Art Photography may be the only way to preserve delicate artworks!

I find myself lucky to be up close and personal with amazing paintings, drawings and other flat artworks created by truly talented people - and there are so many around the Geelong region.  But art also includes three-dimensional works - sculptures, textiles, etc.  This week I had the pleasure of photographing ikebana pieces in my studio.  Ikebana is the Japanese art of floral arrangement. This work is by Christopher James, a master Ikebana practitioner of the Sogetsu school who grew up on the Surf Coast and now teaches here.  While beautiful, ikebana pieces are by definition temporary and will fade and die, so photographing them is the only way to keep them indefinitely. 

There are many different ways to approach lighting and shooting something like this.  On this occasion I wanted to create a look reminiscent of the old Japanese paintings of ikebana, so I kept the light fairly even but with a slight pop of sidelight to bring out the textures in the material and highlight the blossoms.  I think this would work really well printed up on one of the beautiful Japanese washi papers with mulberry fibres swirling through it...