As an architectural photographer, I sometimes have the opportunity to photograph artwork. In a recent project, I photographed some intriguing sculptures.
David Baird, is a professor of architecture at UNLV and an artist. His sculptures are made of wood, but they are not carved out of the wood. Rather they are constructed of many small, flat wood pieces of various shapes and sizes. The pieces are connected to each other to form rings and other two-dimensional shapes, and these shapes are interconnected and layered to form three-dimensional sculptures. The sculptures have a very architectural nature as a result of this process, which is not surprising when the artist is an architect.
An important aspect of David’s sculptures is the formation of negative space as the pieces are joined into ring-like shapes. When extruded into the third dimension, these empty spaces form tunnels and cavities, which create interesting voids and negative spaces as in these examples. Also note how the light shines through the gaps between the layers, bringing even more interest to the pieces.
What’s fascinating about David’s sculptures is that with just a small change in orientation, they take on a completely different look. I photographed each sculpture in at least two orientations. Each sculpture has a horizontal and a vertical orientation, so for most of them I photographed them in each of those positions.
But even a rotation can make a major change in appearance. In the next example, I’ve made just a small rotation, and the sculpture takes on a very different appearance.
This tall piece also changes its appearance significantly with small rotations. I produced a series of photographs, rotating the sculpture by a small amount for each photograph. Here’s the full series of images.
These sculptures are an abstraction. They represent abstract ideas and architectural notions. As abstract pieces, they encourage the mind to find more concrete and familiar objects in them--an activity similar to seeing shapes in clouds. To me, this one looks like a pig:
This one could be a race car:
And this one looks either like a flying bird or a bear:
Most of the sculptures are small and medium-size pieces, and a couple are larger pieces--the tower and the “pig” shown above. All the pieces are surprisingly heavy. I photographed them on a plain white background, and I adjusted the light for each sculpture and each orientation to highlight the texture and contours of the piece.
I enjoy working with architects because they are creative people. I normally photograph their very large creations--buildings and interior spaces. But in this case, I had the opportunity to work with an architect to photograph his smaller constructions. To learn more about David Baird’s work, visit http://www.keepitreal.gallery/.
