Cherry Plain ala Vera Neumann

I mentioned in my welcome message,  that this past weekend my daughter and I went shopping at her favorite stores in Boston.  While Maddy, was looking over the summer lines, the old man started to notice some interesting books around. I then came across a release on the life and art of Vera Neumann., A NY artists, who serendipitously turned into this country’s first true fashion designer in the 40-70′s.

The book itself is a labor of love by the author, Susan Seid, who discovered, then worked for, then rescued/purchased the remaining Vera artwork, fabric and clothing housed in an Atlanta warehouse.  The book is available as a pre-order at Amazon, but it is in print and available at Anthropologie for $40

The book is richly illustrated with Vera’s graphic art, and I could see the 2 dimensional patterns that the artist had to work in, with the third dimension being the fabric as it flows and bends. I couldn’t help thinking that all Image making starts in the confining 2 dimensions , but Vera had also created additional depth thru her pattern placements, arrangements and colors.

As photographers we look to add perspective or movement in our work to evoke that 3rd dimension..but it dawned on me looking at Vera’s art, that element placement, arrangement and color creates its own sense of movement and dimensional perspective…hmmm…

An example would be  the lower 1/3 of her print filled and condensed with hundreds of tiny white butterflies, which would move sparsely upward in the  2/3 and then up out of her frame in the third. The colors in Vera’s art were amazing reds, greens, yellows, golds, purples, blues with patterns and sub patterns or bold multi ring arc’s.

I was quite immersed and when my daughter came by to herd me to the checkout counter, I couldn’t stop talking her ear off about Vera’s art,,,My daughter being the fashion model shooter, could appreciate how the patterns draw your eyes in, and about, not letting you leave,,,,but it was even a bit to much for her…..I took the book to the checkout (along with my daughters ‘shops’), inspired to see if I could use patterns, arrangements and sparse space somehow in my future Images.

For the rest of that afternoon, I was left disheartened by any Images in Boston.  Architectural patterns, like brick and windows abound, yet the organic which I had sensed in Vera’s work was missing.  So as I headed back to upstate NY that evening, I was determined to hit the road early the next day and go to my nearby state park ‘workshop’.  At daybreak, it was overcast, pouring rain, but I was on my way.  I was hopeful that the rich greens of late spring and natures patterns might present an Image for me to fulfill this Vera induced inspiration.

When you travel off of the main path of a forest trail, you start to notice how fragile the wet peat bog earth lays underfoot.  I followed my own trail into the woodlands, when I came across the light green patterns rising up and against another lower dark green pattern, this seemed to be what I was searching for !

I knew my vantage point looking at Vera’s artwork was from above to straight down which is the 2 dimension starting point we all share.  I framed the shot so that I had the left third full of plant pattern, with the middle third a sparser grouping, then an increased sparse area with the top plants floating out of frame.

The forest green colors were very cooperative, the light was wonderful, and I set my 105mm lens aperture to f/16, and then needed some ISO horsepower so I boosted that to 1000.  My lens focus was manual, and I used Live view to assist in grabbing my focus. The real gear hero of Image was my new Swiss Arc cube. The swiss arc has a release which lets the camera rests 90 degrees perpendicular to your subject.

With everything set up, I started to press my D3s shutter, and as saw the images appear on my LCD, I knew that for a 1/4 sec, that the inspiration, from an artist and designer that created NYC’s first fashion house, had spanned time and instilled in me a special passion and desire to interpret her design art work.