All images are available through The Bruno David Gallery.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Curated - Part Seven
Today's mini-exhibition, Overhead Projections, is from a collection of images I created in 2009. Taking things out of context and showing them in a new light, has always been an essential part of "seeing" in my art. Whether it's turning a high school football field goal post and some billowing clouds into a churning smokestack or lining up a mid-century roofline with a wayward cloud to become an exotic pyramid landscape, I get creative satisfaction in "seeing" the opportunities.
All images are available through The Bruno David Gallery.
All images are available through The Bruno David Gallery.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Recent Work - 2012.3 Part 2
The clocks have been set forward, the sun is shining, temperatures are rising and the Midwest is coming out of its winter shell. Although this evergreen didn't make it, it provided the inspiration for a serene, panoramic image.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Curated - Part Six
I've reassembled some of my images into a new mini-exhibition titled Midwest Cliché.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
In the News - B & W Magazine
Black & White magazine (now called B & W + Color) refers to themselves as "the ultimate resource for connoisseurs and collectors of black and white fine-art photography". I am proud to say that two of my photos have been exhibited on their web site.
Spiral Aloe, 2006, is the first serious photo I've ever taken and Resurrection, 2007, ranks a close second.
While I'm always looking forward and shooting new work, it's nice to step back and see that someone else appreciates the vision I've worked hard to nurture.
Spiral Aloe, 2006, is the first serious photo I've ever taken and Resurrection, 2007, ranks a close second.
While I'm always looking forward and shooting new work, it's nice to step back and see that someone else appreciates the vision I've worked hard to nurture.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Recent Work - 2012.2 Part 1
Abstraction 16
2012
© Larry Torno
Calling a photo an abstraction means that the image expresses a quality apart from an object.
In this case, I know what Abstraction 16 was originally and what I believe it to be now. I like the element of "seeing" in my art.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Barbie's Back
There's been a renewed interest in the Barbie portrait series lately, so I thought I'd share an image that's not been shown before.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Living Color
Sold my house and am looking back at some of its details. In particular, the way natural light and incandescent light combine to create living color.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
One Object; Two Images
It's winter here in St. Louis, which means it's cold and ugly outside, and gets dark early – all good reasons not to feel inspired or creative. Instead I brought my energies indoors and looked for subjects to shoot in the comfort of my warm home. These shots became the Recent Work series that I've been posting for the past few weeks.
The most recent of the recent images began with a Pottery Barn vase and resulted in the following two interpretations.
First, the vase was shot in front of a studio light to create a high contrast silhouette, using its sinewy shape as the focus of the composition. My intention was to crop out the light box and leave a bright white background with a nearly black shape floating in the center of the photo. However, what I liked more, was the thick black borders of the full frame image with the background being softened by the ragged edge of the light box and the way it framed the hard edges of the vase.
For the second shot, I recalled a college professor's lecture about painting in chiaroscuro – letting things emerge from total darkness into the light. I quickly found the right balance of a simply beautiful shape coming into view from the blackness. While it was a pleasant image, I felt it needed some random scrape of color and movement to contrast with the perfect symmetry of the vase. I tossed in an extension chord and worked the shape until I found the right line to complement the circles.
In these lighting conditions, the white chord took on a greenish cast – something I did not predict but nevertheless felt was the key element to making this composition work for me.
(And this is why I'm not a commercial photographer. The client would have argued endlessly that their white chord should be white, when it's obvious to me that it should be anything BUT white.)
The most recent of the recent images began with a Pottery Barn vase and resulted in the following two interpretations.
First, the vase was shot in front of a studio light to create a high contrast silhouette, using its sinewy shape as the focus of the composition. My intention was to crop out the light box and leave a bright white background with a nearly black shape floating in the center of the photo. However, what I liked more, was the thick black borders of the full frame image with the background being softened by the ragged edge of the light box and the way it framed the hard edges of the vase.
For the second shot, I recalled a college professor's lecture about painting in chiaroscuro – letting things emerge from total darkness into the light. I quickly found the right balance of a simply beautiful shape coming into view from the blackness. While it was a pleasant image, I felt it needed some random scrape of color and movement to contrast with the perfect symmetry of the vase. I tossed in an extension chord and worked the shape until I found the right line to complement the circles.
In these lighting conditions, the white chord took on a greenish cast – something I did not predict but nevertheless felt was the key element to making this composition work for me.
(And this is why I'm not a commercial photographer. The client would have argued endlessly that their white chord should be white, when it's obvious to me that it should be anything BUT white.)
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