Brian Oglesbee

Brian Oglesbee is a photographer whose main interests lie in the way that viewers perceive and see the image. "In a fundamental way, photography translates the four dimensions we experience in the world into two. The photographer directs this transformation and can influence it in ways that the viewer might not be aware of. The photographer can influence perception to signify, emphasize or change the meaning of things, places and events. To me, one of photography's most potent virtues is its unparalleled power to render in such exact detail what is in front of the camera. Nothing convinces the eye like a photograph." In Oglesbee's water series, he identified that - "Optically dynamic, water is transparent, reflective and refractive. It 'mirrors' and 'lenses.' In a sense, we don't actually 'see' water.  We see what water does to what is in it, under it or reflected by it. In nature, liquid water is always moving and its motion relative to the viewer and the light dictates what it does visually."

Image Analysis

This image is part of Oglesbee's 'Water' series. There could be many ways in which this image was created. One of which could include a pane of glass being fixed horizontally just above head height and drops of oil (or other bubbly liquid) stuck together in the middle while a model stands underneath looking up at the camera. The strong eye contract through the bubbles could depict a key barrier between two entities, an obvious obsticle to prevent them reaching eachother. This could be the way sub-aqua life respires and the way land life respires; it is impossible for humans to breathe unaided underwater and for fish to breathe on land. I think this links to my project because it shows how powerful and restricting water can be, leading to many fears and forms of torture.

My Response

For this response, I aimed to recreate the image in the bottom left and right of the mood board. I asked my model to kneel on the floor and look up straight into the lens. At the same time, I got someone to hold a sheet of glass in between the model and the camera, on which I put the liquid and plant. The first two responses (first four images) I used oil as the liquid so that it would refract and deform the model below the glass more. However, for the latter response (last two images), I used water as the liquid so it would mold itself more around the plant and create one puddle of liquid, as opposed to multiple drops and puddles of oil. I made all the images black and white because it instantly makes the image more dramatic and, linking back to my development, gives the image two obvious opposing factors, possibly the suicidal mind and the conscious stable mind of the victim.

I took the most inspiration from Oglesbee because, using these techniques, the images have the ability to show the emotions of the model as well as portraying them, essentially, under water. I saw an opportunity to develop this in the way that a wide range of emotions can occur when water is the subject, for example, calmness from the sound of a stream or fear of open water.