I’m taking a photography creativity course this winter. It’s been a bit tricky fitting it in, and I’m totally guilty of doing my project at the last minute (the class is tomorrow morning). But I still am loving the course and the excuse to do some photography just for me. This assignment was to take a work of art and be inspired by it. Put your own twist on it.
So it was about 3 pm today. I’m home with the boys by myself, and desperate to get the assignment done so I have something to share tomorrow. I’ve hit a creative block… couldn’t come up with a thing that I could do by myself (no models), while not leaving the house (both boys were sleeping), and in about an hour (the amount of daylight I had left). Thankfully, hubby called right when I was pulling out my hair. He asked what photographer I was most inspired by. I told him Henri Cartier-Bresson. I love his work… for so many reasons. He is known for his photojournalistic portraits of people, mostly in Paris. Black and white. Just amazing work. How could I re-create that in my house by myself in an hour?
Then brilliant hubby reminded me of our Christmas village model that has been set up on our screened porch for about 3 months. It was my mom’s set, and while it’s more than a wee bit cheesy I do love it. And suddenly… I was inspired. I saw what I wanted to do. A tongue-in-cheek homage to my photographic idol using a ceramic Christmas village set. Could it work? Well, I think I love these photos. They are absurd, and something about them makes me smile. And they turned out EXACTLY as I had imagined. So I thought I’d share. Back to your regularly scheduled programming with the next post.
This next one is my favorite, I think.
ps. To any photographers or art historians who happen to be reading this… I do know that Cartier-Bresson shot 35mm rather than medium format film. But I thought the faux film edges lent a little bit of faux authenticity to my little street portraits.
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