Comments on Fluffytek Art Blog: Sex on a Stalk

personally i get turned on by any porn. hey will h...

2008-06-07T02:10:00.000+01:00

personally i get turned on by any porn. hey will have you ever asked any of your models to pose with veggies, that would be extremely hot. if your going to ask a model please take into consideration id like to see danielle pose with veggies. have her get more aggressive with herself.

I've always been drawn to Weston's photography but...

2007-11-10T01:18:00.000Z

I've always been drawn to Weston's photography but I don't find his vegetable images sexual or very remeniscent of his nudes. I have to agree with willt on what makes Weston's work magical.. it's his ability to capture a large range of sexual tones and textures and his monumental aestheticism.
As for art, well, it's first a verb, and then a noun. I don't remember who said this but "the artist goes through the creation process and the finished work is merely a representation of the artist's experience". Who are we to question what someone says is their "art".
Back to the pepper, I did a photo of a pepper with a Bok Choy leaf (in my blog) and I won 3rd prize in a juried show. I think it's art!!!

You did ask...The first pepper looks great because...

2007-11-09T08:34:00.000Z

You did ask...

The first pepper looks great because as an image it has excellent composition, it fills and makes use of the 2d space it occupies very well. There are repeated flowing lines in the shape that can suggest many things as you say. I can see a sitting nude facing away to the right with arms above his head. I can see a face with strong eyebrow ridges and a flared nose. It could be melted wax, or muscle, or sculpture. Or just a pepper. The thing is that the lighting brings out shape and form that can be read many ways. The multiple readings possible have many emotional connotations, but it *is* an emotional image. We read meaning into an image according to our own perceptions and imaginations. But the person recording the image can forsee some of the possibilities and present them to us more directly to make them more visible. This is where good composition and lighting come in, that gives emphasis to what you want to draw out.

The Second image, the aubergine, simply has less possibilities for interpretation. The best I could say for it is that the lighting brings out it's sheen and shape. But it doesn't suggest lots of other meanings. As a 2D composition it's not bad. I remember studying the rules of 2D layout and composition at art college and discovering what common patterns there are, and how you can make the same image look strong, lighter, harsher, calmer, uncomfortable - just by altering the relative position and size of nondescript elements. As an arrangement of 2d shapes, this is fine and dandy. But it's uninspiring.

The final image fails to work for me, not because of what it shows, but because it doesn't work as an exercise in 2d composition. It shows thinking in 3d, but not enough thought about 2d.

It's odd, I've followed many of the links to other photographers mentioned on your blog and tried to come up with why some work for me and many just don't. Often, it comes down to 2 principles.

Can I see with my own eyes the person to person connection that existed between the photographer and model, or subject? This is not the same as what the photographer thinks is a connection. S/he might believe that there was a great vibe on the day of the shoot. My question is can *I* as an external viewer see and relate to that connection? Without that, the shared understanding of what passed between the two is lost to me as a viewer. The performance of the moment is gone and all that is left is a sculpture, or worse still a dead shape. This is most prevalent when the model just doesn't look "present" at the scene. I am always drawn to the face and body language to see if the model seems to be actually into what s/he is doing.

Second, does the photographer have any sense of 2d space within the 3d photograph? Does s/he understand composition and the need to think in both 3d and 2d at the same time? I've seen many a picture and thought "for heavens sake, take an evening class in the theory of design and you could transform these". There is a reason why fine artists have study art theory throughout the centuries - it works. The same rules of balance and form apply to not only paintings but any form of visual layout, from magazine design, typography to - most certainly - photography. And I really think that's a vital step in the transition between amateurs and professional status - moving beyond understanding the physical technique to a mastery of aesthetic technique as well, until it become instinct. A very few people have that aesthetic understanding naturally (lucky bastards). The rest of us have to work at it.

So to answer your original question as to why the first image works and the third doesn't - it's all down to success in the composition.

There's something about Weston's vegetable art tha...

2007-11-05T04:20:00.000Z

There's something about Weston's vegetable art that is indeed erotic--more so than many present-day examples of fine art nudes and erotica.

As one who long ago moved away from film, I must say that part of Weston's magic--setting aside his monumental aestheticism--is the enormous range of sensual tones and textures displayed in his work, so far not easily, or at all, reproducible by digital means.

Yea Lin!Coming out of the closet! I adore veggie ...

2007-11-04T19:52:00.000Z

Yea Lin!

Coming out of the closet!

I adore veggie porn.

One of my friends once said that he loves a guy who can really tell when a vegetable or fruit is ripe. If he sees a guy feeling up a melon in the grocery store, he's uncontrolably turned on. I totally identify.

For me, it's watching grown men eat huge, huge salads. That really gets me going. Luckily, I have this entertainment every morning of my life!

a

of course, besides peppers and other veggies, west...

2007-11-04T18:06:00.000Z

of course, besides peppers and other veggies, weston also shot nudes.