By Ruby Love
Sarah Gluck and Rae Lesinski created the series “Luxury” as a photographic collaboration for their program “Narrative Tableau: Conceptual Strategies in Studio Photography. “Shot on medium format film in Evergreen’s photo studios, the series is an homage to classical still life paintings. The series came about as part of an assignment for Narrative Tableau, where the class was tasked with creating a series of still life images. Inspired by both “original still life paintings” and “reflecting on our culture now,” the two came up with “Luxury”.
Speaking of their seires they explain, “The fast food series came about when studying and learning about Still Life paintings, specifically ones that included the circle of life with food. Capturing something that that could be dead soon, but lives in a image forever. A lot of our inspiration was drawn from our surroundings including the very so popular and over consumed, Ronald McDonalds fast food…”
The program focuses on studio photography, with new topics and prompts every other week. “The class also has an emphasis on using medium format cameras with color film…so color definitely went into our decision-making with our subjects.” This was Sarah’s first time shooting in the studio, and the pair struggled at first with lighting, but they eventually got the hang of it: “working in unison and five or so hours later, our shoot was complete!”
While Sarah and Rae have collaborated on artwork before, it was only on “little side projects.” Both experienced photographers, the two ended up working well together as they learned the ropes of studio photography and color darkroom work.
“Lighting was surely difficult because if the light isn’t set perfectly your images may come out completely over exposed or completely underexposed. We used a nice glazed-over Vaseline glass in front of the lens to create a look that would make the images look a little more vintage and old agey to get an old advertisement type of look. Working with film is always tricky because you are unable to see what you are producing until after the set you created is done and the film is developed. “
Sarah said she learned a lot with the help of Rae (they had used the darkrooms before, and had some experience with medium format film) and other classmates, but that “most of the learning is with the hands on material and working through the lens.”
Sarah is from Lake Stevens, WA and is a senior: “Graduating so soon, woop woop!” She has been shooting since she was fifteen years old. “I was really inspired by my high school photography teacher. Mrs Gurnillo you are missed! Couldn’t put a camera down since.” You can find more of her work on Instagram (@sarotoninn) where she posts “personal and art projects along with other artists’ images I find inspiring and collaborations of work I have done. It’s nice to use to see what others are working on and maybe future projects and people you want to work with…”
Rae is from Los Angeles, and is a junior – they transferred to Evergreen this year and are planning on graduating with a BA. They got interested in photography in high school: “I worked in the photo lab at my school and loved working in the darkroom. I originally was attracted to photography because I loved working in the darkroom, it made me feel like a scientist while being an artist at the same time.”
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