Tea time – photography concept
Portrait photography as a fine art concept: “Tee Zeit” in black and white. A concept shoot on a set built for the purpose: black walls drawn over with white…
A concept shoot on a set built for the purpose: black walls drawn over with white picture frames, eyes and ornaments, a checkerboard floor, white bistro furniture and a dressmaker’s dummy. The models wear white and black and nothing in between, a coffee cup in hand. The whole picture is made of two values — there is no gray for a mistake to hide in, so every edge has to land.
The wall is where the work went: picture frames, eyes, lashes and an oversized cup drawn in white line on black, with a checkerboard floor, white baroque chairs and a dressmaker’s dummy in a white suit.
In a set without midtones, light is a question of edges. White furniture against a black wall gives contrast for free but swallows every bit of modelling — so the figure stands on the border between the two surfaces rather than in front of one of them.
And the props repeat the same motif until it becomes the subject: bowler, cup, frame. A concept picture works through repetition; a single quotation would stay a prop.
- Style
- Black & White
