No Connection

After many weeks of studying to finish a degree that does not really seem to fit into my creative work, I now feel relieved. Tomorrow will be the last time I will sit in a row consisting of probably thirty desks, repeated endlessly to form a matrix, filling up an entire hanger-sized hall.  

The great thing about this is that I will have loads more time to photograph, develop and print in the future, which brings me to my next point: A new series in celebration of a great year, with all it's good and bad moments we may or may not know about. This time I will approach architecture using large format film photography. The release date of this new project is possibly February 2015. 

For now, here is an image I simply call "No Connection".

by Karolina Rupp Photography

Photo Party

Here a couple of images from today's shoot at Bravo Pizzaria:


Model: Daniéle

by Karolina Rupp Photography

by Karolina Rupp Photography

by Karolina Rupp Photography

Model: Janene

by Karolina Rupp Photography

by Karolina Rupp Photography

Model: Ilse

Moving forward by looking into the past

It's been taking some time to get things sorted and arranged but after many phone calls, browsing tons of classifieds and driving kilometer after kilometer to different places, something that resembles a darkroom can be found in my studio. Here a sneak peak:

I am missing two more items to get started, which hopefully (lately I seem to use this word a lot) will arrive sooner than later.

For now I can only imagine the possibilities and all the things that I want to try which I guess is also something exciting to do while waiting, waiting and waiting to get started.

The Dancers

Being inspired by a beautiful garden, this small series did not harm or kill any plants and was shot using natural light.

Playing in the wind, these creatures are still restricted by their stems and twigs, connected to earth. Photographing them out of context and alone away from their mother plant allows them to seem free. They become 'The Dancers', loosing themselves in movement and beauty.

Karolina Rupp Photography

Metamorphosis

After being really busy it is just fun to take some time off and play around in Photoshop to create weird and wonderful creatures.

"Metamorphosis" by Karolina Rupp

I am looking forward to completing two series in July of which one is going to be a collaboration with a wonderfully talented illustrator and the other will be shot on medium format film. The first sneak peaks should be available by mid August.

An Overview

More and more and more...

by Karolina Rupp Photography

Finding space in you life for the things that actually matter, matters. Keeping them cold does not keep them fresh.

New Series

As promised, here an explanation to my new series:

"How did your face look, before your parents were born?" Zen-Koan

A mask can look inward and outward, it looks at the person wearing it and changes his or her expression but at the same time it also impacts the audience creating fantasies in their head of what is behind it. It stands between the I and the world.

In this series I am creating masks that are made from people, from faces just to become something they are not and never have been.

Oscar Wilde mentioned something really interesting, he said "give a person a mask and they will tell the truth". Imagine a masquerade of truths.

These are just pieces of information, but I will update this post once the series is complete.

The making of fashion photos...

I recently had the chance to shoot male models again. We took the morning of a public holiday and went to the really empty Pretoria University campus. We were 3 photographers, Jessica, Etienne and myself and 2 models which seemed to be a winning combination!

Here the making of:

And here the newest images:

Vincent photographed by Karolina Rupp

Michael photographed by Karolina Rupp

Shooting Fashion

Recently I shot a couple of fashion images. The last time I took these kind of photographs was quite some time ago so I felt a little nervous, but in the end it turned out great. A big thank you to the wonderful models, Michael and Vincent.

By Karolina Rupp Photography

By Karolina Rupp Photography

Tribal Forest Daemon

Today I photographed mountains covered partly with snow as you can see here.

I started admiring trees that look like skeletons against a white pale backdrop consisting of fog and clouds hiding nature. After playing around with the images I realised that within them natural creatures or faces can be discovered as they might also be in fact hiding away. I decided to enhanced them. 

The result as you can see below is no photograph anymore but rather something else, a forest creature. 

by Karolina Rupp

Edward Weston

Having to shoot in the style of someone is sometimes a little difficult. This time it was Edward Weston. Telling stories and triggering emotions by photographing objects such as peppers or shells is the key to his still life pieces.

The image here is my interpretation of his work as part of an assignment.


Title: The Mourning Sister

By Karolina Rupp Photography

Start Playing

Traveling around without a digital camera is quite a strange experience which lead me to use a small point and click belonging to my mom. This camera has quite interesting auto functions I experimented with. Here some examples straight out of camera:

By Karolina Rupp Photography

By Karolina Rupp Photography

I found that sometimes it's a good thing to look away from your normal routine within the field or equipment and let go. I was surprised by the results obtained with a camera I would normally regard as... lets say a toy. But that might be the key... cut the seriousness and play again!

Today's shoot

A new time has come. A time of fine art photography that is expressive. Finding a style of shooting is really difficult as you want to avoid copying others but still find inspiration in work you find relevant. I guess that's the curse of a student. This year though I feel like I'm coming a little closer to my creative expression executed in the way of 'me'. How else would I define that inner pattern that is overlaid onto every image?

This image below is from today's shoot. It doesn't have a title yet. It deals with not wanting to realise that one is boxed in, but also the feeling of a possibility of escape.

By Karolina Rupp Photography

The Three Corners of Reality

By Karolina Rupp Photography

There are three layers to our mind, the good, the bad and the grey areas in between that influence our understanding of things and our reality. We can't escape them, they are part of us inherently.

