ABSTRACT

Framing can be as rigorous and precise as you have the time or energy for. The extreme is probably studio still-life photography, where there is full control and an absolute obligation to bring things into some kind of order. Here, the subject is a white cowrie shell. What could be simpler than that? The set and the lighting, too, are deliberately simple: black acrylic for the surface and a large softbox overhead. These are not throwaway, get-it-done-quickly decisions, but rather the best way of showing volume and shape. I’ve closed in because I want to play with the elegant curves, and because detail can open up a different world of perception. But how much of the shell to include, and where exactly to cut? How close to bring the curved outline to the frame edges, and how to divide the proportions between the shell, the black background and the red interior? The cuts and the gaps were proportionate to the angle at which the various curves of the shell interacted with the frame edges.