Red & White - Part 4

[Manfred M]

What to do with 26 pairs of Japanese chopsticks; 25 pair of red and 1 pair of white.

I spent most of the afternoon working on this between setting up, testing, shooting and post-processing.

[purplehaze]

Your chops are showing, Manfred. Seriously cool.

[ST1]

Well created Manfred, my OCD wants the white set to move two to the left though. But I'm sure you chose where and why to place the white set, to create tension in the image maybe?


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[lunarbo]

my OCD wants the white set to move two to the left

Never mind that Peter. Have you seen the gap between nos 11 & 12 ?!

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I had two thoughts when I planned this image; should I just shoot a single shot of the red and white chopsticks and then duplicate the red ones the appropriate number of times, or should I lay out all the chopsticks carefully and shoot everything at one time.

I ended up using the latter approach for a reason. When I create an image, I look for two things;

1. To grab the viewer's attention to get them to engage with the image; and

2. To have enough interesting details to keep the viewer looking for little flaws that Barbara has noticed. The chopsticks, the labels and the positioning are not perfect. In my view, this is what makes the image more interesting and makes for more long-term engagement.

The white chopsticks were placed where I did in order to draw the viewer to that part of the image. Something more central or symmetrical would not have worked as well, I think. That was where my head was at when I came up with this arrangement, Peter.



The piece itself is a commentary on racism found in East Asian countries and I am targeting one country specifically. While a lot of people assume racism is exclusively a Western issue, it is not. It is found in many places in the world and is not exclusive to where Caucasians are the majority. At least we admit it is an issue; something that is not happening in many other places. Unless one admits that there is racism, no one is going to do anything about it.

While I was not aware of the brand name of the chopsticks when I ordered them, I feel that the name "Happy Life" adds to the message very clearly. Life is not going to be as happy for Caucasians, Blacks, East Asians or people of mixed race in these countries.

[Jim A]

Inspirational outcome and story, Manfred. I admire those that do such setups, whereas I tend to rely hugely on post-editing for such effects. Suppose even at my 76 yrs of age, it would not be too late to have a go!

[Manfred M]

Inspirational outcome and story, Manfred. I admire those that do such setups, whereas I tend to rely hugely on post-editing for such effects. Suppose even at my 76 yrs of age, it would not be too late to have a go!

You do have a few years on me Jim, but one of the reasons I am spending more time with portraiture and still life work is that it is less physically demanding than dragging a lot of gear out on location to shoot buildings, wildlife or landscapes.

The other thing I have found is that it takes around an order of magnitude less time to get things right in camera, rather than trying to construct it in post.

[billtils]

This one doesn't work for me at all - for my taste, it is by far the weakest of the set (I like the second one best).

[xpatUSA]

Well created Manfred, my OCD wants the white set to move two to the left though. But I'm sure you chose where and why to place the white set, to create tension in the image maybe?

They're pretty close to the good old "rule" of thirds ... LOL.

[Manfred M]

They're pretty close to the good old "rule" of thirds ... LOL.

That rule is so broad that many images fall into its trap.

I did not consciously lay out the chopsticks to follow the rule of thirds, but was looking for an effective but asymmetrical layout in terms of where I places the white pair.

[mugge]

Just great. The uneven spacing on the horizontal line makes me want to look more closely at the image. The spacing between the first pair of chopsticks and the rest of the chopsticks was what caught my attention. I then went 'looking' for more. This image is one of the most interesting images I have seen in a while.
Cheers Ole

[Chataignier]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I had two thoughts when I planned this image; should I just shoot a single shot of the red and white chopsticks and then duplicate the red ones the appropriate number of times, or should I lay out all the chopsticks carefully and shoot everything at one time.

I ended up using the latter approach for a reason. When I create an image, I look for two things;

1. To grab the viewer's attention to get them to engage with the image; and

2. To have enough interesting details to keep the viewer looking for little flaws that Barbara has noticed. The chopsticks, the labels and the positioning are not perfect. In my view, this is what makes the image more interesting and makes for more long-term engagement....

Yes, definitely works for me, I found myself looking for irregularities. Brilliant image Manfred.

[Wavelength]

Nice one