Beyond the Selfie: The Art of Photography!

[Zeta Vandyke]

 

[Aiyumei]

PoV when I go hiking 

[manoji Yachvili]

On 7/26/2022 at 8:43 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

So, it has been suggested that maybe we need a thread here for the posting of pics that don't neatly fit into the My Avatar picture threads, or some of the other categories here.

Such pics might be more "figurative," abstract, surreal, or experimental. Or they might just be focused more upon composition, colour, or lighting than other representational aspects -- I don't think we need or want a tight definition of the things that might fit here. Rather, you decide if this thread is a good home for your picture!

I'll start.

🥰

[manoji Yachvili]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:07 PM, Charalyne Blackwood said:

Spooky art..?

love this one

[Josephine Carissa]

Welcome back Manoji,

its good to see you back : ) looking forward to your artwork.

Kind Regards,

Josephine

[Aiyumei]

Something different, dark and evil. Entirely one of my sisters' idea.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I've posted an earlier, neater version of this pic, but reposting it here after I've processed the hell out of it. It's obviously no longer a "this is what my avatar looks like" pic.

DO NOT "LIKE" THIS IF YOU ALREADY LIKED MY OTHER ONE! EEEK! 😏

[Scylla Rhiadra]

So, I posted a (rather different) "test shot" for this earlier, but this is the "close-to-how-I-finally-want-it" version of my Cressida (from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida) pic.

It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride digging in-depth into Shakespeare's women for this series. These are texts that I have been, to greater or lesser degrees, familiar with, but rethinking the way in which they represent women with a view to capturing some aspect of that in an image has been a very different experience and, occasionally, actually a bit upsetting.

I am deeply ambivalent about Cressida. On the one hand, she is articulate, intelligent, and frank, and very aware of her position as a woman in a world that sees women as "prizes" to be won, or goods to be exchanged. Her character has traditionally been disparaged by (mostly male) critics because she realizes that, to survive (and not end up like a Desdemona or an Ophelia), she needs to "play the game." She recognizes and acknowledges her own powerlessness, and leverages it to survive. And that, to many, makes her a "whore." Far better, apparently, that she die "honourable," faithful to a man who does nothing to prevent her being handed over to the enemy Greeks.

This is my reading of the scene in which Cressida is given to the Greeks in exchange for a prisoner of war; Diomedes, who later becomes her lover, urges her to follow him to the Greek camp. Ulysses (whom I've not shown here) is disgusted by the entire affair, and comments

There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip;
Nay, her foot speaks. Her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body.
O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue,
That give accosting welcome ere it comes
And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts
To every tickling reader! Set them down
For sl*ttish spoils of opportunity
And daughters of the game.

Cressida is indeed "sl*ttish spoils" of war in this scene. I've tried to capture my own ambivalence about her response to this in this image. (The text is from the 1609 edition of the play: it uses the "long s," which looks a bit like an "f.")

Edited July 7, 2023 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Ayashe Ninetails]

On 7/7/2023 at 4:24 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster ride digging in-depth into Shakespeare's women for this series. These are texts that I have been, to greater or lesser degrees, familiar with, but rethinking the way in which they represent women with a view to capturing some aspect of that in an image has been a very different experience and, occasionally, actually a bit upsetting.

I think you're doing a fantastic job, personally, and I appreciate the effort you're putting in (so glad I don't have to do it 😄😏).

But no, seriously, it's a difficult challenge to look at established characters - many with one type of baggage or another - and highlight them in an entirely new way. To be honest, it's one reason why I haven't messed with that too much. Much of my own non-fashion photography tackles some rather difficult themes and that's enough of a project (though it's very easy to miss that as I only give hints - sometimes tucked away into the lyrics of song I've tossed into the description), but I find it much easier to do so with fantasy avatars over human. Keeps it from getting "too real" sometimes.

Speaking of which, I FINALLY got back on my bull... (weird was definitely what I needed), so here are the two recent photos I just finished working on. The second is more of a styling project, but I love her, and I never want to take that gown off, lol. It's SO GOOD!

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

7 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I think you're doing a fantastic job, personally, and I appreciate the effort you're putting in (so glad I don't have to do it 😄😏).

