Tavis’s image is a low key black and white photo of a hand playing the neck of a base guitar. All that is seen is one hand, four strings, four dots, and eight vertical lines of the base. It appears to be coming out of the darkness from the corner of a soulful jazz house. The hand and only a few key elements of the guitar contrast against a black background.
Upon immediately viewing the image it appears as though Tavis has faithfully recreated an image of a close up base guitar player without deviating from it. However, there are subtle differences and it is in those differences that she has adapted new content and meaning.
Because she chose to use a darker base it immediately changes how the image is read from the original. We inherently see less shadows on the guitar and the hand seems to pop, this giving the image a stronger sense of mystery and darkness.
Most of the differences from Tavis’s image to the original stems from the subtle change in angle, at which the base is placed. From the way the fingers stretch across the neck, to the way the light wraps around the fingers. Tavis’s model is a base player and says that the model in the original image was not actually playing. The way the fingers are stretched and the angle of the guitar would render this so called musician unable to perform. Although her goal was to interpret the original with a new direction she attempted over 260 times to get the exact angle and lighting as the original, which served as a personal technical challenge.
It was about capturing the moment of making music for Tavis which is why her model was playing as she took this shot. Her image brings a sense of spontaneity that is missing in the original, that seems more contrived. Hers has a stronger essence of street photography. This becomes more apparent when she explains her motivation behind this image. She was inspired by a close friends photo that was an image of a homeless man playing the guitar. She wanted to recreate a similar image but in a different style when she stumbled upon this one on the right, she knew it was the photo she wanted to investigate.
This image relates to other successful portrayals of music in that it evokes mood and emotion, capturing music’s most important principal.
By Renee Hopper
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