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When I was a child, I used to love comic books, and one
of my favorite characters was
Bizarro -- Bizarro was an imperfect copy of Superman
/ Superboy. While he had all of Superman's superpowers,
in many ways he was the opposite of Superman. In retrospect,
I think the editor's intent was to declare Bizarro as a
supervillian -- he was evil where Superman was good.
I just thought of him as "opposite". For
example: Superman might walk along the sidewalk &
see & kitten stuck up in the tree -- he'd reach up,
gently lift the kitten out of the tree & place it on
the ground; he'd walk off, thinking that he did a good deed.
Bizarro might come by next & see the poor kitten stuck
on the ground -- he'd reach down, gently lift the kitten
off of the ground & place it in the tree; he'd walk
off, thinking that he, too, did a good deed. Who's
to say who was right -- the kitten ain't talking?
The editors had great affection for Bizarro -- a hole
mythology grew up around him. In fact, they invented
a whole Bizarro universe, with a Bizarro world (called Htrae)
that was a cube & not a globe. Everything &
everyone on Earth had a Bizarro analog on the Bizarro world.
So, I asked myself -- what kind of photographs would
the Bizarro-me make? And here, I'd try to make those
kinds of images.
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Before we get started, here's an example of the lovely
Keira Grant. This is what I consider my personal style:
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Carefully crafted lighting.
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Carefully chosen composition.
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Rich tonal values.
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Fast shutter speed which froze motion.
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Warm toning.
So, what's the opposite of this? It's an interesting
intellectual exercise.
Actually, I saw a glimpse of this Bizarro "opposite"
style during that session with Keira -- I took snapshots
of Keira as she was working with another photographer, and
I stumbled on this:
Images like that became the inspiration for the images
on this page.
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Trippy, huh?
So, what else? I do love the "Getting Started"
concept, where the model removes her clothing. So
the opposite of that is starting the model nude & asking
her to put her clothes back on. So, we do that here,
too.
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What else is "opposite"? Well, for one
thing, I got closer to the right color balance setting here
than I usually do.
Also, in a moment of weakness, I did put the camera back
on the tripod. Instead, I just used a long shutter
speed, the ambient room lighting, and I gave Melissa two
instructions: Move a lot, and stop smiling.
Melissa did move a lot, but she couldn't stop smiling --
she's a happy gal.
The next image (below) is my favorite from this setup.
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What else is "opposite"?
Like the blue-green tone?
How about the off-center composition? I like it
here. Also, it's a subtle thing -- but I also like
the interesting shadow cast by the light shade on the bottom
center of this image.
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I am enjoying this Bizarro exercise. In fact, I've
recommended this exercise to my fellow photographers who
are suffering through the photographic equivalent of writer's
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Melissa's sitting was the fourth sitting in a short (to
me) time period, and I think my willingness to experiment
is a product of all that work.
I should be more willing to experiment -- yet, I have
a tendency to "play it safe". I should care
less about what people think about my photography, but I
guess I do care, at least a bit.
I should be less obsessed about a strict definition of "beauty"
-- rather, I should seek to find the beauty in front of
me to emerge.
In all, we artists should actually seek to make mistakes,
because the mistakes are far more educational than the successes.
When we stop taking chances, we stop growing.
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What else is "opposite"? Well, usually,
in these "Getting Started" setups, the goal is
to get the model to remove her clothes, and the setup is
completed once the model is nude. My "Bizarro"
counterpart would therefore start with a nude model &
ask her to put her clothes back on.
Hey -- a transformation is a transformation.
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I wonder whether the Bizarro-me would also experiment
with "artistic effects"?
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Ha! We finally get clothes onto Melissa.
That was the objective of the exercise, wasn't it?
Say "hello" (the opposite of "goodbye")
to Melissa.
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