Photo

    I picked this rootlet up at the shore of a sea. I liked its sinister beauty but it took me time to think out how to use it. The rootlet stood in a vase peacefully waiting in the wings.

    A year later I suddenly decided to make a series of scenery pictures on studio table. In such a way the rootlet became the hero of “space” fantasies. I changed the backgrounds. Sometimes they were painted with gouache on big whatman paper. At times I used light and shadow changes on a sheet of milky plastic. As a soil for the rootlet I used kitchen salt, marine rubble, bank sand or metallized polyethylene film. Some small parts are either drawn afterwards or deformed with the help of computer. I wanted these photographs to be used for interior decoration. Slides must have very high texture in order the viewer could distinguish any fine detail in the big prints right down to single sand grains. That’s why I photographed with Sinar camera on 4" õ 5" slides. I reached variety of composition by means of lighting changes at most. Light brush was used for texture working-out of single details.

    Planet X 1. (From the series “Rootlet”)