Mary Ellen Bartley is a still life photographer, and is a great inspiration when it comes to deciding what objects to photograph and how to align them as the objects she choses always comliment eatchother and have similar tones. she choses objects that go very well together when it comes to shape and colour. she stick to being manimalistic chosing objects that are quite simple in design like books and containers and cups .
during lockdown in 2020 she gave herself a project to photoraph the same thing over and over again, she named this project 7 things again and again. she actplained in the vidio bellow this project in thurder detail.
from what I have learned from the video and her project is that with each day she desired to expand he creativity, using back lighting, montages and different forms of lighting whereas at the start she just stuck to capturing the objects in different positions. through this project not only she learned but also inspired people to think outside the box and that photographing still life doesn’t have to be boring. There are many opportunities to photograph objects creatively producing interesting and exiting photographs.
The objects in this picture are simple when it comes to their shape, because the objects aren’t rigid or have much detail to them, what can be seen is a lot of straight parallel or horizontal lines correlating to each other as well as opposing. There are no rough edges or cracks making the photograph appear calm, smooth and unlayered. This is because the are not many layers when it comes to a photograph. There is a plain colour for a background which its colours corelate to the objects, making them not stand out as much as if a more vibrant or even black background was used they would. There are many greys and whites however what stands out the most is a soft yellow container which is the only object of the most different colour. What is interesting in this photograph is how given the fact that the objects are simple and so is the background and colours of them, the light plays an important part in the photograph . Using a book she blocked the light source and placed objects inside the shadows of the book as well as the toilet paper on the outside. By doing this she created an image which is exiting and interesting to look at as she found a balance between whites and blacks and used light to her advantage. What she also put in the final image is a little square of the same or similar object on top of the white toilet paper which is hardly noticeable but is an additional element of the image. With this photograph she showed even what can be said by most, ordinary objects and plain , unexciting colours can produce an interesting image depending how creatively the picture is taken, she shown her creativity when blocking the light by the book and on top of that when she included a tiny square. What I’ve gathered from this is the photographers input and the way the picture is taken make an image interesting especially if their creativity is shown, not what is being photographed, although this also has a big part.