IN PRACTICE: Halloween

IN PRACTICE: Scenes of Fall

IN STUDY: Edward Weston

[EDWARD WESTON/"PEPPER NO. 30"]

[EDWARD WESTON/"CABBAGE LEAF"]

Susan Sontag cites Edward Weston as a remarkable manipulator of the visual world, a "visual hero" if you will. He captures the surreal and exaggerates reality...with the form of vegetables. Not exactly the easiest of feats, but perhaps this is what makes photography so enthralling; you can transform a pepper into a suggestive and sensual manifestation of curves and shadows, much like a woman's body. Suddenly the valleys and hills of a cabbage leaf look like carved marble or a crashing wave.
This manipulation glorifies the ordinary still life in a way that painting never could. Sure, you might have more opportunities to distort of color and form, but I think the black and white tonal range does more for this set of images than any shade/combination of red, yellow, or blue ever could.

IN PRACTICE: Candids

IN STUDY: Lydia Panas

[LYDIA PANAS/ PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN]

From her collection titled "Private Spaces," Panas focuses on the intimate gatherings of family members in an ambiguous field. What is particularly striking about this photograph is the relation between its title and its subject matter. This "Portrait of a Young Man" seems to be about everything but the young man; he is the only one of the group who does not have his eyes set on the camera. Despite this oddity, sometimes you can gather much more from the subject that turns away than the one that shows you everything.
He has a forlorn and resentful look about him, much like my little brother when he was forced to pose for pictures. Although you cannot guess the relationship between the members in the frame, intimacy and dejection is sensed from their separation and defensive countenances. However, the young man pops from the scene about him as if he truly does have a story that the photographer wishes to capture.