Image Selection: Building a World
Using non-portraits to build a conceptual language
"Hugo, you told me one day on one of our walks “Dad, when I am your age, will I remember all of this?” This showed me that even you, my 7 year old, realized the uniqueness and preciousness of this time … this convinced me … The moment was NOW."
In Mathieu Chaze’s Rock, Paper, Scissors we are invited into the world of a photographer-father and his two sons. The majority of the work is figures: portraits and the boys in landscape. Today I want to call your attention to the way that non-portraits weave a symbolic story that fills out the concept of the book. View the trailer here:
What landscape, still life, animal & object work tells the story of your book?
Is there potential to make new pictures which fill out the narrative? Are there pictures in your archive which express the concept and can be used as image spreads? These are the questions non-portrait work leave us with. There are images that may not stand alone as powerful but when paired with figure work become highly communicative. Examples from RPS:
Swans, lakes, trees, birds, horses, overgrown windows, swings. These images build the world the portrait work takes place within.