Monday 17 October 2011

The Object- Still-Life Ideas

1) My first idea is to represent vegetarianism and animal cruelty by having an animal skull on a plate. I want this image to look very normal and natural as if someone is sitting down to have a normal meal. By having a very natural set up will add more of a shock feel to the image because of how ‘normal’ it looks and then there is an animal skull on the plate which represents what they are actually eating when they eat meat. The issue of vegetarianism and animal cruelty is clearly shown in the image because of how the skull is placed on the plate which looks as if it is about to be eaten. Im going to use a white plate and table cloth to give the photo a very light feel to it. The animal skull is going to be positioned in the centre of the image to show its importance of the death of the animal. I’m going to use high camera angle so you are looking down on the still-life to make it feel as if you are actually there eating the meal. There is also going to be cutlery next to the plate, the knife is going to symbolise the cruelty the animal would have gone through to get there on the plate. I’m also going to place a wine glass with red liquid in it to symbolise the blood and death of the animal. By having all of these everyday items placed in this way would make the audience be able to relate to the image more. I want the image to be low in contrast so I’m going to use diffused light to give it a very soft and natural feel. 



2)My second idea is to shoot an animal skull on a plate but in a seductive way to make it look attractive. The idea came from researching other still life photographers, such as Emma Hamilton who make ‘ugly’ objects look attractive. I want to give my still life a very seductive and dramatic feel to make the idea of eating animals attractive. To do this I’m going to use a black foil table cloth as well as a black background to give to the photo a very dark and dramatic feel to it. I’m also going to use ornate cutlery and an ornate plate to make the photo look even more seductive. For this picture I was inspired by traditional still-life paintings which have a very dramatic feel, I decided to use hard lighting and keep the foreground as the main section thats lit similar to the paintings by Pieter Claesz to create harsh shadows.I decided to take this picture in landscape to get a similar effect to the traditional still-life paintings. I also decided to include the cutlery in this image so it looks like a meal thats ready to be eaten as well as a wine glass with red liquid in it to represent the blood and death of the animal. I'm going to compose the image with the skull in the centre to show its importance, I'm also going to use a high- camera angle so you are looking down on to the meal to show how humans have a negative power over the animals. 



1 comment:

  1. Some other things to consider:
    What type of animal is the skull from?
    How does the skull appear - .e.g. covered in blood... or dry? How does this affect the narrative?

    "There is also going to be cutlery next to the plate, the knife is going to symbolise the cruelty the animal would have gone through to get there on the plate. " How are you going to symbolise this? Perhaps the knife be slightly pointed toward the animal in a very subtle manner...?

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