This photograph, taken on 120 film with a medium format camera, explores exactly that concept of being caught within our own realities and that everything is subjective essentially. We are fixed in that position, and still are trying to think outside of the box and explore even more profound topics just to realise over and over again that the moment a new thought is explored it becomes a cliché. We never stop discovering things but once found, place them neatly into one of the three corners of reality. It is the restlessness of blindly searching for answers to everyday questions that freezes us in time until the hunt is over, for now, and the collection of thoughts and ideas within the mind has been expanded once again. This process continues throughout life and only ends with death, this library we carefully construct through everyday living, that helps us to survive and cope with the reality we are living (in). To draw the concept closer to the photograph, it is necessary to explain the visual elements within this image. 

Firstly, a woman is portrayed a little blurry in the just off-center of the composition with the sleeves of her jersey rolled up, ready to run and explore. Behind her head three different types of walls meet, which represent the three corners of reality by having different shades of grey as one of their properties. These walls hold her within the composition and thus shows her being stuck and caught in her own reality. On the left a door can be recognised which demonstrates the human need to escape and think differently every now and then, but also to show that it is not used (it is closed) for a reason. On the right towards the back of the composition of this photograph random objects can be seen. These show that not everything is explored within our thoughts but at the same time if you would move closer you would know what these objects are, which reinforces the concept of the cliché as mentioned above.The setting was chosen as it is a familiar structure, our reality we live in. The fear of knowing what is out there and the subjective interpretation of the latter is shown through the closed eyes of the woman. Also having to fight your way through this reality, but doing so with closed eyes (eyes are closed towards ideas and things of others because they can only be subjectively perceived and thus become one own's thoughts and ideas) plays a role within this composition. In addition, the woman is a little unsure of her position within this/ her reality which is another reason her eyes are shut as she is essentially hiding away. Through that feature, the viewer of this photograph has the ability to judge and see but the subject decides to not perceive being observed in order to protect herself, like many do within this reality.

This photograph of mine will be exhibited at the end of the year. Watch this space for more details. 

Afraid

In an earlier post, the one about the alternative processes, I was searching for a suitable topic or rather subject to photograph of which I would use the negative to print a cyanotype toned with strong tea. 

And I found it. Five solid and clean portraits showing people who just got a fright the moment the shutter triggered. It's a little tricky to execute, I thought of trowing the people with a ball. We will see. 

Not quite what I had in mind but still a very inspirational image.

 

Imagine the same style of photograph, contrast and lighting wise just with a different expression. 

To pull this into context, the metal pathway (very simplified) I walked to get to this idea was the following:

alternative processes - alternative people - portraits - blue - feeling blue - sadness - connecting images together as one - one emotion - creating one image consisting of different photographs - too complex - keep it plain - strong - clean - center shot - white background - portrait  and so forth...and then I realised while I just typed the last word (which was the word word) that I am still trying to develop concepts better for a complete picture. some things are missing still... but these sparks of light that you see when you close your eyes or stood up to quickly, equate them to little thoughts and ideas that submerge you in awesome creativeness and inspiration...will find me soon again.

Exhibition

Yesterday I went to an exhibition at the University of Johannesburg called Discordance by Michael Meyersfeld. He has interesting work, especially his series Urban Disquiet.

What I find fascinating is how he approaches social issues in a contemporary fashion and at the same time still delivers high quality photography with exceptional lighting!

Here some images from the series Urban Disquiet:

Title: Two White Bitches

Title: Used

Title: City Prey

Anita Andrzejewska

I received a list... and this is what I picked, a photograph by Anita Andrzejewska that I found here.

Today today today, was I inspired or might I be or will I quickly do a search to find something I like?
I was inspired, but by something fairly irrelevant.... lace patterns... and yes then I did search... and found gems.

The next step is to find ways to incorporate this into photography... an update will follow.

from: http://fabricstockexchange.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/lace.jpg

from: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/27/arts/27lace_CA2.600.jpg

5 days of being inspired at 2 pm

Tuesday: This little ladder has been left alone in a corner... Waiting to be stepped on over and over again.

Taking this out of context, or replacing the word 'ladder' with something else got me thinking...

...or just posting a link to M.C. Escher.

 

Wednesday: Observing the process of leaves rotting away.... possibly document these stages on black and white film? Complete a cycle.

Thursday: Can frustration be inspiration? I think it can... perfecting things or rather having things do what they should, could be a topic... but what is enlightening about it is that nothing is perfect and probably will never be... purposefully creating imperfect images might be the key of today's lesson. 

Friday:  This is how I feel today:

...realising that I just consumed this image...from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKo3R9PBufWZ-zVLbrHL8rkO2N2ZRAmegAwSsAakgf8rwuuOYvoZO4aneGpMP6DMn1z44-bFv36xDg7ErpreKJ91HaTm2hYb1CYrzDsM7h7Dm1qhERAadQ39KDNa8DGWToGN8Y8HTPBD0/s1600/No__1__Consumerism_by_AutaAutistik.jpg

Saturday: I have a paper on the fridge stating the different names given to MSG (Monosodium Glutamate), the food additive, so that I can avoid it. Today a very strange insect sat on it. 

To think that nature sits on paper... on a paper that informs about sneakiness... about people trying to add something but trying to hide it from you... its strange... I would love to think that this little flying thing knows that and sat there to remind me of it again...

My conclusion... be aware of your environment whether its an animal or chemicals found in your food.