trying to adjust the crop of that first one in Lightroom and suddenly realized how much of the adjacent frames was available to me...so i grabbed some.

wpkg · 08-20-2008

I think the ones that work best together and say the most are

the chicken
the religious painting
the lego demon guy
the TV

in all of these there is something just a bit disturbing, in a good way.

mabelsound · 08-20-2008

Ah, glad you brought this back, wpkg...I am thinking harder about it now, because I got the show. (The vetting process at the coffee shop is, ahhh, not very strenuous.) I'm thinking each picture should have 1) some kind of technical distortion, and 2) some kind of thematic distortion. At the moment, I feel as though the light through the leaves fits least well--I'm almost certain to replace that one. And the pipes behind the wet plastic, while it's a picture I really like, is also not fitting so well.

Anyway, I'll be shooting with this in mind over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your comment!

AshenLight · 08-20-2008

Photo #1 may be a bit too subtle compared to the others. The rest of the series go together well but for some reason #2 seems the creepiest (in a good way) to me.

Ash

mabelsound · 08-20-2008

The light-through-leaves pic becomes even less creepy than the others when you learn that the smoke comes from some pork ribs I was barbecueing on my patio.

mabelsound · 09-12-2008

OK all...thanks so much for your suggestions! I have actually changed the name of the show to "Haunted." I got rid of a couple and replaced them with new photos, taken in the last month...I just ordered prints and will hang the show in three weeks. I found simple black frames at A. C. Moore for ten bucks a pop, and centered the 6x9 images in an 11x14 canvas in Photoshop...I will likely frame them unmatted except for a little strip around the edge to hold them fast. Hope that works. The PS canvas will serve as a visual "mat."

Here's the final lineup:

http://inverseroom.creotia.com/haunted/

Hope you dig 'em
John