nouveau or deco??

I have always loved the structure and curves of both art nouveau and art deco, as well as the broad category of illustration.  After meeting Braldt Brald and pondering the work on his website -www.braldtbraldsstudio.com - the genres were refreshed for me.  There is nothing like the pure design of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha,and Maxfield Parrish.  "Arts and crafts" and "prairie" design drifted in and out of the nouveau and deco movements, while incorporating Asian influences.  Frank Lloyd Wright and brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene  furthered these elements in what has become known as American Arts and Crafts architecture.

This week's blog offers a challenge.  To me, elements of art nouveau and art deco are found in these photographs.  What are you seeing here?

Let me know where these take you!  For full effect, click on the images.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Backgrounds and light

No blog last week?  Two words.  Jury duty.  This week, I was given the wonderful opportunity to photograph our friends' beautiful gardens.  More on that later, but the process brought me back to our vegetables, particularly a number of varieties of lettuce.  The colors and veins spreading from the main ribs across the leaves like arroyos across the land always lead to my camera.

What would be the best background to capture the intricate structure?  Is the "front" or the "back" of the leaf more interesting or is each simply different?  

I began with a linen background thinking it would give more of a "botanical print" look.  Lighting was furnished by nature from the southern exposure as well as a fill disc to bounce light on to the top of the leaf. 

Then, I held up a leaf to the sky, with white clouds.  This might work!

More back lighting reveals structure

The subjects then became lunch!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image