Another productive flower shoot in the home studio with absolute thanks to my friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. Chris and Wendy sorted me out with such a great selection of flowers, which is no mean feat due to the covid lockdown and brexit ramifications. But here they are. Hope you enjoy them and pop back next month to see more?
Welcome back to the new years gallery kick off and sadly no model shoots to show you. It does also look likey that there won’t be a proper studio shoot until maybe April or May the way this Covid-19 situation is going. I know I don’t need to be reminded of it, as we are all suffering, but I just wish I could do something in a studio away from my four walls.
But like I said, we are all suffering one way or another.
Anyway, I managed to do some digital art this month after a break and do some more stuff for fine art and projects. There is also the flower work that I am so grateful to still be able to do with help from Chris and Wendy at Brambles Florist and Flowers to Yours. Not to mention, and not forgetting, my wife Amy who always helps me with the pictures.
One more thing to look out for is a review from Lens Culture of my efforts I submitted to one of their awards for Fantasy Art. Its not a bad review, worth a look … it’s at the bottom of this months flowers and quite a lengthy read.
Well thats it for now. Enjoy the blog and catch you next month.
With a lack of model shoots going around I have chosen to create some more, nature based digital art this cold month. All that is with the exception of the ‘Levitation (Trumps Gone)’ picture and the syfy moon over water image.
Only a handful of still life / fine art this month and again with the theme of decay. I made some new backgrounds, hopefully give them a more harder edge this time around. Thanks as always to Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours for last months (now gone over) flowers.
A few new pictures for this project, this month. A drawing of my wife that hangs on my living room wall. A fan. A door latch to the back door and some fetching marigold gloves. I know, not the most exciting stuff, but it is supposed to be a gallery of the everyday in black and white.
With this Covid lockdown Part III going around, I know its hard for suppliers to get their hands on a lot of things. Flowers being no exception, but my friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours, Chris and Wendy have done a great job for me and pulled some rabbits out of the bag. Thanks to them both, in no small way and to Amy for helping me take the pictures.
At the end of 2020 I entered nine images into a Lens Culture ‘Fantasy Art’ competition. While I did not win, they did however give me a good review of my work.
Have a read.
Greetings, Lujon Rael, and thank you for sharing this beautiful work with us.
Without being similar, your fantasy art images reminded me of the classic work of William Mortensen, an early 20th-century photographer whose work characterized as a mixture of stylized portraiture with fantasy narratives, and cinematic style. Mortensen was inspired particularly by horror films that lead him to create a body of work of demons, witches, and other mythical entities.
Like in Mortensen's work, your images demonstrate a mixture of many elements, both traditional and contemporary. Elements of fashion or glamor photography blend with the traditional horror iconography but without getting entrapped into a repetition of overused themes and approaches. Cinema and Literature also seem to offer you inspiration as you create your fantasy world.
Some of the pictures obviously investigate the same theme, showing off your focus and dedication to an idea, as well as your willingness to explore it further. Pictures 1, 3, and 8 are a good example of a study on a particular theme through variations. The title Jinn informs the viewer as to what kind of entity you examine. Technically all three images are well-made so the criteria as to which one is the best picture are obviously subjective. In my opinion, picture 1 seems to be one step ahead. Eye contact is the critical element for my decision. Whereas in pictures 3 and 8 the creature appears mostly as a spectacle, in picture 1 she is challenging the viewer to look at her, and by extension to communicate with her. But also narratively the picture appears to be denser. The red color, a direct reference to blood, optimizes the grotesque element, making the image more effective.
Images 4, 6, and 7 could belong to the same framework, as each of them appears to explore the mythical and the trivial at the same time. Ordinary house objects obtain meaning through correlation with the human body. These objects turning into body parts, illustrating paradoxical creatures that look simultaneously familiar and alien. I find that you should continue working on this idea, but seeing the work as a long term project and not as an occasion to make some singles more. If you find my idea interesting, make sure that the pictures that will be parts of this series will have a tight general aesthetics, that makes them be visually cohesive. Among the three you have here, picture 7 appeals to my artistic sensibilities a little bit more than the other two do. It is perhaps the soft contrast that somehow controls the grotesque element from too emphatic.
Pictures 2 and 9 change the perspective you approach the subject. This time it is a detail that defines the whole and not the opposite as in the rest of the work. Picture 2 is technically beautiful but I feel that you have tried to quickly bargain with the subject. The snake-tongue human is a pretty stereotypical fantasy scheme. I would prefer to see something that attempts to take that scheme to the next level. Opposingly, picture 9 is more interesting. The act of decorating your body with jewelry obtains new meaning through the correlation with vampire iconography. This picture could also show you a path to follow, a theme to explore. Think about it.
