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Exposed #18: Cascade

Spoiler Alert! In my 'Exposed' series of articles I reveal some of the secrets behind how I created my images. If you don't want to know how I made 'Cascade' stop reading now!

I always like to challenge myself in my photography. Especially with triptychs, it can be extremely difficult disassembling an image and then reassembling it back together with a completely new concept and vision.

Constructing ‘Cascade’ (and I really do mean ‘constructing’ as it felt like a building project at times) really kicked my creative juices into overdrive!

Paper Trails

I’d been playing with paper in a previous photo shoot – check out the Exposed on ‘Astral Plane’ and ‘Mystique’ – and decided to revisit my colourful selection to see if I could come up with something slightly different. In ‘Astral Plane’ and ‘Mystique’ I’d used a slow, circular motion with the camera, generating very smooth and flowing shapes.

Now I wanted to highlight the more angular and jagged edges of the paper, so moved my camera in a more linear and jerky style.

Original source image for the triptych ‘Cascade’

This is the original, source image for ‘Cascade’. I’d managed to capture a really zigzag, geometric feel and achieved what I was after. However, only the right two thirds of the image were usable (the far left was pretty indistinct and didn’t contain much interest).

Not to be deterred by this limiting factor, I set about deciding how I was going to crop the image to construct my triptych. In the end, I kept the crops pretty straightforward, conservative even. They all ended up being vertical cuts of varying lengths and all in the same area of the photo.

Putting it all Together

What do I do next? I sat at the computer looking at these for a long time. Sometimes I just need a bit of time and space to truly absorb what I’m seeing and allow my subconscious to take hold of and embrace the connections.

The more I looked, the more I started to imagine a series of steps cascading downwards. The challenge then became how to position and orientate the panels so that I could maximise their descent.

I put my construction hat on and got to work. The series of images below present how I put it all together. You can see I only kept one panel in its original orientation and rotated and flipped the other two.

My triptych staircase finally took shape. I thoroughly enjoyed assembling the panels, although I must confess to a degree of bewilderment and indecision at the outset. Ultimately, I’d solved my construction conundrum and could happily cast my eyes up and down my zany, abstract staircase.

Jane Trotter - Creator of Abstracted Reality

Jane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.

Exposed #17: Solar Flare

Spoiler Alert! In my 'Exposed' series of articles I reveal some of the secrets behind how I created my images. If you don't want to know how I made 'Solar Flare' stop reading now!

I always like to keep a selection of the images I take from a photo shoot. Firstly, I’ll choose the ‘best one’ which I’ll ultimately spend time on crafting and finessing into the final abstract or triptych.

Secondly, I’ll keep a set of images which are similar to the one I chose, just to give me more scope and flexibility if I want to explore making a triptych from multiple sources.

Finally, I’ll keep some totally ‘miscellaneous’ shots – ones which bear no resemblance to what I’ve actually chosen to work on, but which I think may have some potential down the line, even if I can’t envisage an immediate future for them.

‘Solar Flare’ originates from one of these random, miscellaneous images.

Just Like a Magpie!

My Clothes Dryer

Maybe I’m a bit like a bird which is attracted to shiny objects! I do tend to go searching for things and places which have interesting and eye-catching reflective surfaces.

The inside of my clothes dryer is one such location.

On this particular photo shoot, I was mostly concentrating on capturing the peculiar patterns and fantastical reflections in the curving stainless steel. Almost all of the shots were static, like the one below.

Original image for ‘Deus Ex Machina’

In fact, this image became the source image for the triptych ‘Deus Ex Machina’. Nearing the end of the shoot I figured I probably had enough of these static images to play with, so decided to finish off with a few flourishes. I set a slightly slower shutter speed and began moving the camera in large circular gestures, just to see what would happen and to satisfy my curiosity.

Upon reviewing the images, most of my “let’s see what happens when I go rogue in a clothes dryer” shots were pretty dire! However, one stood out and I decided to keep it for a rainy day.

Original image for ‘Solar Flare’

Hot Stuff

Several months went by before I took another look and really began to think about what I could do with this shot. I really enjoyed the sense of motion and turbulence, and I imagined an inherent radiance and glow.

