S H Bean ~ Photographer

"…within the same space the real and the abstract"

Posts from the ‘S H Bean Gallery Images’ category

About the project’s title: The Restricted Light Project

With ‘The Restricted Project’ I set out to “discover appearances” and interestingly a colleague quoted Malevich “liberating non-objectivity ” who goes on to say: ‘…..drew me forth into a “desert”, where nothing is real except feeling..”. Of course much of the work conceptualized in ‘The Restricted Light Project’ requires a deep understanding of Light, (and of course Color and Shadows), but in essence I follow Leonardo’s guidance in his Codex (Vol 1 book 5) on restricted light. He divides light up into three types: Light in the Open Country, Light of Luminous Bodies and Restricted Light. ( Paris Codex. J 111-116)

The latent Shadow

Rendered popular by the darkroom Photographic process the retinal image of the shadow re-emphasizes the curiosity of the latent image. Each retinal image is a photographic snapshot of the object in space and time which especially in the case of the shadow, which for me and for my work, may be regarded as the latent persistence of an un-fixed Image on the retina. If as Ruskin noted: “the perception of solid form is entirely a matter of experience” (Sept 2014 blog) then the retinal image of the shadow is not fixed, but latent, and as such a succession of shapes and densities that reveal their true non-retinal form and density when we don’t look at them.

 

Cast Shadows in the landscape

In this new body of work I am investigating the relationship of cast shadows and the landscape. Cast shadows allow me to construct visual planes or depth cues in the image, which in turn helps to highlight those raised regions that would otherwise not be perceived. At this point in time I am concerned with cast shadows and not form shadows and I have created a table listing key elements of a cast shadow and the number of possible combinations. This work reflects my visual interpretation of the profane (or the commonplace subject) and my attempts at revealing the invisible within it. In some ways I am just continuing the tradition in Art of seeking or understanding imminent visibility, that is everything especially the profane object holds.

Perfect results are infrequent and more often a complete failure.

Cast shadows (assuming the object is opaque) and their possible combinations (240) including light type:

Light type Length Edge Shading Color
Daylight Short Hard Light Neutral
Artificial Medium Diffused Grey Color
Mixed Long Black
Moonlight Abstract
Deformed

On the ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’. Early Light Project and Colour Abstracts. K.XII & K.XIII

We see our world through a very narrow ‘optical window’. This is a window that lets us see but like all windows it excludes as well. This window allows us a particular view abut it also hides. The Restricted Light Project is a space where two extremities meet, the profanely visible and the imminently visible. One of the primary constraints of the Restricted Light Project is the phenomenon of visual accommodation, the other the density of shadows (explored later in catalogs K.XIII & K.XIV ). The aim of the Restricted Light Project is to explore the ‘Invisible’. Those spaces, colours and shadows that are obscured or hidden from us by the biology of human visual accommodation.  The foundations of the Restricted Light Project began in 2011.

‘No truth or Falsity’

Berkeley argued that visual cues, such as the perceived extension or ‘confusion’ of an object, can only be used to indirectly judge objects.

Our vision is very limited, we only see a minute part of the world in which we live in. The perceptual system of the brain enables us to see the world as visually stable, even though the sensory information (ie: color and intensity of light) are typically rapidly changing. A sheet of white paper will, within reason, eventually look white under any lighting conditions. So for me, as a Photographer when I perceive an object there is no guarantee of visual consistency or permanence.

The Invisible Landscape – in the news

From the album: Timeline Photos
Quote by Tony O’Brien RightBrain (“RightBrain.ie” info@rightbrain.ie)
This is an example of some new work by artist Stephen Bean which will be part of a exhibition later this year (details to follow closer to the time). This conceptual fine art landscape photography is a project to depict the high-altitude volcanic terrain of Tenerife where the sharpness of the light is quite incredible. Some of Stephen’s work is available on his website https://shbeanphotographer.com/ but as is often the case with work of this magnitude, it has to be experienced in print form as the internet will never do it justice.
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