Corps-Non-Vecu VI
Mar, 2017Views
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Awards
Winner in Creative Spark Photo Challenge
Outstanding Creativity
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Genius
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Superb Composition
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Lewis-C-Whittaker
February 24, 2018
Congratulations on winning the creative spark challenge. Thank you for this creation that shows creativity. I choose you because this image tells me a thousand different stories. Well Done
siamesesam
February 24, 2018
Stories to be told, gestative shapes, that's what I wanted to suggest. Thank you very much for your support then !
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo is a digital manipulation. As a matter of fact, it has lost its fundamental localisation and has become placeless ! Well, I can still account for the origin of it's parts anyway, even though it has been taken into an imagination ... The background wall is part of a series I shot about the walls of my little town : Annonay, France. This is the street where my grandparents lived, where my mother grew up. The body parts (they are mine) were shot at home. At that time, I was living in Villevocance, near Annonay.Time
These old, dusty, ugly and rusty corners of Annonay are dark anytime of day or night. But most of my urban wandering are late afternoon ones, when the light starts to lay down and becomes horizontal. The rays are blocked by the buildings and a gloom without shadows floods the bottom of the streets.Lighting
As urban shots, the walls series have been shot in natural light. The body parts have been shot in a rudimentary studio setting, with flash.Equipment
Everything was shot with a digital camera (Canon 5D). I used a tripod and a flash to get the body parts.Inspiration
I wanted to do something as weird as possible, without losing the realness feeling in the final outcome. I use to do a lot of self-portraits, and I like to do this kind of frontal urban shots, where there's no perspective, no way to escape from the concrete, no way to escape from the picture either : I had my theme ! The subject could not come from the borders of the picture, it could not cross the frame to make it's way in. It would come from the depths of the concrete itself, like some strength pushing from the inside. The limbs would be naked and white to contrast with the wall, they would suggest the shape of a human body still to appear, without fitting it totally, to leave some space to the imagination : the idea of the body has yet to be thought and formed completely, or, it could be some kind of monster.Editing
Like in every photo manipulation, 90% of the work is in post-processing. I had my wall, already processed into a dim silvery black and white, and I had my legs and arms into other files. Their lightning conditions weren't the same at all, so it took me some time to do a black and white conversion of the body parts which would fit my wall. Then I had to melt them with the wall, to continue the flesh into cement, to carve the shape of muscles and articulations into the concrete. Some of these adjustments are pixel wise ! Then you have to do the shadows, etcetera, etcetera ...In my camera bag
I tend to simplify my gear along time. But I still, normally, carry a lot in my bag. I have my 5D MKII mounted with a Sigma 27-70, a Zenitar fisheye 16mm and a Jupiter6 200mm as sides. These two lenses are all manual, unstabilized lenses, but I like them a lot (I like manual lenses !). I also carry an intervallometer that can be used as a simple remote switch, very useful for night shots. A steady tripod. And some times, plastic medium format plastic film cameras like a Diana or a Holga, or heavier machinery like my lovely Mamiya RB. I use a Canon flash for special purposes.Feedback
I'd say, envision first ! Photomanipulation offers the possibility to give birth to views that were conceived first in the imagination. The imagination thus must make it's work first. You have to cultivate the vision that's in your mind, and then, when it's ready, start shooting, or start collecting the pictures you'll need. You can of course sketch it on a piece of paper or whatever. I find it easier this way : then you know exactly what shots to make beforehand; it will give you coherence. You can of course, as a matter of training, try to assemblate, mix, blend, pictures you already have in store, but it can soon become chaotic, and this way you'll be simply watching things rather than pursuing a dream ! So ... dream ahead !
