The Mighty Chilli

Had a free moment in the studio yesterday just for me which makes a change,
decided to try and create a set of graphic art chilli images,
See the collection Here.

Some examples:







Cheers

Gary,

I like your photography. It's simple, clean, precise, lean and very humerous. Give the last one to Georg and to the guy whose nation "does not have any of those people" (ie homosexuals) and we'd have a major chilli war!

Asher

Tell us how you you lit the chili peppers and also how and from where you added the fire?

Details

The fire was from a local house that burned down (no one was injured)
This provided a massive range of fire images I use for montaging.

The Chilli's were taken in the Studio. A Light tent cube in the middle of the studio,
with one main light bounced off a white roof to provide the soft overhead light,
and some shots with a light bounced off of the wall behind me to provide a tiny amount of fill in, I could use my body to block the light that I didnt want and produce the effects I was after.

All shots were taken on black or white perspex (which is a nightmare to keep clean from dust).

The montage was just placing the fire infront of the chilli, then using a low opacity eraser and black paint brush,
merged the image in.

I do have some cloud brushes that could produce the clouded smoke, but haven't used them yet.

Nice work on the montage, Gary, I love it. Cheers, Mike

Black smoke on black background… sublime!

Wiki

Fantastic images Gary, love them, particularly the smoking ones!

This is so impressive and creative!



In my mind at least, it's a perfect metaphor to our war crazyness derived from exploiting our ability to play with fire in excercising displays of masculinity. The dimensions of missiles on parade, and the pride of the owners of this firepower, attests to this unfortunate combination.

Your chili power says it all!

Asher

Gary, very nice pictures indeed! I particularly like the second one.

Asher Kelman said:

In my mind at least, it's a perfect metaphor to our war crazyness derived from exploiting our ability to play with fire in excercising displays of masculinity. The dimensions of missiles on parade, and the pride of the owners of this firepower, attests to this unfortunate combination.

Click to expand...

Wow, and here I was simply thinking "hot chilli"

Very Edward Westonish

Looks very Edward Weston to me with Chili peppers instead of Bell Peppers - except for the chili on fire....all are typical of some of art gallery images you find in New Mexico. Very well done!

Thanks

Thanks for all the feedback,

I find it amazing what people see in pictures, art is really a personal thing, even the simplest images mean something quite different to each of us, really incredible.

G

Kathy Rappaport said:

Looks very Edward Weston to me with Chili peppers instead of Bell Peppers - except for the chili on fire....all are typical of some of art gallery images you find in New Mexico. Very well done!

Click to expand...

Ah Kathy, you are perhaps, missing my point or else overlooking a little the unique symbolism of the photograph with destructive fire that had been observed by Gary to have burnt a house down!

These pictures do not show the chili peppers on fire. Rather they contain that fire destructive to humans! That is why I remarked on their symbolism as missiles for war!

This constitutes a startling progression from previous representations of the bell peppers "typical of some of art gallery images you find in New Mexico". Of course, this could have been done many times before, and then I'd give those guys credit instead! Gary has taken the subject much further.

Whether or not Gary was aware of the symbolism, the threat of nuclear extinction is ingrained into our psyche. Immediately our subconscious knows the meaning even though we may not understand it on a conscious level. This is how our ideas become infectious, memes that spread from person to person so easily. This is like a crucifix, that does not have to be explained. We see a stark tree on the top of a hill, 2/3 of the height of the picture sky in "Catholic Blue", of many famous images, and that tree is important far beyond it's dead wood and ordinary esthetic interest. Why is that? The two thousand year history of the Crucifix acts to provide energy to an otherwise merely interesting old tree in great light. One does not have to believe in Jesus, the mechanism of assigning importance, even reluctantly occurs whether you like it or not. That's why we have to always question what we value and cherish what we confirm.

Using the fire of a blazing house is not a neutral matter even if the photographer thinks he is merely adding an interesting element to spice up the image. One cannot ignore the provenance of that fire and the shape of the chili pepper!

OF course, I take a huge risk in being sharply repudiated by Gary, but hey, these are just my own take on the matter!

Asher

More symbolic

Asher,

I am just appreciating the art for the sake of it's beauty and not looking at the deeper symbolism and possibilites of their meaning...which of course varies by viewer.

Maybe I just came from the local restaurant serving South of the Border Cuisine and had a spicy experience and so my meaning is not the same as yours while you were watching television of the reports coming from the UN Assembly's meeting on the Middle East.

Kathy Rappaport said:

Asher,

I am just appreciating the art for the sake of it's beauty and not looking at the deeper symbolism and possibilites of their meaning...which of course varies by viewer.

Click to expand...

For sure Kathy,

Most viewers look at art that way. My point is that the deeper ideas are already transmitted to people like you who have read about Hiroshema, Volcanoes, Pompei and seen footage of V-2 Rockets, Bombings as well as military parades by Kremlin, North Korea and Iran showing off their missiles if they were so endowed by God!

One does not need to realize what is happening when we see symbols. You don't have to agree to admit those ideas into your head. They enter anyway! That's how they work. All the stored meaning still acts in the Cathedral of the mind, displaying itself to the active subconscious mind to influence our own reactions to the photograph. We may not know it or admit it, but we are altered by what is culturally connected to everything we need to evaluate.

Still we can admire the pretty nature of the work or think of eating out Mexican!

So there!

Asher