New Imagery: Contemplating Time

Currently Unnamed Piece

One of my rare commissions, the only directions that my client gave me was that the image had to be time-themed. I’ve been spending a lot of energy looking at book covers and Deviant Art, and I feel like it shows here. People who spend a lot of time talking to me about the artmaking process may recognize that I used three techniques to complete this image which I often dismiss as “cheating.”

I think this image looks good. I employed those “cheats” to rough in an acceptable geometic composition quickly and then focus in on color composition theory. Again, for those of you who haven’t been keeping track, I’ve been talking to painters, specifically artists who work in oil or watercolor, about their color composition habits and trying to apply the lessons to my photography.

I tell ya, those conversations really seem to pay off in an image like this. But the geometric composition still feels like I cheated. So that’s a lesson all in itself: if you rush in past the opening details in order to get to the part that you’re interested in, then the final piece will feel stained by your decision to cut corners. It’s funny, I tell that to my friends’ kids all the time, and now I have to remind myself of that in my artwork.

There’s a term used in kumihimo, a Japanese fiber art, which is “ito sabaku.” This is the stage after you’ve finished your preparations, but before you actually begin, when you take a deep breath, and look at every single strand of the fiber you’re about to work with, and make sure it is in exactly the place you need it to be. Kumihimo artists refer to this as “brushing life into the threads.” I’m starting to feel like there’s a similar process that happens in photography.

Originally published at Amul Kumar Photography. Please leave any comments there.