Do possessions speak to character in the same way as a portrait might? Certainly they may disclose more by way of association. That’s how the pictures here seem to be working. I collected a handful of items which have followed me around for some time and thought about how to present them. I had thought of straightforward top-down pictures of open drawers, always an invitation to the viewer to dissect the minutia of an individual’s clutter, but it seemed a bit too much like Kim’s game and a touch literal. Also, the mess of items all strewn together might be too confused, dense. So I went for single items, but rather than have them sitting in isolation I placed them in a mock museum setting, as if they were mouldering away in some glass cabinet in a basement.
It isn’t a very posh museum. It’s a bit dusty and the exhibits are somewhat careworn. They are intimate, however; they relate to me in a very direct way, particularly to my sense of self, which I reckon is formed by experience.
They are presented individually, out of context, in a basic setting. I lit them to show as much detail as possible with sharp focus throughout (focus stacked). The originals look pretty good but the web size WordPress algorithm has mashed a few of them. I think they would look much better printed. They are quiet and a little sad. Because they lack context they appear vulnerable through isolation.
These took more than a day to do! A standard studio table-top product type arrangement with an overhead softbox, a black cloth sweep and various snooted kickers and fill cards. I can faff around all day long, which made a change from apologising to people for taking up their valuable time (I am getting out of that habit now).
They look just like I wanted them to, but the tombstone cards didn’t quite fit the scale on some pictures. It was intended to look less-than-perfect from a curatorial point of view.