I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that I was walking around a photography exhibition with my family when I realised the work on display was my own. It was not work I had previously made, this was a complete invention of my sleep-dormant mind. The exhibition consisted of life-size 4x5 photographs of members of my family and friends, with their hands folded and their eyes closed, pasted to the floor. The photographs were black and white, the most prominent was a photograph of my grandmother. The photographs were incredibly detailed, with white backgrounds, very similar to Richard Avedon's iconic images (below). I remember thinking in the dream the allusion to stone scarcophagi, such as those can be found in churches, with knights and people of the sort on them, eyes closed, hands folded. The images were pasted on the floor because the photograph had been taken hovering above the subject, as they themselves lay on the floor.
This dream prompted me to start thinking whether I could actually do this as a project. Ideally I would like to experiment with a 4x5 camera but, for the moment, I will be using the bronica and 400iso colour film as that's what's in the camera now. The first subject will be my grandmother, I'm hoping that the larger format of film will help to capture the detail and texture that are so inherent in Avedon's photos and my dream. Once the colour film is finished, and depending on the results, I will try using b/w film, whether to use high or low iso I haven't quite decided yet, but the likelihood is a very low iso (managed to find some ilford 120 50iso but 125iso will probably do) so as to capture the clearest and most detailed image. Will update as I go along with this image. Watch this space.
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