A Voiello Story
I've been away from the blog far too long. Not good, this lack of presence and commitment. My shooting, also, has perhaps been more scattered and unfocused than usual. I blame it on being lost in my search for a proper color language and proper color processing tools, though perhaps this is too easy of a cop-out excuse...
Fact is, there are surely themes that have been recurring in my archives, and in retrospect there is material in there to "find" some decent series (the Sicily trip in October last year, my wanderings in Paris' "Chinatowns" in the 13th and around Belleville, to name the easiest ones). I'll get back to these in other posts.
Today, I want to celebrate my friend and mentor, Patrick LaRoque in Montréal, Canada. He's helping me find my way through workflow issues in Capture One (yes, it's goodbye Lightroom), but I also asked him to help me past my (perceived or real, whatever) creative block.
He recently gave me an assignment that was apparently simple but magically effective: (1) forget color for a moment, it confuses your brain too much: go back to your old reflexes, shoot the assignment in BW; (2) forget searching for subjects far and wide: focus on home, or your city block at most, and make one series of images within those confines.
It was disorienting at first, and then "click", the light switched on and I started *seeing* again. Here's the first "homework". A simple tale of small pleasures: a Voiello story.
The lesson learnt: stay with your subject, see the light, see the forms, tell a story.
PS: Voiello, owned by Barilla, is just one of many pasta brands that make their way to my pantry. I’ve not quite decided which is my favorite…