But no, seriously, it's a difficult challenge to look at established characters - many with one type of baggage or another - and highlight them in an entirely new way. To be honest, it's one reason why I haven't messed with that too much. Much of my own non-fashion photography tackles some rather difficult themes and that's enough of a project (though it's very easy to miss that as I only give hints - sometimes tucked away into the lyrics of song I've tossed into the description), but I find it much easier to do so with fantasy avatars over human. Keeps it from getting "too real" sometimes.

Speaking of which, I FINALLY got back on my bull... (weird was definitely what I needed), so here are the two recent photos I just finished working on. The second is more of a styling project, but I love her, and I never want to take that gown off, lol. It's SO GOOD!

 

Wow. They're both great, but I love love love the top one!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Wow. They're both great, but I love love love the top one!

Thank you so much! 

[Nando Yip]

@Cila Rhiadra @Ayashe Ninetails The photographs you take and the graphic production are very beautiful.

[Nando Yip]

a little fantasy

[Ayashe Ninetails]

8 hours ago, Nando Yip said:

@Cila Rhiadra @Ayashe Ninetails The photographs you take and the graphic production are very beautiful.

Thank you so much. ❤️ I love the trippy vibes in your photo, btw. I could so see that as a dubstep or trap mix cover image on YouTube. Photoshop some subwoofers on there and you're all set... 😄

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Sooo, I just started a new project inspired by a combination of Scylla's deep dive into Shakespearian characters and my love for recreating scenes from films and music videos. As @Scylla Rhiadra is finding out, Shakespeare's a bit difficult to tackle for a variety of reasons, so instead of joining her on that journey, I turned my attention to creating characters (and scenes, where applicable) from one of my top 3 favorite albums of all time - PJ Harvey's Is This Desire?

Much like the Shakespearian project, this one's a challenge. The themes are heavy, the song meanings are cryptic at times (mostly), the characters and their motivations are complex, and the lyrics can get prettttttty dark. So, of course I had to take this on...

The first one I've finished is a still shot from "A Perfect Day, Elise," arguably the album's most tragic title, though I suppose that depends on how you interpret a few of the other tracks. If you don't know the video/song, first of all, how dare you here it is, and secondly, you should go listen to the album immediately! I've been thinking about these songs since it released 25 years ago (omg what?!).

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Sooo, I just started a new project inspired by a combination of Scylla's deep dive into Shakespearian characters and my love for recreating scenes from films and music videos. As @Scylla Rhiadra is finding out, Shakespeare's a bit difficult to tackle for a variety of reasons, so instead of joining her on that journey, I turned my attention to creating characters (and scenes, where applicable) from one of my top 3 favorite albums of all time - PJ Harvey's Is This Desire?

Much like the Shakespearian project, this one's a challenge. The themes are heavy, the song meanings are cryptic at times (mostly), the characters and their motivations are complex, and the lyrics can get prettttttty dark. So, of course I had to take this on...

The first one I've finished is a still shot from "A Perfect Day, Elise," arguably the album's most tragic title, though I suppose that depends on how you interpret a few of the other tracks. If you don't know the video/song, first of all, how dare you here it is, and secondly, you should go listen to the album immediately! I've been thinking about these songs since it released 25 years ago (omg what?!).

 

OMG, Polly Jean is just about my favourite artist of all time! And yeah, she is really complicated and challenging.

What a perfect recreation of room 509!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

(Now do Angelene, my favourite song on that album!)

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

OMG, Polly Jean is just about my favourite artist of all time! And yeah, she is really complicated and challenging.

What a perfect recreation of room 509!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

(Now do Angelene, my favourite song on that album!)

I should've guessed you'd be a fan! Maaaan, this album absolutely haunts me I tell ya. Surprised it took me this long to get around to it.

And thank you! I'm so mad that the window wasn't 100% in the right spot, but I was thrilled to find passable wallpaper in my inventory! I tell ya - these are things I have to fudge that nobody's going to notice but me, so yolo LOL.

Angelene is definitely on my list, but I don't quite know what I'm going to do with that one, yet! Also coming - Catherine (from The Wind), Catherine (De Barra), Electric Light (might be the toughest one to pull off), The Garden, My Beautiful Leah, and maybe Dawn (Is This Desire?).

