Photographic Art
MURALS
Ralfonso Photographic Art for Public Spaces
A Moment in Time
The creation of a collage
In January of 1999 I decided to create a classical large format collage which ended up to be 3 by 9 feet tall an is now permanently installed in Geneva, Switzerland.
I selected the following 3 images as the basis for my computer manipulation:
1. The Creation:
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) An incredible scene from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, God creates Adam. The touch of God's hand awakens the newly created Adam and thus begins the life of human kind. The skillful, symbolic depiction of this life-giving act is one of the most profound and awe-inspiring artistic images ever painted. The art displayed on this print is post restoration of the Sistine Chapel depicting color more vivid than has been seen in hundreds of years.
Sistine Chapel-Rome
2. The Fountains:
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ROBERT, Hubert (1733-1808), French painter, known for his landscapes and romantic views of classical ruins. An 11-year stay in Italy made him familiar with the temples, fountains, porticoes, and other settings that formed the basis of his art. He also painted many contemporary French scenes and views; these are of historical as well as artistic importance for the glimpses they offer of 18th-century life in and around Paris. |
3. The Source:
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Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
(1780-1867). French painter, born at Montauban, the son of a minor
painter and sculptor, Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres (1755-1814).
The major French painters of the first half of the 19th century were Eugène Delacroix and Ingres {ang'-gruh}, who were then seen as leaders of the opposed styles of romanticism and neoclassicism. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, b. Aug. 29, 1780, d. Jan. 14, 1867, learned drawing from his sculptor father before attending the Academy of Art in Toulouse from 1791. In 1797 he entered Jacques Louis David's studio in Paris. He won the Prix de Rome in 1801, but lack of government funds prevented him from going to Italy until 1806. He remained there until 1824, later supporting himself by painting portraits. The Source |
4. Final Collage, A Moment in Time:
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I created the sky and the water background in a 3 -Dimensional modeling program called Bryce. The next step was to insert the 2 dimensional cutouts of the three art pieces and insert them into the 3 dimensional space created in Bryce. I placed a light source right in front of Michelangelo’s cutout –invisible to the viewer - in order to highlight the fingertips of the hands of God The unique characteristic of this 3D modeling program is that it can computationally trace every single ray of light –from each light source placed in the 3D space like the sun, my lights, etc – and accurately determine how much of it gets reflected or absorbed, colored and bend by each of the items and materials in the 3D space. Because it calculated upward of 4 quadrillion individual rays, it took about 1 week non-stop computing to render! Again some dodging and burning was done, as well as successive blurring of the fountains as they lead into the background, in order to enhance the perception of depth in the image. Some artifacts were introduced as well as several filters applied in order to give it a more painterly feeling. The chosen thematic parts of each images were cut out and sharpened, sized, re-oriented and color corrected in a computer program called Photoshop. A Moment in Time 274 x 90 cm (9’ 6 x 2’ 9 ½) |
This site was last updated 07/30/08