Wanting to intensify this feeling, I decided to warm up the colours even more.

Now I was visualising a massive sun with its huge molten tendrils outstretched into the vastness of space.

Experimenting with orientation, I rotated the image 180 degrees to see if I could mimic the sun even more.

While I preferred this orientation, I still felt I could do more, so decided to make the vertical triptych cuts. As they stood, the triptych format wasn’t adding anything to the image. Further tweaking was required…

After much playing and careful evaluation, this is the final arrangement I decided upon. All of the panels have been moved and/or rotated to provide an even greater sense of giant flares being hurled out into space. The central core of the sun is also now situated more in the middle of the triptych to establish balance.

I’m very thankful I kept this shot. It wasn’t one in the original photo shoot which I was particularly ‘serious’ about, but rather, on a whim I tossed it in at the end of a more systematic process and application. It’s shown me the value of keeping an open mind for all of my images and not to discount anything because it wasn’t part of a particular, planned approach.

Sometimes it’s best think tangentally and go wild in a clothes dryer!

‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange

Sometimes a photograph can stop you in your tracks – you’re almost spellbound and its power deeply moves you. That’s how I felt the very first time I saw ‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange. I hadn’t seen this photograph until well into adulthood, so perhaps its impact and meaning were amplified with more mature eyes and life perspective.

‘Migrant Mother’ by Dorothea Lange, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9058-C

Impoverished, destitute and homeless, I could only imagine what suffering this family was experiencing. The look on the mother’s face embodied so many emotions; deep concern and worry, apprehension about the future, a wistful longing. Despair. Yet there was something more, a glimmer of hope and determination, a quiet dignity and stoic resilience, a heroic fortitude of the human spirit.

I knew the photograph was taken in America during the Great Depression, but I was determined to learn more and began to look into the background and context of this compelling image.

Dorothea Lange

The author, Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965) was a professional photographer contracted by the US Government’s Farm Security Administration to drive around California, documenting and raising awareness of the struggles of rural life and impoverished farmers. In early 1936, Lange came across the pea fields of Nipomo. The pea crop had failed and migrant labour camps were full of unemployed field workers whose livelihoods were destroyed.

Lange recounts: “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in the lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”

Lange, Dorothea, “The Assignment I’ll Never Forget: Migrant Mother” Popular Photography, February 1960

Other photographs in Dorothea Lange's sequence of images

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USZ62-58355

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9095

The now famous mother in the photograph was Florence Owens Thompson (1903 – 1983). Interestingly, Thompson’s identity was not revealed until many years after their encounter.
Although ‘Migrant Mother’ became the most well known and widely publicised image from this series, the other shots also convey the stark, desperate and unforgiving conditions in which Thompson and her family were forced to eke out a meagre existence.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-9097-C

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs DivisionFSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-T01-009093-C

In her biography of Lange, Linda Gordon describes Lange’s process: “Lange asked the mother and children to move into several different positions. She began with a mid-distance shot. Then she backed up for one shot, then came closer for others. She moved aside a pile of dirty clothes (she would never embarrass her subjects). She then moved closer yet, focusing on three younger children and sidelining the teenage daughter out of the later pictures altogether.”

Linda Gordon, ‘Dorothea Lange: A Life beyond Limits’, 2009, pub. W. W. Norton & Company

Upon finishing her assignment, Lange approached the editor of a San Francisco newspaper. After presenting two of her images, one of which was ‘Migrant Mother’, the paper published an article featuring Lange’s photographs and the editor alerted federal authorities. As a result, the government dispensed 20,000 pounds of food to the families in desperate need.

This iconic image immediately became a symbol of the plight and desperation of migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. In fact, the then Director of the Farm Security Administration, Roy Stryker, supported and advanced the collection of more than 270,000 images which were commissioned from numerous photographers throughout the country. The intention behind their collection and publication was to draw attention to, and increase public awareness of the adversity and hardship endured by displaced farming families and migrant workers.

* * *

Having explored the history and context of this photograph, my appreciation has only grown; not only for its power as an individual image, but its power as a force and instigator for social change. I can’t help but feel now is also a critical time in our history when we need more Dorothea Langes and ‘Migrant Mothers’ to shock, motivate and inspire us all.