We'll see! A lot depends on what I can find to use to create interesting settings and scenes.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

16 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I should've guessed you'd be a fan! Maaaan, this album absolutely haunts me I tell ya. Surprised it took me this long to get around to it.

And thank you! I'm so mad that the window wasn't 100% in the right spot, but I was thrilled to find passable wallpaper in my inventory! I tell ya - these are things I have to fudge that nobody's going to notice but me, so yolo LOL.

Angelene is definitely on my list, but I don't quite know what I'm going to do with that one, yet! Also coming - Catherine (from The Wind), Catherine (De Barra), Electric Light (might be the toughest one to pull off), The Garden, My Beautiful Leah, and maybe Dawn (Is This Desire?).

We'll see! A lot depends on what I can find to use to create interesting settings and scenes.

Excellent choices! The Garden would be particularly interesting (for me, anyway).

I am trying to think if I've ever explicitly referenced PJ in a photo. I don't think so, but "The Dress" was in the back of my mind for one pic I did ages ago.

AND I know that I've had White Chalk on my wish list of themes I'd like to tackle: I love the relationship between landscape, memory, and self -- and I WANT THAT DRESS.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Excellent choices! The Garden would be particularly interesting (for me, anyway).

I am trying to think if I've ever explicitly referenced PJ in a photo. I don't think so, but "The Dress" was in the back of my mind for one pic I did ages ago.

AND I know that I've had White Chalk on my wish list of themes I'd like to tackle: I love the relationship between landscape, memory, and self -- and I WANT THAT DRESS.

That's such a great photo! And a killer dress!

LOL, this entire project kicked off with me thinking about tackling Dress (here's a live performance of that song that ROCKS btw) and I demoed the froo froo dress that went on sale at Junebug recently, but I got too literal with the video and didn't think I'd find something to use to emulate the star background she lays on, lol. That's when I said ya know what, these other songs might be better to play with since the interpretations are far more open.

That's probably my biggest challenge in all of this - I get too hung up on details. I need a vanity. No, not any vanity, a wooden vanity, in this shape, with these features. Omg I go nuts shopping. Instead, I need to learn to just grab *A* vanity and keep it moving! Room 509 took hours to decorate for that reason until I said OKAY YA KNOW WHAT...lol.

I'm most looking forward to taking on The Wind (man I love that story...it resonates, lol), and The Garden. I may tackle Catherine De Barra from both perspectives, as well.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

I'm slackinnnng, but finally finished the Angelene series, @Scylla Rhiadra. Well, I actually finished it weeks ago, but acknowledging that and uploading to Flickr would put pressure on me to immediately start on the next one, which I was still shopping for.🙃

Anyhoo, I completely ignored the video (did you even know there was a video?! I didn't!) and went with my own thing in this case. A four-part photo series, because can't stop won't stop (no really, just wanted to capture the shift from melancholy to optimism across the story).

If I can figure out how to turn my actual skybox surround into a workable photo set without any major disasters unfolding (like deleting parts of mah damn house), I'll work on The Wind next.

 

 

 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

38 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I'm slackinnnng, but finally finished the Angelene series, @Scylla Rhiadra. Well, I actually finished it weeks ago, but acknowledging that and uploading to Flickr would put pressure on me to immediately start on the next one, which I was still shopping for.🙃

Anyhoo, I completely ignored the video (did you even know there was a video?! I didn't!) and went with my own thing in this case. A four-part photo series, because can't stop won't stop (no really, just wanted to capture the shift from melancholy to optimism across the story).

If I can figure out how to turn my actual skybox surround into a workable photo set without any major disasters unfolding (like deleting parts of mah damn house), I'll work on The Wind next.

 

 

 

 

These are beautiful -- and, especially the last one, poignant! (You see optimism in the song?)

The vast majority of us aren't sex workers, but I think most of us have had that sense of what, or who, we're looking for imagined far away somewhere else -- and not visible through a window.

I didn't know there was a video! It's a pretty good one -- the transformations of her appearance (and mood, and meaning) are kinda well done.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

7 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

These are beautiful -- and, especially the last one, poignant! (You see optimism in the song?)

Thank you! And yeeees, I do!

I found a great album review from *peeks* 2014 written by a female rock music reviewer that goes into some deep analysis of each song on the album. I've been using it to help visualize some scenes I want to tackle. Of course, her opinion is solely her opinion and we all know how many dozens of ways you can interpret PJ, but I found myself agreeing with so much of what she wrote.

