ENTRY DESCRIPTION
This image in its original form is a set of chandeliers I saw hanging from a ceiling in a hotel lobby a few months ago. The photograph was taken whilst standing underneath the lights and as a colour photograph it looks quite nice. However, in order for me to create the meaning I needed to convey in the image, it was necessary for me to remove the parameters of context. Essentially, strip away and strip down any and all resemblance to the original image. For this image,I drew inspiration from Ansel Adams especially as it pertains to the ruggedness and darkness of some of his landscape photography. In Ansel Adams parlance, I didn't take this photograph, I made it. Thus bringing life to what I saw and felt at the moment the image was captured. The process involved in me producing this image speaks to my desire for my photography to be more about a concept rather than the actual image itself. In this image, the light reveals details and creates shadows which contributes to the overall impact. As a result, the interplay of shadow and light adds a mysterious quality to it. A not "knowingness", if you will. Hence the title, "Enigma".
AUTHOR
My name is Folake Abass and I’m a British born Nigerian living in Saudi Arabia. I’ve always taken photographs but only began to call myself a photographer in 2017.
With regard to my approach to photography, oftentimes, it is pure chance and circumstance that defines my it. This is because my approach is based on the premise that beauty (as I define it) can be found anywhere and everywhere and as such, my goal as a photographer is to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. From there, the rest is built on how I perceive what is in front of me and the various means I use to try to represent it.
That said, although there is the expectation that a photograph should reveal the world as we think we see it, a photograph is likely to give a different impression given that there is the perception of the photographer and indeed that of the viewer to consider. Consequently, as the American photographer, Garry Winogrand states, "The photograph isn't what was photographed, its something else. It's about transformation to see what that thing looks like photographed". Based on this then, when I take photographs, to a certain extent, my goal is to shape how people think and in order to do that, an image must give the viewer as much information as possible so that they are able to see what is being conveyed.
Ultimately as a photographer, it is not only about what I see when I take photographs but instead, what I want the viewer to see in the photographs I take. It is my hope that this "viewing" becomes an experience that enriches the viewer’s perception of things and speaks to them from a variety of levels.
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