Cactus Contact sheet

After experimenting with the mouldy apple, I decided to photograph my cactus. I’m fascinated by cacti, their shapes and forms, and how all of this is natural. I also thought as my cactus was green and so was the apple, they’d look good as part of a triptych as they’re of a similar colour scheme. Although I was going to focus on mouldy food, I think this is also a good option for my found objects project. I’m going to try to find another object that has hints of green yellow and white that i could use as a final part. I think the object should be a natural object, potentially another food or plant. I used the contact sheet tool on photoshop to create the arrangement for my cactus pictures and then switched some of them around to create a more balanced and comfortable arrangement.

cactus contact sheet

Apple Contact sheet

apples contact sheet2

For my second brief, found objects, I wanted to look into moulding food as I think the decay can create really interesting shapes and colours. Usually people either don’t get the chance to observe mouldy food to a close degree as they’re too disgusted or never actually see it.

To look at something that had naturally changed over time and become unusable could relate to the photographer, David Maisels, Library of Dust. His work was very inspirational to me as I think the use of repeat patterns, in a contact sheet style, is an effective way to display pictures of the same subject matter and image size. I also think the meaning behind his work and how the tin cans were filled with ashes of patients from a state run psychiatric hospital is a beautiful way to display the uniqueness of each of the patients. I also really like the way Maisel has used very black backgrounds so that the focus is completely on his subject matter. I tried to achieve this with my apple photographs by adjusting the position of my light, some were more successful than others.

maisel-library-of-dust

I intend on using mouldy foods for my found objects brief, I will either try other angles and lighting on this apple or try another apple to achieve a photo that would be suitable for a triptych of photographs.