On Angelene, here's what she had to say:

While some have expressed the opinion that the many female characters who populate Is This Desire? represent different aspects of PJ’s personality, proof of that theory remains a secret between the rather reticent songwriter and her therapist. What I hear is incredible empathy for the kind of woman who is often denied empathy, the woman who sells her body and goes through the pantomime of love without receiving any. PJ sings this one in her deeply pleasing natural contralto, mostly in a tired, world-weary voice with a touch of Oklahoma in her phrasing. The arrangement alternates between soft and not-quite-loud, with her vocal in the first verse supported only by simple guitar chords. It’s only in the verses of hope that her voice rises out of its torpor and shows that Angelene still has the life force within her. The laid-back country feel of the song is enhanced with good thick bass from Mick Harvey that gives us the sense that Angelene is digging deep into her soul to find meaning. The last line of the song shows the care PJ put into the lyrics—it seems to repeat the opening line “My first name, Angelene,” but what she really sings is “My first name is Angelene,” a more affirmative acceptance of self than the tone of the first line, which sounds like someone mindlessly filling out a form or trying to recall her name while suffering from a hangover. “Angelene” is a tremendously moving and insightful song combining great power with subtlety, and tells you right from the start that PJ has taken her art to a higher level.

I had to listen to the end a hundred times because I never noticed that, but I do believe she's right about that last line. On the album and demo versions, I can hear a subtle "name's," though in some live versions, it's just "name" - she repeats it as the opening line. I opted to run with the album version.

Also, given what she said about "a more affirmative acceptance of self than the tone of the first line," I opted to make my version less about her sitting around and waiting for rescue by said unknown man two thousand miles away and instead...notice the bag and guitar and the window. She outtie, y'all. Over it. Done. Off to make her own new future. Given the dark, she's not seeing a whole lot beyond that window, but the light from that impossible moon is showing the way. I could've probably put her in shoes, but after forgetting, told myself they'd just be by the front door anyway. I did NOT feel like adjusting the scene yet AGAIN. 🤣

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

The last line of the song shows the care PJ put into the lyrics—it seems to repeat the opening line “My first name, Angelene,” but what she really sings is “My first name is Angelene,” a more affirmative acceptance of self than the tone of the first line, which sounds like someone mindlessly filling out a form or trying to recall her name while suffering from a hangover.

This is a really good point, that hadn't occurred to me. Just the affirmation of her name at the end of the song, regardless of the phrasing used, is a kind of defiance at least.

4 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Also, given what she said about "a more affirmative acceptance of self than the tone of the first line," I opted to make my version less about her sitting around and waiting for rescue by said unknown man two thousand miles away and instead...notice the bag and guitar and the window. She outtie, y'all. Over it. Done. Off to make her own new future. Given the dark, she's not seeing a whole lot beyond that window, but the light from that impossible moon is showing the way.

And why not?

The guitar is a nice touch too, because it reinforces the sense that she can create something from this out of her own experience -- a kind of affirmation through art.

Ok, I'm sold!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

This is a really good point, that hadn't occurred to me. Just the affirmation of her name at the end of the song, regardless of the phrasing used, is a kind of defiance at least.

Isn't it funny how we can listen to songs for THIS many years and still have no idea what the dang lyrics are?! 🤣 That one little "is" made my jaw hit the floor and it changed the entire song for me! Though, I do question why she sometimes leaves it out in live versions. Surely it's intentional, but whyyyyy?

 

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

The guitar is a nice touch too, because it reinforces the sense that she can create something from this out of her own experience -- a kind of affirmation through art.

Ok, I'm sold!

Also funny that I kept hearing it as acoustic guitar, but it's electric in live versions. Ya know...whatever. Either works. 😂

And this is one of the easier/more straightforward songs! Just wait until Electric Light oh my god.

You should do one of these, btw! I'd love to see what you come up with and how you interpret her songs. Tackle something from Rid of Me!!!!111

[Scylla Rhiadra]

54 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

ou should do one of these, btw! I'd love to see what you come up with and how you interpret her songs. Tackle something from Rid of Me!!!!111

Fair enough. Let me think about it!

(Can I find a pose of someone licking my legs, though?)