Frigus et Pulchritudo is the name I have decided to give for my sets of photos, the meaning of these words are Cold and Beauty, symbolizing the beauty in nature and snow, which are the two elements that I will focus on in my photography. The theme that I want to convey with my photographs is the close beauty of the world when we look closely, at the patterns on the wood, the crystals of snowflakes, and the dazzling contrast of the vibrant and fierce colors of the sun with the cool and clam colors of winter. I want my audience to feel calm, to think beauty when they see my photos, i want them to fell that the scenes are unreal, like in a fantasy world. I got my inspiration quite a long time ago when I was snowboarding in the winter and ran off of the snow way and into the woods next to it, I was exhausted, so I sat there for a while, just looking at the trees above me and the snow beneath my hand. They were so beautiful that I wished I had a camera with me at the time, so I guess this is my second shot at capturing the beauty of nature in my lenses, so this time I will be there to capture all the amazing moments of nature at it’s most natural form.

These are some of my experiments:

Autumn Breeze

Cold deserted playground

Withering under the sun

Cold Feelings

Summer but in Autumn

Grass blades

Cold warmth

Here are a few of the Final photos, although I would do some more during the Winter break.

“Radiis Solis Congelantibus” (Freezing sun rays)

Shoving my phone into a tree gave me the perfect perspective so that the sun hit the camera through the dark green leaves, creating a rainbow cross at where the sun is. This is a macro photo of vegetation and a depth of view of the sun, with the sun being in the background, the leaves seemed darker which emphasized their unique shape near the rim of the sun. The unique shape of the leaves of this tree shows the beauty in nature that we sometimes overlook. The tree in the photo, is commonly seen as a harmful and spiky plant, which causes people not wanting to go near it, but when we look from another perspective, we can see something much more beautiful that at first glance.

“Nomenclature Marcescens” (Withered plants)

1. Theo Bosboom

Biography:

Theo Bosboom is a passionate photographer from the Netherlands, specializing in nature and landscapes. In 2013, he turned his back on a successful legal career to pursue his dream of being a full-time professional photographer. Since then, he has never looked back.

For Theo, photography is a perfect mix between exploring the natural world, creative expression and being close to nature. He hopes that his images and photo series can contribute to more respect for and appreciation of nature. In his work Theo focusses only on Europe, believing this continent has much more wild nature to offer than people tend to think and at the same time, he avoids intercontinental flights and the associated large CO2 emissions.

Although Theo has a broad interest in nature, he is inspired most by the powers of nature. He especially loves Iceland, wild coasts and stormy weather. Besides that Theo enjoys making photo series of small creatures like damselflies, limpets or ermine moths and is often inspired by the details of nature. In recent years, Theo has also done numerous projects with a more journalistic approach, also focussing on the relationship between man and nature. He is regarded as a creative photographer with a distinguishable style.

2. Sapna Reddy

Sapna is a landscape photographer based in Northern California. She is currently pursuing dual careers as a photographer and a physician. As a radiologist she analyzes images in an attempt to establish diagnosis to achieve cure. As a photographer she aspires to generate images that are both a creative expression for the artist as well as a therapeutic visual for the viewer.
Her work has been awarded in competitions run by National Geographic, USA landscape photographer of the year, Lonely Planet, Popular Photography and Outdoor Photographer amongst others.

She has been published internationally and featured on Adobe, Sony, Lonely Planet and Flickr platforms. In addition to incorporation into multiple medical centers to create an ambiance of healing, her images have been used for video conferencing needs by corporations including Google,Gap, Hitachi, Yahoo etc.

Sapna conducts workshops both within US as well as internationally. These workshops are focussed on identifying and fine tuning individual creative style and creating meaningful images.

Leaves: The dark background that I decided to use can enhance the leaf’s patterns and edges. The only light that was shone on the leaves was my phone light, which was a white light that can rather 1, emphasize the leaf’s edges, or 2, make the leaves look like dragon scales, or in the case of picture 1 and 2, both at the same time.

Sand mandalas are designs made from colored sand, deeply rooted in Buddhism. The term ‘mandala’ comes from the Sanskrit word for “circle,” symbolizing the universe. This art form have originated in India during the Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE) and was later transferred to Tibet, where it evolved into a distinct practice among Tibetan monks. They are intended to promote healing, peace, and spiritual focus for both the creators and viewers.

In these pictures we can see two mandala artists working on a project called ‘World Peace”, I have captured them working as they are filling the piece with colorful sand.

I call these photos “The Art of Autumn” as I have focused the photos on the Falling leaves form the Ginkgo tree, as the afternoon sunlight shines on the trees and leaves, I am able to create beautiful pictures with some adjusted angling and perspective. for all these 5 photos I have the picture composed so that there is a line that passes through the top right and the bottom left.

What were you hoping to create?

I was hoping to create a collage of photos about the different faces of society and the nature of humanity, preferably with sets of 6, 8, 10, or 12 photos that are in pairs of 2 that reflects the theme of one another.

Did it work?

For now, I didn’t have enough objects to really reflect the sides of humanity, however from my experiments I can see that this idea can completely work,

How do you know?

