From the Alternate Evolution Series

[Guy_Manning]

It doesn’t say the landscape can’t be man-made or a still life.

I shot this in the early 80’s when I was exploring what I called Alternate Evolutions, where things just turned out differently because of nature’s Occam’s Razor. The image was used on a poster published by the Orange County Arts League in conjunction with arts events surrounding the LA Olympics.

It consists of found objects arranged in a way to imply the impression of depth and scale. The objects were arranged on the inner side of a 20x24 unexposed color photo paper envelope. It had a moderately reflective, plastic coated surface that reflected light sources back in a diffuse manner. The whole set is only about 2.5 to 3 inches deep. The prints were 16x20, made at about 100% size, so the objects were life-size.

The originals images were Ektachrome 4x5 tungsten transparency film filtered for daylight. The lighting was a mixture of tungsten bulb and reflector (warm), with a north light coming through a glass door (cool).

Specific Feedback Requested

Any and all comments welcomed: concept, execution, techniques, etc.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No

Shot with a 4X5 studio view camera about 4.5 feet above the floor, Schneider 210mm lens (normal), tripod, probably 3 seconds at f/32 or 45 for DOF, Lighting as mentioned above. Probably 16 - 20 hours in the studio setting it up before shooting.

[Chris_Calohan]

An interesting interplay of pieces and parts with a unified theme. I like it.

[Ed_McGuirk]

Somewhat evocative of Salvador Dali. If he were alive today he would probably being doing stuff very much like this with a digital camera and Photoshop. There is a lot of stuff going on in this image, but in the end, it all hangs together.

[Igor_Doncov]

What an imaginative creation. The reference to Dali is excellent. Crumpled paper as sky - I don’t think I 've ever seen anything like it.