Preview
Upload Date
3-25-2025
Department
Classics
Label Text
What is one to make of a fierce copper creature with savage eyes and a foreboding snarl brooding over a delicate turquoise garden of swirls and floral imagery? Such stark contrast between power and beauty is encapsulated in this extraordinary object. The canine creature sitting alertly in the center of the object provokes a slew of thoughts about his purpose and duty. Perhaps he sits atop a paperweight, awaiting anyone or anything who threatens the papers below. What papers of great importance might he be so intently protecting? Whose grand desk could necessitate such a menacing protector? Why must his base be so intricately designed so as to provide such a deep contrast in his appearance? What relationship does the contrast between this brazen creature and ornate background represent?
These are only a sample of the vast array of questions this object invokes. In photographing it, I sought to allow the viewer the creative freedom to answer these questions in their own heads. The side-by-side arrangement of the photographs invites the viewer to weigh the starkly contrasting images this small object presents. In doing this, one can gain a deeper appreciation of the interplay between beauty and might through just a small, mysterious object.
Camera Settings: Aperture
f/3.2, f/22
Camera Settings: Shutter Speed
1/60
Camera Settings: ISO
200
Lighting
Full overhead and filler lighting.
Photoshop Adjustments
Slight adjustments to exposure and white balance.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Found in
ADC study collections