What were your success criteria?

Do you think you have successfully explored the theme? Why/why not?

What decisions did you make about how to display it? How have you researched various display strategies?

What is personal about your work?

What do you hope viewers will understand from looking at it?

If you had more time, what else would you have liked to try?

Kumi Yamashita is a Japanese shadow artist based in New York. She was born in 1968 in Takasaki, Japan, and then relocated to the United States in high school as part of an exchange student program. The artist is best known for her light and shadow sculptures constructed from everyday objects. Kumi first starts with photographing real models to begin understanding the different poses she works with. She expresses the importance of shadow manipulation and outline. The next steps into her work then is to sketch the composition out and develop the sense of space since placement is integral in each piece.

“I sculpt using both light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow).”

-Kumi Yamashita

PATHWAY  2008
H183, W150, D10 cm
Aluminum with cut-outs, single light source, shadow
Permanent Collection Seattle City Light, Washington, USA

CLOUDS  2005
H200, W120, D10 cm
Cut aluminum plate, single light source, shadow
Permanent Collection Stellar Place Sapporo JR Tower, Hokkaido, Japan.

CHAIR  2014
H110, W50, D15 cm
Carved wood, single light source, shadow
Private collection

0 to 9  2011
H183, W183, D10 cm
Carved wood, single light source, shadow
Permanent Collection Le Meridien Shenyang, China

QUESTION MARK  2003
H200, W150, D20 cm
Stainless steel, single light source, shadow
Permanent Collection Namba Parks Tower, Osaka, Japan

Yamashita also has many famous works that she created with a single black thread that weaves through a canvas to create a beautiful piece of art:

CONSTELLATION – MANA no.2 2013
H39, W30.5, D3 cm
Wood panel, brads, single sewing thread
Private collection

This set of four photos each symbolizes a different side of human nature and society.

Yellow: Peace, Joy, Hope, Confidence, Light.

Green and Purple: Life, Creativity, Imagination, Inspiration, Enlightenment.

Brown: Boredom, Simplicity, Warmth, Dullness.

Red: Intense Emotions, Power, Strength, Courage, Anger, Hate, Determination, Luck (In certain cultures).

Shadow side: The shadow side of these emotions and feelings is the weaknesses of humanity, of self. While sometimes people may seem like to contain these emotions on the outside, they can be weak and fragile.

The title of my project is “Ex Umbris, Solis Aether” The title means: From the Shadows, And the Ether of the Sun. I want my audience to feel the calming feeling of shadows and light as they also are able to see the deep meanings of the two sides of our world and its people. I get my inspirations from photos that shows meaningful shadows that shows signs of humanity while the object that casts the shadows are made up of random or meaningless discarded items.

1. Tim Noble and Sue Webster

Background information on Tim and Sue from Artworksforchange.org:

Tim Noble and Sue Webster are artists from London known for their creative use of trash, light, and shadow. They often create art from piles of discarded objects that look like a messy collection at first. These piles remind us of the leftovers from a party. However, when light shines on them, they cast clear shadows that form self-portraits of the artists, showing their connection to the waste they use. Their work challenges us to think about how we treat waste and our habits of consumption. Instead of seeing these items as garbage, Noble and Webster collect things like broken furniture and crates, turning them into unique pieces of art. This process gives us hope that we can find new uses for what we throw away.Overall, their art encourages us to reconsider our relationship with waste and highlights the importance of creativity in solving environmental problems. Through their innovative techniques, they show that even trash can be transformed into something meaningful.

Here are some artworks from the duo that I particularly enjoy and admire:

(Dirty White Trash) Tim and Sue 1998

This work here is called ‘Dirty White Trash’, and I like it because one they used these trash to create two people sitting with their backs against each other with one of them holding a bottle of whine, which I suppose can mean the carelessness of people nowadays that we don’t care about where we put our trash and how we dispose of it. Another reason why I like this art is that it is completely made from the two artist’s trash that they’ve gathered over the course of 6 months. This artwork is created in 1998.

(Wasted Youth) Tim and Sue 2000

This is another piece of their art that is really cool to me. It is called ‘Wasted Youth’, and we can see that in the shadow there are two young teens and one is lying on the other’s body. This artwork by Tim and Sue shows us the problems in teen life and also the problem in the food that we are choosing to eat. The two artists chose to use the disposed trashes of unhealthy foods and drinks to create a shadow of teenagers. This shows that our food choices are sometimes not the best thing to eat and are all quite unhealthy for our body, and in the artwork it shows that these are the things that add up in our body that would lead into a ‘wasted youth’.

(Wild Mood Swings) Tim and Sue 2009-2010

‘Wild Mood Swings’ is another very interesting art/photo from the two artists. The image is to show two teens that are sitting on stools with their back to each other. I like this one because the disposed objects are a really great representation of a wild mood, since they are broken-up pieces of wood and wire. When put together, by looking at the objects in the pile we don’t see anything but a messy pile of wood and wire, but when our eyes move to the shadows, we notice perfect reflections of teens sitting. This could symbolize that fact that even some of us look calm and strong on the outside, our inner selves could have already broken down, and just not wanting others to see it.