Discovery Project, VFS

For my third term "discovery project" at VFS I chose to learn how to create vignette's in photoshop (manually / not pre-sets), I also wanted to learn how to recreate a sort of stylized cross-prossesing look using "curves" in photoshop, again, no pre-sets.

The third component, and by far the most difficult, was to put my theoretical knowledge of Parajanov's stylistic mannerisms and try to apply some of those techniques in my own work. With special thanks to Professor James M. Steffen of Emory University in Atlanta, for answering my questions and being able to so clearly explain Parajanov's tricks, those mannerisms are:
1. Frontally staged tableaux
2. Empty picture frame as compositional device and decorative motif
3. Still life compositions
4.Tripartitie compositions within individual shots
5.Pantomime and other experiments with the actors movements
-- to a lesser degree, the self-contained nature of many shots, the use of central vanishing point and rhyming shots.

I wouldn't for a moment suggest I succeeded in recreating anything more than a mostly thoughtless homage to Parajanov's style but I do appreciate his style very much and would like to further explore his compositional techniques in the future. The pomegranates in the shots are supposed to be a lighthearted nod to one of my favorite directors and also an acknowledgement of the beauty of the vital particulars, (whether pomegranates, apples, shoes, hair, knives, or mountains...), that are necessary components in creating Beauty on the whole.

Out of my many shots I posted here in this set I think 2, or being generous, perhaps delusional, 3 of my compositions succeed. The rest are here mostly for posterity.