Man Ray meets Escher

Alicia recently did a photo shoot with me, where we played with projected images. We started out by looking through Google’s image search to find interesting images, our theme was Man Ray and Maurits Cornelis Escher. We found some simple black and white images with repeat patterns that would not completely disguise her. Here are some of our favourite photos.

man-ray-meets-escher-alicia-green
Escher’s patterns that subtly change across the image look great. I especially like how Alicia’s sweater rendered the fishes in green. I reduced the orange and yellows in the post processing and added a bit of teal to the shadows.
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This photo is inspired by Le Violon d’Ingres by Man Ray. Here is our version of it.
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Another painting by Escher. Here I wanted to see if we could get a black background, so Alicia turned to have the projector behind her and to her right, to avoid the background being illuminated. She moved around until the placement of the faces worked.
man-ray-meets-escher-alicia-diagonal-stripes-closeup
I originally shot this photo wider, but the stripes and the angle of the arms did not quite work so I cropped it in closer.
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Another version of the fishes, this time in black and white.
man-ray-meets-escher-alicia-composite
One of the patterns we used was a spiralling one. To get a sense of motion Alicia shook her hair back and forth. In post-processing I took an old photo I had and mixed it in using the screen blending mode. The other images are simpler, this one is a lot busier.
man-ray-meets-escher-alicia-stripes-closeup
Simple patterns like stripes can make really interesting images. Here I like that you can only see a few slices of the image, they lead the eyes back and forth. The pixel pattern from the projector light almost makes it look like an engraving.

Projections are really fun. Now I wonder if it is possible to combine projections and reflections. That would be pure magic. Many thanks to Alicia for a fun photo session!

– Johannes

 

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