Paul Eldred Souter

Paul Eldred Souter follow American

Lives in Buffalo, New York, United States

Projects/Portfolios

The Red Berry

Introduction

The first image, what would later become a series, was rather small in scale–an image of three crushed tomatoes on a white background for the portfolio. Left in the corner of the studio for two weeks to do financially productive jobs, I discovered Mother Nature had unexpectedly blessed my tomatoes with a blue-green fungus. For a brief second or two I was taken aback. Blues and greens now mixed with the vibrant reds. My palette expanded. My canvas, now organic, became wonderfully and unpredictably alive. I was inspired.

I soon discovered two factors would impede the progress of my project. First, the growth of fungi on the berries was unpredictable–often never appearing, or unexpectedly growing black. On occasion Mother Nature could be very un-motherly. Second, all the patterns of splashes and stains were produced on set by crushing and/or splattering the tomatoes–a very un-precise, time consuming technique to say the least (non were digitally produced). Days were spent splattering/crushing and drying then repeating the process numerous times until I finally had a pleasing composition. The “canvas” (30x40 inch plywood laminated with Formica) was then carefully moved to an especially constructed rack to hopefully acquire fungi. If successful, I photographed the composition using a state-of-the-art digital view camera and lens with a Phase One digital back attached. Mural size images (those horizontally formatted) were composed on 5’x10’ Formica panels and then photographed in sections (anywhere from 3 to 6 images were taken of each composition). The images were then stitched together in Photoshop resulting in highly detailed mural size prints.

People have the impression that, given their scale, “table-top” photographs are somewhat easy to produce–simply compose, light and expose. Indeed…they often are. These were not. After spending weeks on many of my compositions, I did not have the heart to destroy them. Having the luxury of a rather large studio and staff, I had my favorites stored on racks. And like fine wines change in complexity; my compositions also altered with age. After a year or two, the berries’ structures dried and flattened. The once alive fungi died and blackened. They had lost their vibrant colors. Unfortunately or fortunately, the Red Berries had become lifeless unidentifiable forms. But then…I realized these slowly aged compositions had become worthy of consideration—a new examination of each.

And so…the camera was brought out…again.