Ken Lawson's Profile

From: United Kingdom
Joined: December 08, 2007
http://www.psychefineart.com

About psychefineart:

I am a medieval historian and teacher by profession, who originally came to photography largely for the purpose of recording historical artefacts and showing illustrative slides in the classroom. From this I developed an interest in portrait photography, and then in 2004 came across the work of the great New York art nude photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston. I initially found it difficult to explain why I thought his pieces simply the most beautiful portrayals of the female nude I had ever seen, but prolonged scrutiny eventually seemed to yield some inkling of how it was done; then, of course, I wanted to do it myself. More than anything this work has taught me about the importance of composition in photographs - it really does matter, for example, that if the curves of a violin placed on the floor are intended to echo the curve of a girl's hand placed on her shoulder (Symphony in Black No. 1) then the violin should be in exactly the right place below her, and not an inch or two to either side; similarly with the still life ensemble and the handle of the jug in Violin Concerto No. 3. I am almost sure that the quality of Johnston's work owed much to motifs which he derived from the Old Masters; the use of full but almost completely transparent clothing, for example, was perhaps inspired by Botticelli (as, therefore, is my Sheer Beauty, at second hand), and that of musical instruments and draped fabric by Vermeer; still lifes he did not feature, but there are plenty to be found in paintings of the seventeenth century, and (as my finest model once commented) a bunch of grapes does an awful lot for a picture.