The photographer Edward Weston took a photograph of a cabbage leaf in 1931 and since I saw that image, I have been hooked on the idea of ostranenie or defamiliarisation. If you have not seen my other posts, feel free to read more of my musings on this fascinating topic. ("The Kitchen I" and "The Kitchen II".)
Briefly: by placing a familiar object in an unfamiliar place, you can create an uneasy feeling for the viewer. This can either be because they expected something else, or because they cannot understand what they are viewing. The kitchen, as per this series, is for me a place in which you achieve this. I guess the same was true for Edward Weston as he took various images of fruits and vegetables. I am not sure if he did it for the reason I am doing it though. According to the Wikipedia page, he was fascinated by the textures of the fruits and vegetables.
In any case, it is interesting to me how we live in an era where there is nothing "new" happening. Take the photographs I present to you here. It is based on my "reading" (interpretation) of what Weston did. Pastiche is the correct term if I am correct. I am copying Weston, but not as a parody but in honor of how he took his image. It is in a celebratory sense. But even if this is the case, does this not speak volumes about our current era in which everything is basically a copy without an original? (This is what philosophers call the Simulacrum, a copy with no original, copies of copies.) There is basically no more content. This year's iPhone is basically a copy of the previous one, and if we go back far enough there is no original. Or maybe there is. Maybe the example I am giving here is not good. Maybe the example is itself a copy without a copy.
But is it not wonderful, even if these photographs are Simulacrums, copies without copies, how a mere image can make us look twice, take us away, and make us question that what we take for granted? I present to you some photographs of a cabbage leaf, a series of images inspired by Weston, a pastiche, blatant copying of his style, or is it? I am sorry if you are not philosophically inclined, and you read all of this. My mind is a strange place. Herewith are the photographs. Please enjoy.
(Some of the images have a black and white copy with them. All the images were taken with a Nikon D300 and a NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8 AI lens, natural light.)
The Kitchen III
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
The not so humble cabbage!!!! Love it.
Thank you 😀 not so humble after all.
Nice playing with your camera :)
Thank you so much! Yeah, it is so much fun when the light falls perfectly.
ok.... I must be odd. hehehe
because these don't create an uneasy feeling to me at all - I think they're BEAUTIFUL!
and hands down - my favorite is photo TWO.
It looks so mysterious and so alien... but so... hmmm I can't find the word.
Ok... stay with me here.. hahahaha
Imagine that there were cabbage people 🤣... the second photo would look like a profile of a beautiful cabbage woman's head - with cabbage hair flowing down into the darkness of the photo!!!
do you see it???
and the other ones - i think it was four... that looks like a brain.
but not in a gross way? it's actually very beautiful - and shows the mysterious way that we can see part of the human body reflected in nature. have you ever seen that??? if not... you should go find all the ways hehehehe its remarkable! and so magical. I love how we are all connected !!!!
Thank you so much! Number two (the black and white one) looks like a dress now that I look back at it.
And yes it looks like cabbage people haha! I like your imagination.
And yes I have heard of it! I need to do some more research on it, but we are connected for sure! Only in our modern era with science and all that have we started to think we are "above" nature. And this is very sad in my opinion.
Oh... so true. I mean - on some level I think its ok to think we are on some part of a higher level. Because human beings are VERY impressive creatures hehehehe
but I guess my opinion would be...
if we are "above" nature - doesn't that make us MORE responsible for it? If we are MORE specialized creatures with MORE capabilities to care for things "below" us.... shouldn't that give us a DELIGHTFUL BURDEN to honor and respect and nurture and love and protect???
just like a mother would do with her child??
a mother is "above" her child in a sense, and that should give a GREATER duty!!! not the way that so many humans have thought it should ENTITLE us to abuse. ugh!!!! shame. honestly!!!! just shame!!!!
love always chatting with you! hehehee love what you bring to this place!!!
That is the problem with responsibility right, people either abuse it, or they neglect it. Rarely do we see that people actually care. I would agree with you though. I have seen so many creatures "return" to my garden when I convinced my family to get rid of the lawn and to plant indigenous plants. So many spiders, insects, wild bees, birds etc., have visited and made their homes here. And this is only my own garden. If we made these "changes" on a bigger scale....
I do not want to think about it because I know it is possible and people are too "busy" with modern life to care. There is a good quote, you can ask google for the exact wording, but it's something like: Only when the last tree has been chopped down ... that the rich will know you cannot eat money.
Thank you so much for the compliment! I really like talking to like-minded people and the fact that you can appreciate these talks is awesome!
I love these!
And the Kitchen series - I can't believe I missed the earlier ones; I think it's a fabulous idea too.
Here, somehow the dark highlighted the shots even better! Many favourites here, I can't choose... :)
No. 1 - I straightaway thought "brain"....
Thank you so much for the curation @ackhoo! And the comment, I really appreciate it. And yeah, I spend most of my days in the kitchen preparing food. So sometimes I get myself staring at a familiar object in a new light and get this uncanny feeling. And the first one does look like a brain, yes!
Looks like an alien head almost, nice work 👌
You can say that again! haha thank you so much 😀😀
Haha😀