I wrote a previous newsletter on Cy Twombly's Polaroids and today I am highlighting Sally Mann’s Cy Twombly study.
I saw this show in person a few years ago and it left enough of an impression to inspire a chapter of my novel. I like artist’s spaces and I like to know how they work, what tools they use, and how they use them. This is why I like people to know which cameras and film I use. I’m not secretive about my methods because what really matters to me are the results.
I was really struck by Cy Twombly’s balled up, paint-soaked paper towels used in his painting. My mind read them as flowers and I had an idea of taking a garment with a similarly porous texture and soaking it in paint and photographing someone wearing it while it was still dripping wet, the colors bleeding into one another, pooling at my model’s feet.
That didn’t happen, but I did take part of the concept and photographed my friend wearing a wet tunic. I wrote about that a while back and you can see those photographs here.
I wanted to make this connection between Sally Mann and Cy Twombly and I’ve been thinking about it for weeks but it wasn’t until I took another look at Mann’s early work that I realized I must have also been inspired by her own conceptual portraiture (though I don’t remember seeing these images).
Going back to methods, I’ve seen some beautiful instant photos where it looks like still objects are in motion. Really, check out Giovanni Previdi’s page. This one reminds me of one of the Andrei Tarkovsky polaroids I wrote about recently.
I wondered how they did it and I couldn’t figure it out. It reminded me of the few times I purposely moved while taking a self portrait so I thought maybe the photographer was moving their camera slightly. Then I saw someone just come out and ask in the comments and he was kind enough to tell us his secret: vaseline on a thin sheet of plastic on half of the lens.
That old trick!
Anyway, I tried it myself with some instax film (didn’t want to risk damaging a camera or wasting precious film).
I just got a smoke machine effect, which is interesting, but not quite the same. Anyway, it’s fun to experiment.
Until next time…
Adalena
I love to receive comments and questions about photography and cameras!
My email: adalenakavanagh@gmail.com
Instagram: @mamiyaroid (instant/film) @5redpandas (personal)
Twitter: @adalenakavanagh
Also, if you’re thinking of buying Polaroid film for the first time, here is my referral code, which gets you 10% off, and I get some reward points.
Original photography prints: adalenakavanagh.bigcartel.com (I change out the shop every month of so. If you see something you like, let me know, I’m happy to make you a print.)
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-Adalena Kavanagh