Ghostphotography - Portfolio Objects

Ghost is loading...well ehh, his pictures that is.

OBJECTS

The object series in this portfolio are all photos that Ghost made during his training as a photographer. In 2016 he attended a sub-course called object and matter in which he had to take a series of photos, each of which not only focused on a different type of matter or technique, but also on a specific subject. Ghost chose toys as subject. For this series Ghost had super professional (and very expensive) studio material from the school available, something that is very striking in this series.

This work was the so-called free work, where you could choose what you wanted to do with one of the learned techniques or materials. Ghost chose wood here and paid homage to his father, who died unexpectedly a few weeks earlier. The words on the scrabble board (in Dutch) are things that Ghost's father was interested in, giving you a brief outline of who he was.

This work is a bit naughty, and may seem funny, but actually it isn't. Playmobil figures that are being hanged, one that is clearly about to be executed, and then the flag in the background ensures that this photo needs no further explanation where (and who) it is about.

If we talk about toys, this should not be missing. Ghost has been a great fan of the game of Monopoly since he was about twelve years old (and once - when he was a teenager - finished in 4th place in the Belgian championship). The monopoly game is also perfect for the subject of paper and cardboard.

High Key is a special lighting technique. Ghost used 'Octoplay' discs here, which was especially in the 1970s a very popular toy to build all kinds of things with. For this photo Ghost made a kind of ISS-like spacecraft with the discs. This series consists of several photo's all with variants in different colors, but Ghost found this blue / white the best one of the series.

For the shiny metal series, Ghost used a number of toy cars, of which he still has quite a large collection. Several photos were taken for this series. This one is just one photo from that series. The car in front, a Citroën Dyane, is an exact copy (also in color) of the car Ghost's father had in the 1970s.

White outline is a special lighting technique that works especially well with objects in glass. Ghost took some dice (the three times six was done on purpose, of course), marbles and a handful of knucklebones, a game he played a lot as a child. He placed the objects in glasses and applied the white outline technique.

Black outline is a special lighting technique that works especially well with objects in glass. Ghost had fun with this black outline technique and took many different pictures. This one is another one from this series, with only one marble showing.

Black outline is a special lighting technique that works especially well with objects in glass. Ghost made several shots with this technique. This is another one from the series, but one with a special story. Ghost took this photo, but it only came to reality thanks to a fellow student and the teacher who assisted. Without them this would never have been possible to photograph. Ghost pressed the button on his camera, but at the same time the teacher had to fire an external flash and the fellow student had to throw a plastic block with an LED light into the container of water which contained the tin soldiers standing at the bottom. Timing was everything here. Getting this picture right was quite an adventure, and honestly, it took us at least about ten attempts to get it right.

Black outline is also a special lighting technique that works especially well with objects in glass and is the reverse of white outline. Therefore, the setup is more or less the same as the white outline setup. Again the dice (the three times six is of course again done on purpose), the marbles and a handful of knucklebones in glasses, but this time with the black outline technique.

Ghost also played with dolls in his childhood...boy dolls as they were called. You had a lot of different ones. Big Jim, Action Man, and from some movies or television series in that time also dolls were made. Ghost had a doll of the then hugely popular Six Million Dollar Man (Steve Austin, played by actor Lee Majors) and The Bionic Woman (Jaime Sommers, played by actress Lindsay Wagner). For this photo, in which leather is central as a material, he brought the two together. Ghost wouldn't be Ghost if he didn't give it a naughty twist, of course. Probably the unconscious revenge because the actress in question never replied to the love letter Ghost sent her as a 12-year-old in his best English. Okay, fine for me, I'll just put you in your bare tits 36 years later...although I remember as a teenage child it was quite a disappointment that this Bionic Woman doll had in fact no tits at all.

This photo with the subject stone is actually a very special photo. It all seems very normal. A few toy soldiers standing on stones, each with a different light, red and green. The big secret, however, lies in the stones. Those are not just stones. These are authentic pieces of the Berlin Wall. Ghost was once in Berlin on one of his trips through Europe in the early 90s, and then pieces of the Berlin Wall were still effectively standing, something that is no longer so today. Ghost did something very naughty that day, and with a metal bar that was lying there, pried and knocked off a few pieces of wall, put them in his backpack and took them home. These are not pieces of wall with grafitti on it, neither with so-called certificates of authenticity as they still sell today in Berlin (of course counterfeit and probably made a few days before especially for stupid tourists) but real authentic pieces of Berlin wall. Ghost still has them today, and decided to use them in this photo.

For the wood theme, Ghost went to work with mikado sticks, a bit of sand and a piece of wood that he found in the accessories room of the photo studio. Yes, we had such a special room, and you could find the most wonderful things there, that also boosted your inspiration. This is why students called the room 'André's wonder shop', after the name of the teacher who gave this course. Unfortunately, 'André's wonder shop' no longer exists today. The building where it was located and specifically the basement where the photo studio was located was demolished in 2020 for renovation. The walls of the building have been preserved, but everything that was inside the walls has disappeared and is replaced by a modern part.

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