Still- Life
Robert Sulkin reveals the principles that underpin his surreal still-lifes
For this shot, taken in the mid-1980s, Robert’s aim was to create an image that didn’t refer to the
outside world. “It was strongly influenced by Man Ray, Jaroslav Rossler and other surrealist and modernist photographers.”
Robert set up this still-life image in a studio and lit the elements from underneath to get rid of shadows. “I worked with a view camera [a type of bellows camera dating back to the 19th century], as I am very interested in the fixed vantage point, and tried to make an image that only makes sense from a very specific, fixed perspective. If one were to walk into the studio, it would look nothing like the final image.”
The title of the image is ‘Homage to Outerbridge’, a reference to photographer Paul Outerbridge. “He was a commercial photographer, but also did what I would call a lot of modernist or surrealist compositions,” Robert explains.
To set up the scene, Robert used a white board, along with a clamp and a triangular figure – “These are objects that have no connotations in the culture,” he says. Via a slide projector, he then projected a Paul Outerbridge image into the construction. “It’s a bit appropriated, but I re-contextualised it in my own terms.”
So how did Robert go about choosing the elements to include in the composition? “It’s intuitive. I approached it in terms of visual language: it’s very much about the interplay of elements in the photograph, the interplay of shape and form, and the relationship of shape and form to the edge of the frame. I look at the composition through the view camera, and tweak and change it until I am comfortable with it on my own terms. I seek a certain purity in the way all the shapes and forms ‘interplay’ with each other, and I try to create an illusion of space too.”
Although Robert tries to work in an intuitive way, his images are far from being off-the-cuff. “If I am coming into the studio for the first time after a long layoff, everything is awkward. I have to exercise visually, then I get a better sense of what works and doesn’t. If the image isn’t coming together, I will take a couple of shots, make a contact proof, and work out what I need to do.”
Robert’s advice for readers wanting to explore this kind of photography is not to make any particular assumptions that a creative still-life has to be a certain way. “You can make up your own rules in photography, and art in general. That said, the fixed vantage point is important, so the camera should be on a tripod. Then it’s just a matter of patience, and thinking in terms of the whole frame. If you are constructing an image, you are responsible for every element with it.”