For this assignment, we had to revisit one of the exercises from part four of this course and develop it into a formal piece. The exercises explored natural light, artificial light or controlling light, from which I chose the last. Photographers can use the light provided to them at the time or take it into their own hands to get the shadows and highlights they require.

The final images for my assignment were black and white, 360-degree mirrored images of the cross-sections of fruit and vegetables. I took the techniques from exercise 4.3, ‘Egg or stone’, lit the subjects from underneath with a light pad to create a highly contrasted yet 2D image full of detail to prevent the work from being flat and lifeless.  

Doug McKinlay made a tutorial on capturing slices of fruit, vegetables, flowers and other translucent items with a lightbox and macro lens. Overexposing the images by one or two stops prevents the background from being dull and grey (McKinlay, 2017), enhancing the bright whites and colours of the subject. McKinlay shot his images without a tripod by bumping the ISO up enough to allow for a fast shutter speed, avoiding camera shake. I intended to use a tripod for my photoshoot to prevent any blur, yet, the lens was not close enough to the slices, forcing me to go handheld and use the advice from the YouTube tutorial.

Andy Ellison is an MRI technician who tested his MRI scanner settings by scanning the cross-section of an orange. He was so impressed by the results that he created an entire series of images from fruits and vegetables, both static and animated Gifs of the scans. The scans inspired me to explore the idea of black and white film negatives, but on a much larger scale. Film negatives are the opposite of a fully developed print, ghostly yet beautiful. The denser areas are white or light grey, while exposed areas are dark grey or black, much like medical scans. 

I combined ‘the use of lightbox and macro photography technique from McKinlay’s tutorial, Ellisons MRI scans and presenting them as individual prints like Gomez’ lumen prints; while keeping it unique’ (Powell, 2021). My SONY A57 settings were manual, with an ISO of 1600, aperture of F/2.8., a range of shutter speeds depending on the subject and the light intensity.

The light source for the photoshoot was an A4 LED light pad, set to the highest setting and covered by a sheet of white paper to block out the dots on the surface. Overexposing the image like McKinlay suggested prevented the background from going grey and dulling the slices of food. Shooting from above flattened the subject while keeping the shadows and highlights balanced. Using a shallow depth of field caused the camera to focus on the areas closer to the lens. As a result, it created a soft eerie effect on some of the images when converted to black and white. The macro lens allowed me to examine the fruit and vegetables more intimately, enhancing the small details within the flesh and how they are grown.

Using photoshop to invert the images and convert them to black and white using a B&W filter and gradient map allowed me to achieve the ‘negative film’ and scan effect that I was hoping to replicate. Enlarging the canvas and duplicating the individual shots to create a 360-degree symmetrical piece intensified the details and shapes within the photographs selected from my shoot.

The final images are complex, highly contrasted, full of texture and shapes, much like an MRI scan or x-ray would be of the body. The context for these pieces is limited. Viewers can analyse and come to their conclusions about the images, what they mean, what the subject is, similar to Hermann Rorschach’s inkblot tests where people describe what they see within the abstract art. Each response is different depending on the person, making the art more captivating.

Presenting the photographs as strong individuals allows each piece to be appreciated, rather than a pair of average images complementing one another to create a set. The vertical order of the pictures enables the collection to become a powerful group of ‘scans’ from head to toe.

The most compelling images for me are Scan 1 and Scan 3, as they are ripe with texture, contrast, shapes and details. They look like flesh, with the addition of tougher and denser areas throughout, balancing the composition as a result. Heavy black areas represent the bright white areas created by the light pad placed underneath the translucent slices. Intense white areas show the thicker and less exposed elements within the fruits and vegetable makeup. Even though the photographs are flat and two-dimensional, the artificial arrangement of the images creates a complex and exciting art piece from what were individual shots.

Taking images of the fruits and vegetable so closely filled the frame and included little background, causing some of the photographs to be too bright when inverted and providing little or no dark areas to frame the subject like most of my final pieces. Making sure the arrangements balanced before pressing the shutter, resulting in a better finish. Taking a little more time to compose is something I would consider doing more if I were to do this shoot again.

This assignment has been fascinating to explore as I pushed myself out of a comfort zone, experimented with controlled light and discovered the incredible results it could achieve. Every light source is just as good as the other if you know how to use each one efficiently.

References:

McKinlay, D. (2017) Light Box Art: Stay Focused with Doug McKinlay [Video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWiL5N-b4YM (Accessed 28th May 2021).

Powell, L. (2021) Further research and shoot plan [Blog post] Available at: https://laurenpowelloca.photo.blog/2021/06/07/further-research-and-shoot-plan/ (Accessed 7th June 2021).