The Influence of Memory

I’ve spent much of the last four months photographing bits and pieces on a small chest on our sunporch, affectionately called my Square Foot Studio. At first focused solely on playing with my Fuji macro lens, I used whatever light fell upon the wooden top and photographed the dead flowers and leaves being washed out of the jar that week.

I began to play with the light that changed throughout the day, popping in and out of the office and darkroom as the mood struck. The more I worked, the more interested in the work I became. It took on a life of its own. I added shells and bones and more dying leaves and flowers as the garden bloomed its seasonal bounty. I brought them into this studio and watched and waited. Then I remembered the Edward Weston Two Shells image on a poster I had first seen in college. 

It is incredible how memories of photographs can affect our current work. In the early 1980’s I was working for the local newspaper and a dorm parent at Maryville College. There’s was a faculty darkroom in the Science Center that only one member used, Dr. Randy Shields. After working with me in for several hours in the darkroom, as well as stopping by several times unannounced, I gained his approval and was allowed unlimited access. Hanging in the darkroom was the poster of Two Shells, advertising Weston’s work at the Silver Light Gallery in Seattle. I looked at that poster every time I worked in Dr. Shields’s darkroom.

Weston’s image is beautiful and iconic. Like many, I tried my hand at imitating it. I remember Weston’s shells glowing with an inner light that made them magical. My attempts were dead and lifeless, and my images didn’t work. I moved on to photograph other objects over the decades and only recently understood that I did not have enough experience when I tried imitating Weston 40 years ago. 

This new work did not start as an attempt to imitate Edward Weston’s images, yet is clearly influenced by his portrayal of the objects. I am creating images that I like and that I see as large platinum prints. Using the Fuji GFX 50’s bracket focusing feature allows me to create the images I see in my head. Sharp, detailed images of organic subjects floating in a sea of black. Life emerging from the void. It is as if the objects themselves are allowing me this intimate examination to see and share their design and structure. 

I hope soon to share them with you as large platinum prints.

Stay safe and find inspiration to keep working!

Tillman