The five senses are remarkable things. They each have their own function, yet they are all interconnected. We’ve all experienced the sensations such as smelling something so acutely it’s almost as if we can taste it. I wanted to explore this idea more through photography, specifically the relationship between the senses of sight and touch.
In my final portfolio I focused on textures found in nature. On the first few class trips I found myself drawn to taking very close, tight photos of the surface of trees, rocks, fungus and water. The images are appealing because they show a lot of detail that you miss out on when photographing things like landscapes. I photographed a variety of textures, from solid rocks to malleable moss, sharp thorns to soft feathers and rough tree bark to smooth flower petals. I wanted my portfolio to be diverse, representing the range of textures found in nature. I worked to capture the materials our world is made of by focusing on how those materials feel. When people view my portfolio, I want the connection between their sense of sight and their sense of touch to be strengthened. My main goal is to have the audience “feel with their eyes”. I worked to photograph subjects in a way that emphasizes their texture and makes it easy to imagine how they would feel by looking at them.
I employed several techniques in order to emphasize the texture in each one of my photographs. I photographed with a very shallow depth of field to isolate the subject from busy and distracting backgrounds usually found in forest settings. In several photos, I included two subjects with contrasting textures, such as soft moss on rough tree bark or a feather on a dead dried flower. I also tried to get in as close to the subject as I could to provide as much detail in the textures as possible. I produced all of my images in color to further highlight the mixture and multitude of textures found in nature.
Leah Irwin Photography 