My concept was to take a photo I took at a concert earlier this year and place it in the past. This performer already had an antique-looking guitar, so I decided to combine her own equipment with a curtained stage, a well-loved piano, and an old circular microphone. I wanted to create a feeling of a more personal, intimate setting compared to the large venues that artists perform in today. I also added a fair amount of distress and scratches to the photo to make it feel well-loved and looked at over time.
Library of Congress Photos:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014718067/resource/
Hey Landry! Your work is composed as a performance portrait that feels like it could have been discovered in an old family album. The main subject is a singer with her guitar, mid-song, and framed alongside a vintage microphone, upright piano, and draped curtains. The tonal treatment is sepia, which really enhances the sense of age. The surface of the image has scratches, cracks, and worn edges that mimic the natural damage seen on historic wet plate collodion prints. The aspect ratio stays the same as an older photographic format, and the shallow depth of field draws you right to the eye of the performer.
ReplyDeleteMy interpretation is that this piece reads as a look into time and performance. You’ve taken a modern concert moment and transformed it into something much more quaint and intimate. It feels like the musician is singing in a small parlor decades ago instead of a big venue that it was originally captured in. The distressing layered on top almost feels metaphorical, like the photo has been carried around or returned over and over again. The microphone is actually awesome and is such a good photo plus it reinforces this idea of moving the subject into another era.
Technically, you did a great job integrating all of the elements. The composite feels seamless, the piano and curtains sit naturally in the background, and the microphone fits convincingly into the space. The change on the singer's face was really well done and effective as it didn’t look forced. In terms of wet plate qualities, the sepia tone is nice, and the almost folded quality of it was a really nice touch. Though I do wonder if the singer's hands should be blurred a bit. Since motion was hard to capture and typically singers, even back then, moved a bit around so I wonder if there are parts of her that need that treatment.
What stands out the most is how thoughtful your choices were. The details from the microphone swap to the vintage piano, to the curtain, they don’t feel random. I assume they weren’t but regardless they were chosen well and all support the idea of moving this musician into a different time period. It’s clear you spent time making the composites blend naturally, which is not easy with multiple sources. The piece feels cohesive, and especially well done on the use of the Library of Congress elements in a way that enhanced rather than overwhelmed your photo.
Overall, your work successfully creates a modern performance an intimate, historic-feeling portrait. The blending of elements, the distressed texture, and the sepia finish all come together to create a strong, believable image. You captured both the technical qualities of the wet plate process and the nostalgic atmosphere.