Rainbow Bones
Surprised?
Posted by Paul Ricciardi (Rock Hill, United States) on 31 January 2007 in People & Portrait.
So I'm interrupting your regularly scheduled broadcast for something actually interesting. Seems like everytime I try to do something with plants I get really bored with it and cut it off prematurely. I did it with the "Organics" series and I've done it again with the "Rainbow." But it's ok, I'm putting up what needs to go up, I'm putting up photos that are actually representative of my abilities and of my emotional state.
This is one of a series of 24 I shot yesterday in a bathroom. I was really quite despondent, things are falling apart for me right now and I'm not sure how much more of life I can take. It's mostly a matter of not being able to make it on my own right now, which is unsurprising considering it all. Those of you who've been around here long enough to remember my move will know what I mean.
Anyways, I had never really been in love with my Olympus. It was nice, it was convenient being digital and all, and I was glad to have it, but I viewed it more as a modern, sleek, sexy temptress and I viewed my multiple film cameras as my true loves. Yet yesterday changed all of that for me. I learned how to effectively use my camera finally...I let myself learn to love it, let myself have a conversation with it, I let it, let her, become part of me. I think that's vital to any photographer. The photographer and the camera must have a relationship, there must be conversation, they must stop pushing apart and pull together to work in unison. The camera should not be a tool it should be an extension of the body, an extension of the eye. It's a somewhat Zen philosophy but that's just how I do things.
So, yes, I'll post a few of the highlights from the self portrait session and then I'll post all 24 together so you can see what various ideas I came up with. And, yes, this is the first time you AM3 goers have ever seen my face. Well, part of it at least, you'll see the rest later. I felt like I needed to do that, I felt like it was vital for me to do a self portrait where I wasn't obscured, where I was exposed...and it helped. I spent 30 minutes locked in a bathroom with a camera, and for those 30 minutes the world stopped turning. It was almost like I was able to sleep without sleeping for sleep is, for me, the escape from the world at the end of the day.
