This portfolio explores fabricated setting within the genre of classic still life. With the deliberate selection and arrangement of various objects I construct sets for the sole purpose of creating a photograph and not merely a secondary recording of it. Like a storybook with missing pages each image expresses a moment that poses as many questions as it answers; such is the simplicity and complexity within nature, a sense of loss and the unexpected.
Contrasting themes such as freedom and containment, time and timelessness, and the natural versus man-made accentuate the duality within each image. Movement within each composition creates the harmony that ties together these opposing elements. Motifs such as flowers, food, and insects unify the broad range of imagery representing the diversity found in nature. Bird cages are symbolically used to refer to lost freedom and the entrapment of time. The various representations of animals alludes to a controlled transformation and metamorphosis. Drapery plays an important role as evidence of a contrived space and setting.
These forces combine to create the artificiality of each image. They become an unnatural representation of nature or an event. This encourages the viewer to consider how human being redefine the reshape nature as well as how it is perceived.
-Susan Bozic