I dreamt I was an angel
I told you this would happen – that there’d be a new sort of image showing up around here.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 7.8.2016
Posted on July 14, 2016, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, Leica, melinda green harvey, monochrome, one day one image, photo a day, photography, postaday, Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
Wow, that is interesting. If I didn’t know any better, I might suggest it was Photoshopped… since the human brain is so good at interpreting faces, it’s hard not to see it as such.
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The only Photoshop was cropping and adjusting the blacks a little bit.
There was a man in my photography class last week who’s a professional food photographer. The first night he told us all about how they “build” the food for photos, and he specifically talked about how they use wedges made from cosmetic sponges to shore up stuff like hamburgers. Then, on days 2-6, he railed against Photoshop and Lightroom as “cheating.” There was a bit of a disconnect there, I thought…
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Wow, you have lept! I so admire your willingness and ability to expand. It must be a bit scary. . . The evocative title and image go together so well. Brava!
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Thank you, Linda. The class was a lot harder than I’d expected. And, yes, it WAS scary. I sort of wanted to come home early. But I stuck it out, and did some OK work, eventually. I’m in the middle of a big project and I can already tell the class will give that project a focus (not a pun) and a look that it would not have otherwise had.
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I am amazed.
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Thanks. There’s more non-typical stuff coming; I hope you’ll stick around!
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Interesting that this was the result of a class. It is a lovely photo but I am yet to be convinced it will become a series or part of your style. I say that out of self interest as much as anything, as I adore your other photos so much, Melinda.
As far as that teacher calling Photoshop ‘cheating’, one wonders in which century he is living. Every innovation in art (such as photography itself, or Andy Warhol’s use of mass produced commercial images, or Jeff Koons never laying a finger on his works to make his visions a reality, as was done in so many painting studios in the Renaissance and beyond, I could go on) is labelled cheating by vested interests and the envious. It is how one uses a tool creatively that counts and sets one above the everyday tinkerers.
It is very funny that he didn’t see his manipulation of food as cheating! It is cheating on many levels.We have a consumer affairs show here, which has a segment called something like ‘pack shot to product’, where the advertised image of food is compared to what you get after following the instructions to prepare it. Of course the finished products are nothing like the photos on the packs. Is he unaware of how that is cheating the buying public?
Looking forward to seeing more of your experiments, but hoping to see much more of you ‘snooping’ documentation of our world.
PS Goodness! I just remembered I haven’t acknowledged your email! So sorry. It was such a lovely surprise and I adored your fashion forward young granddaughter!
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Kate,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
These images of models were just for the class; I don’t intend to start making images of people!
What I did learn from the class is that it’s OK to be more free with things in post-production. You’ll see, starting in a couple of days, what that looks like with my more typical subjects. And I could not agree more with your statement that it’s how one uses the tools that matters. One of the students in my class works for Adobe (she appears in many Photoshop and Lightroom tutorial videos) told me she thinks all this flap re. Photoshop is silly – she said people manipulated photos all the time in the darkroom – it’s not something that just started with Photoshop.
My brother-in-law, who thinks he knows everything (he’s wrong), once told me that Photoshop was cheating. I asked him if he’d consider focusing to be cheating, but he didn’t answer.
The food photographer guy also said that his industry (food photography is an industry!) has been influenced by food bloggers, who post photos of ACTUAL food. No word on if Photoshopping actual food is OK or not…
(Yesterday, my granddaughter was wearing that same dress-and-rain-boots outfit, only this time she accessorized it with an orange and blue apron and chef’s hat. It was…stunning.)
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Get that girl to art classes now! She has a flare for colour and style. Maybe she will be the next Vera Wang? (Chose her as I am hopeless at knowing who is big in fashion. I only know who she is as she has designed some magnificent stationery and I used to be in that business!)
It is interesting that people with little or no connection to the creative arts have such strong opinions about Photoshopping. Guess we should be grateful that people are even aware that it exists. I think that it opens people up to conversations about how we are often manipulated by images to think or feel a certain way. That can lead to some great discussions about how good art can influence our ways of seeing the world or how deceptive images, using those same tools are changing the way we see ourselves.
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My classmates and I eventually agreed to disagree, I guess. And I am almost positive that Mr. Food Photography would take exception to the idea that his work is “deceptive.” Even though, to me, it quite clearly is.
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