[x]

Buy This Print close

Art Print
Canvas
Photo

Browse More Like This

more ▶

More from =jonathoncomfortreed

ResilienceWhen I was young, I loved to watch my father work. I used to think sparks were dangerous, so I would sit far enough away that the fire could not reach me. But I could still feel the heat, watching sparks rise high into the smoky air.

I was terrified of darkness. I would sleep with a candle burning to protect me, but shadows invaded my dreams. I pretended I was a dragon, filled with flames. Fearless.

Defiant.

No one believes in dragons anymore. No one believes in fire, either. I've grown up into the age of electricity, where fire is too hot and too wild to touch. Why risk burning yourself when light and heat are ready at the flip of a switc

View Gallery · View Prints

Featured in Groups:

#Photomentalist
Pure Photography

#Spectrum-of-Art

#ForeverArtGroup
We don't accept affiliates!

#YoungSouls

#AroundTheEarth
Art from anywhere on Earth

Details

Submitted: March 29, 2011
Image Size: 5.8 MB
Resolution: 3888×2592

Link

Thumb

Statistics

Comments: 33
Favourites: 315 [who?]
Views: 5,192 (2 today)

License

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

[x]

Do you remember?by =jonathoncomfortreed

Photography / Still Life / Other

Project 52, week 10
^{[my theme]}
The song: I Am a Book, Torn (listen to it on YouTube here)
The lyrics:

In the night I'm disappointed with your choice
As I'm right outside your door
And my face is on the floor
And you left me on the darker side of town
Alone all by myself, no shadow spoken tongues
Faintly familiar ones
And they bled the truth
And they screamed aloud that you
Were a liar. Yes a liar.
Well you took advantage of me yet again
Or so they said
And I'd hang the moon for you.
And I'd save the world for you

And tonight and forever
Tonight and tonight and forever.
Well I am just a book
Dusty on this shelf
Worn and by myself
And the words inside don't help.
As I read my midnight pain
'Til you put me up again

And the smile across my face is being forged
It's nothing but a fake and it helps me to not think
And I know that you're at home and on your mind
Is nothing about my brown hair and hazel eyes.
I'm just trying to pass the time
And the tears all sing aloud, without making a sound
"You're a sucker, such a sucker."
It seems as if you want what you can't get
And I'm nauseous and I'm sick
And I'll get into your mind so please get out of mine

Tonight and forever
Tonight, oh tonight, tonight and forever
Well I am just a book
I'm dusty on this shelf
I'm worn and by myself
And the words inside don't help
As I read my midnight pain
'Til you put me up again

Well I am just a book, dusty on this shelf
I'm worn and by myself
And the words inside don't help
As I read my midnight pain
'Til you put me up again
And again, and again, and again, and again...

The inspiration: Pretty obvious that the main inspiration for this picture is "I am just a book / dusty on this shelf" – I went through my family collection of old – really old – books and found one that looked right, and found my dried flower from my grandmother's funeral. The set up was a long and arduous process, as I've described below, but on a more emotive-response level, as I set up the picture I listened to this song over and over again, trying to feel what this song was trying to say.

Did I come up with an answer? Not really. It's melancholy. A bit bitter and a bit fake. A bit helplessly in love.
Hard to describe, really.

After I took a forced break, I came back and realized that the dried flower wasn't conveying the emotion I wanted to show, or at least wasn't pinpointing it as well as I would like. So I used my inheritance ring, which incidentally was the same grandmother's ring. The light captured it perfectly and I feel like it really contains the power of the bitterness in this song.

The technique: This was one of the most complicated photoshoots I've ever done. It literally took me two hours to take four pictures. Granted, there's reasons for that time length, but that's still a really long time. Especially you can see the eastern horizon starting to get lighter.

I started out with just the book and the dried flower on a coffee table in my living room. I set up the two mobile lamps that I use for lighting, but they're really tall compared to the coffee table so the flower had too much shadow. So I ran and got my bedside light and set it up, but it was too harsh so I brought a shiny bowl from the kitchen and used it to disperse the reflected light and soften the shadows. And then I set up my camera/tripod and checked out my shot. That's when I decided I didn't like the frame and moved everything to the other living room.

It was a long process moving everything, 'cause I had cords and lenses on top of all my props. Then once I got to the other living room I had to clear out a shelf. Then since I had more room I tried more props, then spent a long time altering things to make the composition better, but ultimately I decided that the shelf didn't do it for me either. So I moved to the floor.

There was still a little bit of adjusting placement of lights and camera, and then I took a long time altering the scene, but eventually I had things figured out with the books and dried flower. Just as I moved my hand to take the picture, my camera died! Now, I'd been watching the battery during the shoot so it wasn't a huge surprise, but it was still really annoying. I went and started charging my batter and getting ready for bed while I waited.

When I brought the battery back, I brought the ring that's in this picture, and another prop that I shall keep secret because I intend to use it eventually. So I tried those out, and took two pictures of the ring instead of the flower. Turns out I liked that a lot more, as I previously described.

So yeah. Huge amount of time and effort on this one. Evidently.

> View all of my Project 52 submissions.

© 2011 Jonathon Reed
deviantART | Society6 | Tumblr
portfolio.jonathonreed.com

The Artist has requested Critique on this Artwork

Please sign up or login to post a critique.

love 1 1

~~joy 0 0~~

~~wow 0 0~~

~~mad 0 0~~

~~sad 0 0~~

~~fear 0 0~~

~~neutral 0 0~~

*iuzzy48 Dec 7, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

its beautiful <3

~WhitePheonixTeaNinja Nov 4, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

~Talmenar Oct 17, 2012 Hobbyist Artist

I'm a sucker for old books!! me gusta!!

~ftrebel Sep 23, 2012

This is so beautiful <3

~Tuffy689 Jul 18, 2012

aww wonderful

~marikob-k Apr 3, 2011 Hobbyist General Artist

Wow, you never cease to amaze me, ever.
This is beautiful. The effort and technique are just mind-blowing.
The ring was also definitely a better choice for a prop!

=jonathoncomfortreed Jun 16, 2012 Student Photographer

Thank you, lovely.

~Solarune Apr 3, 2011 Writer

I love that this made me think of a story the instant I saw it... the regret definitely comes across, and the effort you put into it. I started wondering "what if there was an old scholar who had once loved someone, and the ring belongs to the rich woman he loved"... that probably has nothing to do with your concept for it

but it really got me thinking. It's more than a picture, you know? It tells a story.

BTW XD in your artist's comments it says you were charging your camera batter... I thought for a second there that you were making pancakes or something.

=jonathoncomfortreed Jun 16, 2012 Student Photographer

Striving for stories at the heart of it all, neh?

Got it, thanks as always.

~Solarune Jun 17, 2012 Writer

Oh, always.

You're welcome!

More from =jonathoncomfortreed

Featured in Groups:

Details

Statistics

License

Do you remember?by =jonathoncomfortreed

> View all of my Project 52 submissions.

The Artist has requested Critique on this Artwork

The Journal Portal

Polls

What is your preferred drawing software?

deviantART [dee·vee·un'nt·ART]

Keep in Touch!

Deviousness

Add Media

Style