So here’s a little write up, how I made my entry for the Instagram photo challenge posted by FOAM. This was the post of FOAM on April 18th 2020
Inspired by @tussenkunstenquarantaine and past Foam workshops, each week we’ll challenge you to reinterpret an artwork in your own way. This week we challenge you to ‘remake’: Potato, 2003 © Anuschka Blommers en Niels Schumm, courtesy of the artists @blommersschumm⠀
Being stuck at home and getting bored of shooting any more sneakers at the moment (see my prints section) this challenge came at exactly the right time, to get my creative juice flowing. So I sacrifice my diner (mashed potato) for the good cause of making art. I gave it the title “The Stay At Home Potato” and I am of course using some sort of analog photography, today I shoot with a pinhole.
So here is my take on ‘Potato’: “The Stay At Home Potato”
Pinhole Take 1
My first attempt was to use a whiteboard as a base and hoping the Potato reflection would come through. The weather was not working along, as it was sunny without any clouds. Which meant I had an exposure time of just 30 secs. With an overcast day and exposure times of 3-5 mins, reflections on a whiteboard seems to be way better (see sneaker photo**)
After a 30 secs exposure – developing the negative paper in HC-110 (which is just leftover developer of my B/W film rolls) – stopped in tap water and fixed in old fix.
Pinhole Take 2
Ok, in my 2nd attempt I used a mirror to get a better Potato reflection
Which resulted in a very nice positive print
Pinhole Take 3
But still, not quite the way the Potato Photo of the challenge looks. So after another 1 hour of testing I came up with the follwing:
Which resulted in the following photo paper negative and photo paper positive:
Now in hybrid mode, I couldn’t resist to use an app to resize, flip and remove the shadow of the pinhole box. This will be my entry:
PRINT 2 and PRINT 3 are for sale (€10), each print is handmade
About Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm
For those interested in Fashion Photography I don’t think I have to introduce the Amsterdam based Dutch Photography Agency Blommers-Schumm, they work with the best (Vogue, DazedandConfused, FantasticMan, etc), they make amazing fine-art photography as well (not only potatoes) and IRL they are very nice people. Go and check them out if you haven’t done already @blommersschumm
Here’s the original Instagram post by FOAM