My current project is focussed within the home and exploring emotional connections with home, and I’ve been particularly drawn to interesting light around my home. The more successful of my images so far have had quite strong contrast, reflective surfaces and natural lighting.
Images that didn’t work as well were made in flat light and often not close to a light source. These images were made in my parents’ house and were far less successful. I also wonder whether I no longer think of that house as ‘home’ and so the emotional connection to it is different to my own home.
As the flat lighting didn’t work in terms of lending the images emotional depth, I have been working towards increasing that by using interesting lighting and working with shadows more. This involves both natural lighting and the use of lights and flashes.
The work on shadows has been greatly encouraged by the writings of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. This Japanese writer’s early C20th essay on aesthetics, In Praise of Shadows, spends a good deal of time contemplating Japanese homes and why dark spaces within them are so successful. He talks of the “uncanny silence of … dark places” (Tanizaki 2001 p.33) and how they can pull people in and create not only a sense of mystery and intrigue, but also one of peace.
“When we gaze into the darkness that gathers behind the crossbeam, around the flower vase, beneath the shelves, though we know perfectly well it is mere shadow, we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner of the atmosphere there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquility holds sway.”
(ibid.)
I have been exploring the importance of shadows this week by extending my pinhole practice to work with direct positive paper directly in my Mamiya medium format camera. I load a now defunct Polaroid back with a hand cut piece of direct positive paper, make an exposure, and then develop the image immediately. This process has included a lot of trial and error, but I am finding the results highly engaging and they work well with these shadow ideas I’ve been reading about.
This image is working within Tanizaki’s ideas, and the darkness of the shadows on either side and through the window, along with the chair, create a sense of a calm corner or space. Rather than being sinister, shadows can be peaceful and intriguing.
Compare the image above with another, shot using the same method. The other image is a little overexposed, but more than that I feel it is not as successful because it does not have as many shadows.
To help me to bring out the shadows and highlights better, I’ve started trying to use flashes. This has been somewhat difficult, especially as I’m still experimenting with exposures to use for the paper I’m not using, so I think I need to work more with constant lighting. But there has been a little success in this area. The doors below were in total darkness in the first exposures because the room behind them was so bright. I managed to light them a little with a flash and by just beginning to bring a little light to them the shadows become less pure black and more interesting.
The shadows in the floor reflections are also intriguing in this shot. I don’t feel this shot is quite as strong in terms of depth as it could be though. The garden at the back is too bright and draws the eye away from the doors (designed to be the main subject). I will continue to work on this shot and try an exposure around sunset in order to have the room behind slightly darker and slightly increase the lighting of the doors. I would like to keep the doors and floor dimly lit though, because as Tanizaki believes, “Only in dim half-light” is certain beauty truly revealed (ibid. p.22). As he says, in dim light “suddenly those garish objects turn somber, refined, dignified.” (ibid. p.23)
Another shot from this week that I believe fulfils the ideals of Tanizaki’s essay and works to encourage an idea of emotional connection with home that this project aims to do is this pinhole shot of my bedroom door. This shot is a 2 hour exposure and both I and my wife walked past the pinhole camera a number of times to enter and exit the room and go up the stairs. The camera became a part of the home for that time.
I will continue to explore my home and the lighting within it, both in daytime and nighttime. I would like to experiment with using candles for illumination (another Tanizaki-inspired idea), though feel I will have to start this using digital as I’m not sure how lengthy the exposures may need to be with direct positive paper. Candle-lit would work well with some still life scenes, as suggested by my tutor as a way of exploring objects within the home.
As Tanizaki said, “So benumbed are we nowadays by electric lights that we have become utterly insensitive to the evils of excessive illumination” (ibid. p.55) I will bear this in mind, and try to keep using light to allow for both highlights and shadows in images.
References
Jo Salomon CRJ 
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