Julya's Work

My immediate response to the work:

My first immediate response to Julya’s work is how the lamps remind me of the jumping lamp in Hayao Miyazaki’s movie, Spirited Away.   There is a surreal quality in the image and that’s why it immediately brought me back to the movie, Spirited Away.  What stand out for me in Julya’s image would be the numerous lamps and how magical it looks in the twilight environment.  

Objective description:

In Julya’s work, she has numerous lamps placed on the grassy ground by the water.  The lamps are positioned everywhere just a little below from the centre of the image in horizontal direction.  They are not in straight order.  The lamps are lightening up (like they were turned on), which creates a magical quality.  It looks like it was just before sunset and it has a twilight feeling in the image.  In the background, there are pine trees with a little blue skies peeking through.

Formal complaints and Formal Praise:

Julya’s work has surreal qualities. The original photo has red lamps and is facing the ground, however Julya’s photo has white/grayish lamps and they are facing in different directions rather than facing the ground.  The original piece has lamps placed in the centre and Julya’s lamps are a little off centre, which I liked about it.  It creates a great composition.  I wish I could see more of the lamps lighten up but it must be really difficult to do that in a wood environment.  Overall, it is a really sweet piece.  There is a twilight feel in the image.  The lighter skies in the background can be a little distracting and it would be nice to see more trees in the back. 

Does this work tell a story?

Julya was really excited about recreating her initial image, which she showed in class.  However it did not work because she was unable to find lamps that were small enough and not so modern looking.  She decided to move onto a different image by the same artist, Rune Guneriussen, who photographed the initial image.  The second image Julya picked was a light up globes placed on rocks.  After some research and visiting stores, she was unable to find light-up globes.  Her third image is 4 big lamps sitting on the frozen lake.  However, it’s not cold enough yet and there are no frozen lakes available.  So Julya moved onto her fourth image, which has antique lamps placed on the road by the lake.  But the fourth image had similar issue with her original photo: find antique lamps. So she moved onto her 5^th image, which is the image she did.  She did it because she was able to find similar style of lamp and she had several ideas to resolve the problem. 

First problem was to deal with the power an electric lamp in the forest.  She thought of using gas generator however the location Julya picked (Griffin Wood Park) required some walking to the stream.  So she decided to use LED light glued into a working lamp.  Her lamp does not have a base, just a clamp so she did some test at home to see whether the lamp would stand or not before taking it out to the wood.

She went out to the wood and was not impressed cause there were several problems.  the lamp won’t stand still because the ground is sandy rather than solid.  The solar powered lamps were okay but there was lack of lamp figure, making them invisible.  Julya decided to come back the following day after resolving some problems.

Julya made some paper cones to act as lampshades and it worked better.  Her mother suggested a situation on how to hold the lamp up – clamping the lamp to a cutting board to create a stable balance. 

The 2^nd try worked out perfectly.  She took several photos of the lamp and moved them in a different direction every time.  After many shoots, she went home and did some editing.  In Photoshop, she made selections around each lamp and pasted them into one shot. 

The Work in the World:

Julya choose the photographs by Rune Guneriussen because she likes the magical, surreal feel in the image.  It reminds her of the series, The Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It creates an almost magical feel like as if you’d arrive at when you go through the wardrobe into Narnia.