Seeing the light.

Shadows seem to be on everyone’s minds lately. Here is Jess’ take on the subject, fueled by too much coffee and too much time to think…

I recently experimented with a painted backdrop and a collection of my favourite vintage glasses positioned in the early afternoon sun. The effect of light hitting glass has been captured by photographers over and over, but I was eager to have a crack at it myself. The image I created is one I absolutely love, seen above, but it left me musing beyond the pretty colours and shapes. The glasses can exist without the shadow but the shadow can’t exist without the glasses and the mighty power of light. Trippy. If you would allow me to indulge…

I did Philosophy 101 in my first year of university and was really terrible at it. The concepts were too big for me to grasp AND the class fell on a Friday morning. Of course I was going to be a dud philosophiser

Surprisingly however, my 18-year-old unfocused brain did retain one little nugget of gold; the idea that a dent (like a scratch or a crack) can’t exist without a surface. A dent only has an identity because of the existence of for example a car fender and the physical force that hit it to create the dent. The concept is based on the teachings of Descartes, I think, but that’s where the memory of the lesson gets hazy again.

In my weekend object styling session with vintage glasses and natural light, the version of the glass with no physical boundary (i.e. the shadow) is elemental to the composition of the image, even though the shadows can’t exist without the object and the rays of sun. The ‘subject’ is disappearing as the day moves towards the night. The focus is fleeting.

As Keanu Reeves is wont to say: ‘Whoah’.

ANYWAY. Before we get too bogged down in my half baked PHIL101 ramblings and we reconfirm my status as a dud philosopher, let’s enjoy what is just simply a damn beautiful subject for photography!