Happy Calf In His Own World

Who can tell what joy this little one feels... His tiny realm is filed with wonders and perhaps unknown peril. He seems safe enough for the moment, maybe I worry to much.

White Cicada

People that know me know that I honor my subjects when they are living beings and I try not to harm them, so rest assured this guy had passed on when I found him. long before he became the center piece of this scene. I love the odd juxtaposition... I don't know what possessed me to set this up... I just saw it in my head one day.

Web In The Sun

I saw the sunlight playing on a spider web this morning and was inspired. I took about 15 exposures and this is a composite of the best elements of several.

William Tell Trick

Several years ago, we attended a party at our dear friend Leslie Lee's home. She was dressed very cleverly as Joan Vollmer. I secretly captured this image while she was in her somewhat circa 1950s kitchen with night vision so as to not need a flash and I could not help but enhance the bullet wound and give the image a faded false color look.

What is Tableau Photography?

Well, strictly speaking its not really what I am doing here...

Not much comes up when you search for "tableau" in the context of photography, but I will give you my rough definition. It is a dressed scene involving one or more people that attempts to tell a story in a single image. So in its loosest definition, a lot of photography would fall under this heading... if you have ever planed how you would make your exit from a wedding with the pictures in mind... you were setting up a tableau shot. 

Tableau Vivant is the more strict definition and refers to the recreation of works of art in live performance or photography. Check the history of it here... [Link] and this is what most people think of when they here the term. It is becoming forgotten as an art form, but actually we do it all the time when we emulate great works of art or pose people and contrive environments in ways that tell a story, we are just sometimes unaware that it has a name and a history. 

Of course what I am doing is quite different in that I am working with miniature, inanimate objects, constructed landscapes and creatures as opposed to people in costume and full sized sets. Still, I feel my recent work has some of the traits, mostly in the fact that I attempt to create a visual realm that will inspire the viewer to invent a story to explain what they are seeing.

In fact, I would almost hope the work demands the story of them. : )

I think there is some reference in the past for miniature tableau photography. For a short period some photographers would create elaborate sets in miniature to achieve exposures that otherwise would be impossible due to the limitations of the equipment of the time. I think my work owes more to that tradition than Tableau Vivant.

There are a few other artist that I have recently discovered doing work I consider similar to mine in the fact that they built environments in miniature. but they seem to be very few and far between. after I get some more of my own work up I will also point people to the awesome work of these other artists as well.