Monday

Scanogram: Bird, Hands, Thread

As long as I’ve known her, my friend Marion has struggled to pin down what she calls the “rules” of photography. But the more pictures I make, the more flexible my definition becomes. I’ve now even decided that photography doesn’t require a camera.

I remember being shocked when I first saw the work of Stuart Owen Fox in early 2005. Using nothing but a flatbed scanner, he produces delicate, luminous images of plants and animals — flowers, frogs, seahorses and geckoes.

“Is this really photography?” I asked.

Here I am three years later creating my first “scanogram”, a digital photomontage pieced together from scans of my hands, a metal bird I picked up in India, a twine placemat and vintage needlework (which I obsessively collect).

I loved shifting the elements in Photoshop into pleasing arrangements and adjusting the opacity of each to create a sense of form and punch.

4 comments:

Kirralee Fisher said...

This is really good Kathleen. I had no idea about scanograms. Interesting that it still looks like a photo so must be in the same class :)

Horse Feathers Saddlery said...

A scanogram is actually a term from medical imaging, but it describes what I did well. I used it as a play on photogram, which is when you make images in the dark room without negatives.

Anonymous said...

beautiful and serene

SIMages said...

this is a class of its own.