As for image 5, again, you have tried to blend the iconic with the contemporary, and to some extent, you have done a very good job. Perhaps it would be better to avoid titles that explain the concept of the picture, especially when you are using icons everybody understands. I mean that the image obviously explores the iconic figure of Madonna, making the title sound tautological. Do not forget that titles and captions should extend the language of the image.
To conclude, in one way or another, your pictures manifest an inherent curiosity for human behavior and attitude. The combination of mythical with contemporary gestures is a really interesting and promising theme. I recommend you keep on exploring it and I would like to see how it is going to evolve. For the moment, I wish you the best of luck in the contest.
Take care.
Well what a year this has turned out to be. I am sure you have no need of me telling you … we are all suffering. But still you must do what you can or face going mad. Being optimistic I am trying to look on the bright side of things and hoping next year is going to be better. So raise a glass for 2021 and a fart to 2020 !!!
I hope you all have a great Christmas and better New Year also. Thanks to everyone who helped.
BTW I did not win that compertion … oh well, bummer !!!
As I am sure your all aware there is no model shoots until February 2021, covid permitting. But I do need to round up this years meagre offerings with a slideshow. So thanks to all involved in these shoots … you are all the sultans of swing. To Monalisa Moyo, Suzanne L, Divya Ram, Tyler Dyce, Lee Henshaw, Nuria Do Prado Rael and Sonia Greatorex See you all I hope in next years shoots.
I hope x
Music: ‘Sultans of Swing’ Dire Straits
Here is a one of Project image for the ‘Noir et Blanc’ Gallery. I was taken in my front room with me on my couch looking up at the ceiling. The light you see highlights the picture of Amy just below to the bottom right.
Ending up the year with an absence of model shoots I have put more into the fine art / still life pictures. Here is a mixed bag of stuff I have done to keep you all entertained, with a strong use of decaying flowers.. Thanks to Amy for all her help this month and this year.
Music: ‘Gymnopedies 1’ Erik Satie
Music: ‘Gnossiennes 1’ Erik Satie
Music: ‘Gnossiennes 3’ Erik Satie
We see this year out with a great selection of flowers thanks to our friends Chris and Wendy at Brambles Florist and Flowers toyours. Thank you so much for this years floral collection, you have been a God send to me … and hope to see them all in January, Covid lockdown permitting.
Well as we said before the Covid-19 lockdown went ahead and we have all just come out of the other end confused and in different tier areas. Such fun !
Anyway, good thing was that despite what I said my friends at the Brambles Florist and Flowers for yours did not close and I managed to get some really great flowers from them. Brilliant shop and staff. But sadly there is no fashion / model shoot for this month - nor should there be until mid February, 2021. This is part due to Covid but also Christmas and the fact that everyones skint in January. So enjoy this month’s offering and see you in December.
With another lockdown stopping me from doing a fashion shoot and my ever changing health, I have managed to do a few Digital Art pictures. Note this month that nearly all of the pictures feature women with their backs to the camera. Just a theme to link them all.
This month we managed to do some more Fine Art trying bits and bobs out from rotting leaves and bondaged Sunflowers to Apples, string and plastic flowers. Thanks to Amy for her patience and much needed help with the picture creations and to everyone at Brambles Florist for their plants.
As I mentioned before, its a good job my flowers providers have not closed down during the covid-19/0.2 lockdown we have just been through. They gave me an amazing choice of flowers to choose from, and to which I hope I have done my best. So another shout out to Chris and Wendy at both Brambles Florist and Flowers to yours A thanks also to my wife for the couple of Dahlias she throw in for good measures. x
October is the start of what I call the silly season leading all the way up to new years eve and the big belly flop that comes after it on January 2nd. Our government has put us all into a Covid-19 lockdown again, so there will be no photoshoots in November or flower shoots either I would imagine.
Bummer !!
On a more happy note the Lens Culture, Black and White Photography Awards that I entered has now closed, but before they did they sent out this advert below to get more people to enter and kindly used my picture in the top left hand corner. Does this mean anything? Proberbly not, but it does tell me someone, somewhere in summertime likes it enough to use it in an advert. Which is something positive I suppose.
I would just like to take this chance to say a fond farewell to Sir Sean Connery who’s films were a big influence on me as a child and young person growing up.
Please enjoy this months updates..
