House on the Hill

Posted by Paul Ricciardi (Rock Hill, United States) on 12 February 2007 in Architecture and Portfolio.

I haven't been around much the past few days. I've been really busy between finding a "real job" and putting together a few photographs for a gallery exhibition. Which is exciting. But anyways, I've been photographing a lot lately, we're talking hundreds of frames here in the past day or two in an attempt to perfect a technique I've developed. We all know I have a love of the subtle, narrative, and evocative, and I've been working hard on a style of photography that yields a certain dreamlike quality to the images. I'm not post processing these nor are they being processed specially, this is all natural, straight out of my camera, and I think that what I've come up with is, in my opinion, quite nice. And I never say that about my own images. I'm pleased, though, especially because these are totally uneditted, and, well, I just don't like photoshopped images. I have such a volume of photographs that I'm not sure how I'll ever manage to get them all here to AM3.

Anyways, they'll all show their faces from time to time. I'll start it off with this one, it was one of my earliest experiments and, while it isn't as perfect as my later ones, I'm still attracted to it. I'm actually not sure what this building is, all I know is that the contrast between the squat, square, linear structure and the wild, jagged, hill it sat upon was a juxtaposition I could not leave un-photographed. Tell me what you think, welcome to the dream world.

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Comments (7)

Peter Martin Jorgensen from Aalborg, Denmark

Great and, in my opnion, kinda creepy shot.
I've just been reading som HP Lovecraft and this image has some of the dreamlike quality of his works.
Very nice indeed.

A bit of sensor dust?

12 Feb 2007 4:52pm

objectif-plume from Belgium

très ntéressante image. j'aime

12 Feb 2007 5:26pm

Iqsr from Paris, France

There is something, well a lot of things actually, in your your work that i deeply love.
There's agitation, violence, presence, as if your mind was never resting.
Even in the most simple things you get in the box, sth is coming out of the pic, as if you were looking for a something only you could tell, even though you might not know what it could be. (was that clear?)
I see talent in what you do.
Well, let's say: it speaks to me ;)

12 Feb 2007 7:51pm

Chris Sullivan from Melbourne, Australia

You've managed to make a style of your own which is something i'm in awe of and have been struggling to do; and it's just not post-production techniques (or in this case none at all) but a very unique photographic style. Knowing this is all in-camera is very impressive, and it does show; this photo has a very organic feel to it that suites the scene very well. When I first saw this photo I thought of a Shakespearian landscape, as in the heath from Macbeth which I imagine to look like this. Looking forward for the following photos, congrats on the exhibit too!

12 Feb 2007 11:52pm

Duncan Galbraith from kyoto, Japan

This is really something else. Reminded me a little of German expressionist films of the 20's and 30's in the use of light and shadow. Its as much about what you cant see as what you can. It's like when Ginsberg said about Dylan, 'its what he leaves out, the spaces inside the songs' (im paraphrasing from memory (inner sleeve notes to Desire album) that allow the audience to construct whats not there, it gives the audience room to breath and to create themselves. Most like this image. For me it's about the selfs desire to have and to also recoil. The desire for something greater, perhaps unattainable, perhaps not, the desire of something which must be hard fought and hard sought to attain, the distance between you and the structure, and the perspective reinforces the notion of distant goals, and unclear paths, it's like groping in the dark for a means to an end, the end perhaps being too far for one to reach. In contrast, the selfs instincts to flee, to fear and as I mentioned to recoil in the face of the unknown, the antithesis of Nietzches 'experience everything/superman theory' where lack of knowledge is the root of fear and experience is the root of knowledge. An intriguing concept (and not one which I whole heartedly embrace but I see its merits and take from it what I can). Fear being desires partner in the image, in a more literal way for me, as the shot seems to conjure up feelings of dread, of a place I wouldnt wish to venture into, as the previous commentators have mentioned, Macbeth, Lovecraft etc.all are good frames of reference and I agree whole heartedly. stellar stuff. Ill be back.

13 Feb 2007 4:48pm

H.O from Victoria, Canada

keep going paul I really love your style :)

14 Feb 2007 6:57am

Craig Persel from Montreal, Canada

Another great "mystery" shot and very expressionistic.

15 Feb 2007 1:32pm

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