Mood board of Paul Outerbridge’s work –

I think that these images represent the selection of Still Life work which Paul Outerbridge had created within his career, it ranges from simplicity to complex abstraction. I really like the simplicity of many of these images because many of them feature one or two objects as the main focus of the photograph, which I want to incorporate into my work as well. He also uses lighting well within his work because he is able to use it to create spotlights on certain objects, such as his egg work, or uses lighting to create bolder lines and shadows in his still life photos.

Research on Paul Outerbridge –

• Born in 1896, and served in the US Army in 1917.
• Started as an illustrator and designer before he got into photography.
• Enrolled in the Clarence H White school of photography at Colombia University in 1921.
• Worked with different publications such as Vanity Fair and Vogue.
• Moved to Paris in 1925, and befriended many different artits/designers such as Edward Steichen, where they went on to build one of the largest and well equipped photographic studios of all time.
• He returned back to New York by 1929, where he opened his own studio producing commercial and art photography, this was where he was also able to start experimenting with colour in his photography using the tri-colour process.
• By 1940, he published a book called, ‘Photographing in Colour’.
• Retired as a commercial photographer in 1943, where he moved to Hollywood and married, but later died in 1958.

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3 Key quotes –

To gather further information on Outerbridge’s still life photography, I used this website for reference as well as this website. This first website provided me with an extra insight into how and why Outerbridge may have created some of his images as the rise of still life photography grew, and the second website was an online article from the ‘New York Times’ written by Ken Johnson who offers a different view towards Outerbridge’s work which I will use in my image analysis.

1.

“A photograph, Outerbridge wrote, “should do something to its beholder; either give a more complete appreciation of beauty, or, if nothing else, even a good mental kick in the pants.””

This quote explains how Paul Outebridge explains what effect that a photo should have on the people who are viewing it, it could either be visually appealing or creating a distinct message throughout it depending on the context of the photograph. I have chosen to use it because this is the effect that I also want to create within my work, from taking inspiration from many of Outerbridge’s still life work as he experiments with black and white/colour abstraction well within his work.

2.

“Even when platinum and palladium emulsion materials became scarce in the years after World War I, Outerbridge insisted on using them to craft prints whose tonal depth and warmth trump the more meagre materiality of conventional processes.”

This quote explains the photographic process that Outerbridge used within his work to create coloured/black and white photographs, this is because colour was still quite a new concept in photography which many photographers were yet to experience well with. The use of this photographic process is highly evident within his work as you can see how he experiments with tonal depth within his photos and I have chosen to use this quote because I also want to experiment with the different black and white tones within my photograph in my photoshoots as I can use the black and white technique inputted on the camera and further edit it within Lightroom.

3.

“Throughout the 1930s, his riveting photographs of dining rooms, tabletop still lifes and displays of necessities like sandwiches and toilet paper—commissioned by clients that included House Beautiful, McCall’s and Scott Paper—attracted attention by offering up heightened visual experiences that bordered on the hyperreal.”

This quote explains the range of images, regarding the theme of still life, that Outerbridge created throughout his career and the impact which they have had on society. This is because the quote explains how many of his photos have provided people with a range of different experiences which are hyper realistic in how many of them appear, especially in his abstract still life work. I have chosen to use this quote because I think that it successfully discusses the impact of Outerbridge’s work towards others and how many of his works border along the lines of dreamlike still life photography.

Image analysis –

This photograph taken by Paul Outerbridge in 1927, as a part of his ‘American’ collection is an example of his still life images which he has created throughout his career. This image features a glass and bottle and experiments with different techniques such as the tonal depth which can be seen in the background of the photograph as it is shown to be quite dark which creates a heavy contrast against the bottles which are appearing to be light in how they appear as they are most likely clear. These bottles stand out further through the use of the shadows which fall beneath them in the photograph too, I really like this effect because the shadows create these unique patterns on the surface which they are on due to the unusual and unique formation of the bottle as well. Referencing Paul Outerbridge’s work for inspiration in my own work, where I will be focussing on how the light creates different reflections and shadows in glassware/different kitchenware, I will consider how the light falls on the bottles and the shadows which they will create through what objects I decide to use, I will also experiment within colour and black and white because I think that the use of coloured glasses could create patterns that are abstract in how they appear on the background which I will use. Other works by Paul Outerbridge such as ‘Images de Deauville’, produced in 1936 which hold an abstract view in commercial photography have been criticised and in an online article from the ‘New York Times’ written by Ken Johnson, which I referenced above, it discusses Outerbridge’s career and journey throughout time. The article begins by saying that Outerbridge was amongst some of the most successful commercial photographers in his time but as times changed there are many critiques towards Paul Outerbridge’s work. In 1973, the Museum of Modern Art director called John Szarkowski wrote a book called “Looking at Photographs”, and this is where he called Outerbridge’s work to be referenced towards “commercial illustrations” and Johnson says that many people argued that colour photography appear to be ‘tacky’ as it didn’t hold the uniformed and organised look that appeared to be seen in many black and white photography. By the 1970s, the popularity of colour rose up again and Outerbridge’s work began to come back into focus as and he was regarded as one of the 20th century’s most successful photographers for his work.