Viviane Sassens' work is physical, architectural, personal, graphic and sculptural all within one series of images. Although taken away from her fashion work, these photographs in Africa echo her commercial output. Taken from the books, Pikin Slee, Flamboya and Parasomma, the photographs make me want to explore the fall of shadows and compose graphic photographs myself. The light in Africa is very different to a winter in Pegwell Bay, so the desired outcome may not be possible due to the difference in contrast.
The images makes us feel close to the work, the detailed crops looking abstracting a leaf as a backdrop for the arrangements of shadows is something I feel can enhance the project I am making. It requires a different type of seeing, the leaf is a photograph and not part of a bigger picture. The textures become important, the lines of the leaf are details and therefore we see the leaf in a new and interesting way. 'Compose the shapes not the pictures, they are layers through a scene.'
In her books Sassen mixed black and white with color successfully. A disregard for the necessity to stay in series makes her more liberal with image selection choice, composition, framing and editing.
The work at times reminds me of the documentation of land art and sculptures, Sassen is seeing these things and telling us to look at them, she is noticing the art in everyday Africa and documenting it.
She also uses interesting and different page formats, layouts and sequencing in her books, in Parasomnia she has overlapping image from bleed to bleed which is a dynamic way of creating a flow through the work as well making the book feel a physical object. And again in Flamboya the layout has half, third pages which reveal the bleed of the picture or at times again hold a new image completly. These techniques continue a sense of physicality which is portrayed in the images as well.
The images makes us feel close to the work, the detailed crops looking abstracting a leaf as a backdrop for the arrangements of shadows is something I feel can enhance the project I am making. It requires a different type of seeing, the leaf is a photograph and not part of a bigger picture. The textures become important, the lines of the leaf are details and therefore we see the leaf in a new and interesting way. 'Compose the shapes not the pictures, they are layers through a scene.'
In her books Sassen mixed black and white with color successfully. A disregard for the necessity to stay in series makes her more liberal with image selection choice, composition, framing and editing.
The work at times reminds me of the documentation of land art and sculptures, Sassen is seeing these things and telling us to look at them, she is noticing the art in everyday Africa and documenting it.
She also uses interesting and different page formats, layouts and sequencing in her books, in Parasomnia she has overlapping image from bleed to bleed which is a dynamic way of creating a flow through the work as well making the book feel a physical object. And again in Flamboya the layout has half, third pages which reveal the bleed of the picture or at times again hold a new image completly. These techniques continue a sense of physicality which is portrayed in the images as well.