My recreation of "Icarus" is definitely the closest out of all of my recreations. I have all of the necessary elements in it and the overall composition looks the same. I wasn't able to get the exact type of skeleton that Shelly used, but I think it's pretty close. For the "Flying Monkey" recreation I probably could have done something about the coloring, but didn't think to while in Photoshop for some reason. I'd say the general positioning of the figure in the photograph is pretty good. I wasn't able to get as strong of a flare as Shelly, but you can still see a tiny one. I wasn't able to figure out a good way to make the background of "The Art of Adventure" recreation, so I opted to just severely blur it. I, also, wasn't able to get my hands on the exact items that are pictured in the original photograph, so I used what I could find. to get the sun's reflection in the water I used one that I had captured from one of my other attempts at recreating "The Art of Adventure." By the way all of the original images by Shelly Corbett come form her website (which is the first source listed, they're just from a different page).
None of the images are exactly like those that they are based off of, but I think I did a good job using what I could get my hands on. I am especially proud of my work because at the start of the day I wasn't feeling good and didn't think that I was going to be able to take the pictures, but I did that as well as edit the all in one night/evening. I would like to say that there was one picture in particular that I thought I was going to nail because I had the exact items I needed in order to successfully recreate one of Shelly's images, but I couldn't find them even after going through all of my old toys. I guess the "story" that these images tell is one of trial and error, and being ok with the end result because you know you did all that you could at the time, even though it might not be the ending you wanted. You wouldn't believe how many time I did Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur during the editing process. I'm not really sure how this process has made me grow as a photographer (yet).
Research
Shelly Corbett was born at some point in the mid-twentieth century (an educated guess because the information was unavailable). She has been working out of Seattle for the entirety of her career. She got her first camera, a Kodak Starflash 120, when she was nine. She got her BFA in photography at the University of Washington in 1987. In 2014, she co-founded a company called StuckInPlastic.
In her photographs you can clearly tell what/who the focus is because everything else is blurred. Lens flares appear very often in her work. Her work has been described as a "nexus between photography and painting by combing her photographs with encaustic, an early painting medium that combines beeswax with oil paint." I'm not sure what art history style I could compare her images to. "Voyeurism has always been a consistent theme, and this photo series is no different, as I aim to show the hidden, secret life of these popular toys."
From what I've gathered, the main idea behind her recent images is getting back in touch with the world and our childhood; "[...]her latest work focuses on toys and how we use them to connect to the present and the past," (and), "Corbett’s work features themes such as vulnerability, human connections, a thirst for adventure and an idealized childhood." In a way her work is personal, "her work reflects a personal journey to understand her place in the world." I think the previous sentences pretty much cover her philosophy.
This photographer has influence my work by giving me the idea to use the vast collection of toys I have from when I was a kid. In my personal life she has gotten me to revisit said toys, and just relish in the nostalgia. I had gotten rid of a good chunk of them when we thought we were going to have to move (long story), which has made what I kept even more precious. I has been years since any of them have seen the light of day (they've been in bins in the basement untouched and alone). Simpler times.
Shelly Corbett was born at some point in the mid-twentieth century (an educated guess because the information was unavailable). She has been working out of Seattle for the entirety of her career. She got her first camera, a Kodak Starflash 120, when she was nine. She got her BFA in photography at the University of Washington in 1987. In 2014, she co-founded a company called StuckInPlastic.
In her photographs you can clearly tell what/who the focus is because everything else is blurred. Lens flares appear very often in her work. Her work has been described as a "nexus between photography and painting by combing her photographs with encaustic, an early painting medium that combines beeswax with oil paint." I'm not sure what art history style I could compare her images to. "Voyeurism has always been a consistent theme, and this photo series is no different, as I aim to show the hidden, secret life of these popular toys."
From what I've gathered, the main idea behind her recent images is getting back in touch with the world and our childhood; "[...]her latest work focuses on toys and how we use them to connect to the present and the past," (and), "Corbett’s work features themes such as vulnerability, human connections, a thirst for adventure and an idealized childhood." In a way her work is personal, "her work reflects a personal journey to understand her place in the world." I think the previous sentences pretty much cover her philosophy.
This photographer has influence my work by giving me the idea to use the vast collection of toys I have from when I was a kid. In my personal life she has gotten me to revisit said toys, and just relish in the nostalgia. I had gotten rid of a good chunk of them when we thought we were going to have to move (long story), which has made what I kept even more precious. I has been years since any of them have seen the light of day (they've been in bins in the basement untouched and alone). Simpler times.