STILL and STILL

In equilibrio…..

paolamarinangeli — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:34:01 +0000

ZEN and photography

paolamarinangeli — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:12:30 +0000

I am reading a beautiful book dedicated to the great ar of Henry Cartier Bresson, the title of this book is : ”Henry Cartier Bresson, Zen and photography”. I wont to be compared to great photographers like HCB, and my approach to ”Zen” as far as photography is concerned, is more linked to my passion of Oriental arts, in particular Japanese Art, that I have studied for a long period. To me ”Zen” applied to my photographic style, means use very simple elements in the composition and try to use the light to create a ”ink” effect, does it mean…..do you have in mind watercolor paintings or those beautiful ink paintings on silk or paper so typical of chinese and japanese arts? Well, this is my idea in producing a group of photos with just one or two elements inside , with a very simple composition whose name is ”ZEN”. I have used as main objects in these photos a nice glass bottle with some golden, glittering touches that can absorb and at the same time reflecting the light, this bottle is always in focus while just behind there is another glass object, or lacquer pot with a very strong bokeh. I will post just a few examples as I am still working for this ”ZEN” group using this bottle that I like very much or other similar items very close to it for shape and textures. I will often define in this blog, my type of photography, as a very decorative one, nice to adorn our walls, well….I will see perfectly matching these group of photos to adorn an elegant bathroom, as this bottle is generally use to contain perfumes or bath salts but as usual, personal taste and a glimpse of creativity could help to decide the best place for a decorative elements, in this case for a photo.

An imaginary trip to Morocco

paolamarinangeli — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:50:49 +0000

I am very fascinated by Oriental arts, China, Japan, India, Middle East, you will find so often objects coming from these Countries and Cultures in my still life compositions. I have found a little shop in my hometown, selling objects from Morocco, mostly iron lamps small of big size, sometimes with nice engraved and coloured glasses, to be use with a little candle inside or just as decoration, the way I use them in different places around the house, they are very nice indeed. They have a rough, iron texture, sometimes a very smooth, silky one and for this variety of forms and type of metal used they are very good for photographic purposes, and to be ”worked” in black and white. This is a group of photos I have done using these small iron lamps, these photos are done with medium format cameras, to be precise in this case, Rolleiflex 3,5 Planar, Rolleicord and Minolta Autocord, using the additional lenses to get a close-up look and emphasize the Bokeh. It is like an imaginary trip to Morocco, this group of photos is named ”Marrakesh” and to my opinion, they could be nice to adorn a wall with some oriental or ethnic furniture around or……why not?….to adorn a corner with some of these lamps and have around some photos representing these lamps, it could be an idea…..I think I will try!

My first Blog to display my fine art Still Life Photography

paolamarinangeli — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:26:38 +0000

”Trasparenze nr. 1”

This is a Blog dedicated to my photography, to be more precise my ”Still Life Photography”, done with film cameras, that I love to name ”Classic Cameras” like Rolleiflexe, Leica, Hasselblad…..then printed in the dark room with the classic, traditional way of printing. I am not, absolutely, against digital photography. I use very often my digital camera but for other type of photos, for other purposes and in different situations than my studio that I love to share between two big passions of mine: painting and photography. The reason why I have decided to focalize my attention and efforts in photography toward Still Life compositions is very simple, I do love still life, working with objects of different material, shapes, textures, to play with light, how light plays over these objects, natural light the only one I use, a side light from a big window in my studio, sometimes I use reflectors.

These photos have the only purpose to be ”decorative”, no messages, no hidden symbols nothing to think about…..only the aim to produce a pleasant image to look and eventually to use to decorate our houses. I am time by time inspired by a certain type of objects, or material for example I like to work with glass objects a portfolio named ”Trasparenze” is dedicated to compositions done with different type of glass object with different type of textures and sizes. The first photo I have posted to open my Blog, and named ”Trasparenze nr. 1” is done using small ”Vodka” glasses, very common objects indeed all of us have at home….Another portfolio is composed by photos of sheashells, only seashells or combined with other objects, mostly oriental porcelain or something exotique. Then one of the most recent portfolio is dedicated to iron lamps from Morocco, I love very much Oriental art and a big group of my still life compositions has a strong Oriental look, they suit very nicely with etnic furnitures, with an etnic style-decor. But I do believe images will explain better than too much words what is the spirit of my photos, STILL and STILL is name name give to the whole project, I enjoy so much to make this type of photos, working with film is challenging, working in ”black and white” is not so easy but I do believe black and white photography has a timeless elegance and fascination. WELCOME in my photographic world, hope you will enjoy reading and…..seeing….!