“Breaking Free from the Vice” was inspired by my childhood experience of watching my aunt creatively use found organic or handmade pieces.
I loved visiting my Aunt’s house after school ( She lived next door) because it was more interesting than doing my homework. She was a skilled flower arranger who practiced the Japanese art of Ikebana. Ikebana involves arranging flowers in a way that brings them to life and is also known as kadō, or the “way of flowers.” The tradition of ikebana dates back to ancient Japan, where evergreen trees were adorned with flowers as offerings to the Gods.
My Aunt was an active member of her local and state garden club. They held competitions that involved creating a theme or story with Ikebana, and every entry required a clever title. She had a vast collection of plant materials and objects that could be used as containers and supporting elements for that style of flower arranging. One of her prized possessions was an antique leather vise that had once been used in the making of saddles. I was curious what I could do with this object.
After a bit of a struggle to keep the tulip upright, I finally managed to get the stem to hold in the narrow vise base. I illuminated the tulip with a light source from above using a grid, which resulted in a captivating interplay of light and shadow on the petals. Additionally, there was a slight light falloff on the wooden vise located behind the tulip. I decided to call this photograph “Breaking Free from the ‘Vice’ to symbolize the struggles I had faced that year.
Using a grid, I illuminated the red tulip with a B10 Profoto strobe, equipped with a 1′ x 3′ foot strip light modifier and a grid, from above. I used a folded strip of foam boad to give a bit of fill from camera right. This resulted in a captivating interplay of light and shadow on the petals.
Additionally, there was a slight light falloff on the wooden vise behind the tulip to create less light on the wooden vise. I decided to call this photograph “Breaking Free from the ‘Vice’ to symbolize my struggles that year. (I set up the lighting as shown in the attached photo. The wooden vise is 26” tall. I used a grey seamless paper as the background).
I removed the center leaf in Adobe Photoshop as shown in the attached photo showing the before. I adjusted the highlights and the shadows slider in Camera Raw and did selective areas to bring down the highlights in the bottom leaf and wood structure. I removed distracting imperfections in the wood.
