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An International Family Affair - Creating Art in a Single Frame of Exposure - part 3 of 1 2 3 4 5

by Luke Edmonson Published 01/12/2016

When my Dad's best friend was dying, he couldn’t bring himself to see him near the end. He feared the emotional tidal wave would sweep him away altogether. After the funeral, however, he was determined to do something meaningful for their family to honour his friend.

A piece that held his attention, in a church just a 10-minute walk from Sara’s home, was Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew (1600). My brother-in-law, Francesco, often takes their daughter, Grace, to see works like this on Saturdays, which is what spurred David to get deeper into the Italian masters.

Because Dad knows every member of the family quite well and understands the qualities of each of them, he started by sketching out each person's position and the task they'd be enacting. He used elements such as a table and Italian Renaissance chairs to provide a framework, and the direction and style of light inspired by Caravaggio's painting.

Part of the project was a test of his ability to art direct a large group (17 people) with his still-recuperating voice. As you can see, the result is superb.

The challenge in recreating the setting of a Caravaggio masterwork is all about the lighting. The tight pools of light common throughout Caravaggio’s paintings are not unlike those used in modern cinematography. Getting it right takes a good deal of finesse, which for David starts by using mannequins to see how to make the lighting work.

And it’s important to remind us that Dad's fine art portraits are all singlecapture efforts, not composites.

In the case of the Caravaggio-inspired piece, once everyone was in costume and placed in the set, he just coached them on what to do, clicked the shutter about 10 times, and realised he'd nailed it. Ten minutes later they were all eating pizza together.

The natural question is to wonder how much time he's spending on post-production. They can look as if they are photos of an actual painting. The answer is that since his stroke, he's relied on a combination of Nik and Topaz filters to finish his look generally in about 10 minutes of time.

American Realism, Edward Hopper, Photography And Disconnection Recently, we finished a set piece that is a tribute to American Realism as displayed in the work of painter Edward Hopper. Two of Hopper’s works that left a deep impression on David are Room in New York (1932) and Cape Cod Evening (1939). Both show the kind of detached distance that can happen between two people. One of the stories Dad wanted to tell is one of valuing the real connections you have to other people.

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1st Published 01/12/2016
last update 09/12/2022 14:55:07

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