Fear

[Matthew Desmond]

This is a series of photographs i shot to show the fear tomatoes feel as salsa is made.

http://dezieproductions.com/assets/2007/3/8/Fear_1of3_display.JPG
In this photo the tomatoes are content, happy with their station in life along side the peppers.
You'll notice the lacking of shadows and low contrast.

http://dezieproductions.com/assets/2007/3/8/Fear_2of3_display.JPG
In this photo the tomatoes are no longer content they are in fact beginning to become worried, as two of their pepper pals have been cut up.
You'll notice the more prominent shadows and higher contrast.

http://dezieproductions.com/assets/2007/3/8/Fear_3of3_display.JPG
In this photo the tomatoes are terrified; all their pepper pals are dead and they too are about to be sliced.
You'll notice the extreme contrast, and my use of barn doors.


So what do you guys think?
I like my presentation :D

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Matthew,

Making non-human items show emotions without drawing faces is really tough. Its hard enough to bring out emotions well in people that are not just happy, sad or other mono-pathic moods.

Tomatoes cannot easily show fear. If anything red here, makes us think of healthy food and pretty women's lipstick and dange, of course.

What you have attempted to so is to make the light harsher as the action proceeds to tomatoe doom.

I really like the task you have tackled. It's a tough one. If this goes with your narrative, then one might get it, but of course, alone, one might not immediately grasp the danger for tomatoes, since first one has to value their existence by empathizing with them.

So it's a tough thing, without merry humanized tomatoes singing in the first picture to imagine that feelings are hurt.

You have been creative in working with the project in stages so one can see the altered lighting mood and the positions, but it still falls short.

That wouldn't bother me, since the struggle is needed to get the idea to do it well.

Let me add something else.

In the frirst picture, do you have sufficent elements for what you need and do you have uneeded objects that divert attention.The white in the bottom right corner attracts attention. If that does not serve a purpose, remove it. The tomatoes are posterized in the jpg you have shown. Check you are not sending non-web happy colors! I'm looking on an a MacBookPro so it could be that a finer monitor would show the colors are OK. Still, I'd check.

The second picture could be greatly simplified perhaps. Again in the last picture. the cut pepper behind the bowl is perhaps not needed. Also the fragment of the pepper, carefully placed in the center, is not powerful enough, to my point of view that it's worth having there.

Having said all this, we still have a major challenge to make these tomatoes show fear!

I may have nightmares trying to figure it out, but to me it's not yet a done deal!

Thanks for sharing.

Asher

[Louis Doench]

I love the idea! Have you tried not moving the Tomatoes at all? Just trying to communicate the mood by moving the surroundings and changing the light?

[Cem_Usakligil]

Just an idea, would it not be more dramatic if the light source in the second image is placed on the right hand side so that the shadows of tomatoes extend to the left and out of the picture? Personally, I'd try all the three with the spotlight coming from somewhere behind the big knive.

Cheers,