What is left behind?! Or is it?

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A recent trip to Retro Rabbit in Pierneef street, Pretoria proved to be quite the eye catcher. Here my impressions.

This series "What is left behind?! Or is it?" was inspired by a rather sad event, the passing of my grandmother. She left behind a fully functioning household with loads of crockery and goodies and things. The overwhelming task of sorting through the items and finding a new home for them or bluntly put just throwing some of them away is exhausting. I guess this shoot helped me to see the matter in a more positive light, to find beauty rather than sadness in things that once belonged to someone else. 

The idea is that some things are never left behind, they might only change hands or minds.

 

Stone Quarry

 

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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.

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. 

Mixing the Old and New

Taking images with a medium format camera on film is such a different experience within photography than your average point and click. And taking these images into Photoshop just opens up even more options. I decided to go against my usual ethic of keeping 'doctoring' to the minimum and went all out by using a photograph taken on 120 film and editing the . out of it.

Medium Format Photography

An assignment: Medium Format Photography.

And I love it! The colours, the aspect ratio, the detail... I could go on... It is by far the best medium I've used so far to capture images. Just testing it with a black and white Ilford and seeing the results... it opened a little door in my head to a new room... where the light bulb was already on. 

Here an example of a photograph I've taken with the test film which was scanned as a negative:

Isn't the detail incredible? And the contrast... I could go on!

I have realised by seeing the images I've taken with a medium format camera that this is possibly the only medium I know so far which would accurately represent the concepts I have in mind photographing, criticising or cherishing.... essentially sharing. I feel I have reached a breakthrough of epic proportions (isn't the word epic just epic?!) with regards to being inspired. This medium inspires me. And it feels like it won't be a temporary thing... but a choice I've made or rather a choice that happened.

...just a pity that thing is so bulky... *


*you do get smaller awesome medium formats but I don't have access to them yet.