BY SARAH BRANDENBURG
I enjoy falling into paintings from the past to enter a different world or to understand my feelings more deeply. But if you photograph artistically, museums can be a boring place to take creative shots. Taking a photograph of a museum-lit painting is boring and unimaginative. We can feel like copiers of great art, and that’s all. But their are beautiful things that we can shoot in museums that creates a new art and can challenge our creativity.
Sculptures.
A man in stone at the Louvre, Paris
A reposing woman inside the Louvre, Paris
Sculptures, like humans, are 3D constructions that can be captured in beautiful, new and imaginative angles with different lighting and positioning.
Whenever I enter a museum with my camera, I am drawn to the statues, challenging myself to find unique ways to capture the art. Sculptures are the pieces of art that we can manipulate in unique ways without using the use of a live human. We can take a piece of art and create a new piece of art, a unique way of looking at the sculpture. Unlike a flat painting (which can be creatively shot but not the extent of a sculpture) which as no angles to be of use to the photographer.
The backside of the Venus de Milo in marble
The soft figure of a woman at Musée d’Orsay, Paris
The sun shining through an open window illuminates an “important” man at the Louvre, Paris
The Pain
Women bitten by a snake lies beautifully, but writhing in pain
These photographs are only scratching the surface of the immense possibilities that exist in using sculptures in photography to create art. I hope that these photographs inspire you to become more creative at museums, challenging yourself to look at art differently and using your eye to capture something unique to you and your experiences observing the art. By challenging yourself to look for new angles, you may discover something new and exciting about a sculpture.
Sarah Brandenburg studied abroad in Paris, France in summer 2018:Â https://ieo.ucla.edu/travelstudy/French-Paris/
