still life photographs


still life photographs are a favorite of mine. i tend to try to treat familiar subject matter in interesting ways or crazy compositions. often times, i like to try to make things look like other things, or act in ways that are contradictory to their nature. below are selections from my portfolio that i'm most fond of. i can't post everything because it would take forever. i like to think that i'll rotate them in and out but chances are that i just won't have time to keep up with it regularly.
prometheus bound

i have a fondness for greek tragedy. who doesn't. aeschylus is not my favorite tragedian from that era. that is euripides. however, i was rereading prometheus when i concocted this idea using a corn husk and rock i found.
two leaves

at first i though they were dancing together. i no longer think that. the scene is much sadder than that unfortunately.
the chile pepper and the circular saw

i imagined this as some kind of torture device for the poor chile pepper. i kind of like it. i think the pepper really does look in a bit of pain the way it arches away from the blade tips near the middle. this is what you get when you spend too much time alone in a studio with too much bourbon on hand.
black fig

not really much to say here other than i've always found this fig to be sad for some reason.
dancing maple leaf

one of those photographs that just sort of starts one way and ends of the next after you really sit down and look at something. i like to think that this is the story of a happy maple leaf and it's last dance before crumbling into dust after it has fallen from the tree in the fall and is tumbling down the street after a gust of cool fall air has picked it up and taken it for a ride.
black figs number two

more black figs from the same shoot as the one above. i still think they are sad for some reason.
ginger man
red pepper #29

yes, i know. i'm no edward weston. i don't want to be. he's dead. i was not consciously trying to out do the old master. i was thinking and pondering sculptures by rodin around the time of this photograph. you can be the judge if it works.
corn husk and bowl
eye of the beholder

basements and cellars are favorite rooms of mine to explore compositions that might just be sitting there waiting for someone with a bit of creativity to happen upon them. this is one of those happenings. i've always like the way this one turned out.
marc poljak photography divided mind mental illness saw blade and skull
divided mind

at some point in the past i conceived of a series of images that would try to capture various aspects of mental illness and its suffering and consequences. i think i'll come back to that idea in the future. this is one that i think works.
bartlett pears

there is a larger series of these that are in the thematic portfolio section. i think the idea behind it is straightforward. does it work? i don't know. maybe.
x-mas cookie

i used to photograph a lot of food. not so much anymore.
two peppers

banana peppers are a favorite subject of mine. and i like to eat them too. fried in oil and then eaten with some really good bread and cheese. and wine of course. doesn't get any better really.
black berries

second only to huckleberries as a favorite of mine for pies.