As promised in Dutch Designer Marcel Wanders Part 1 and Part 2, here are pictures I would not have taken before I saw the Marcel Wanders Pinned Up exhibit at the Stedelijk and a bit about what’s different.
Wanders emphasized story in his work usually by adding the human form. That got me to thinking about the difference between object, scene, mood and story. Object, scene, mood, story form concentric circles around the subject of an image no matter what the medium. The wider the images reaches, the great potential for viewers to engage.
A few weeks after the show, while at the Lan-Su Chinese Gardens in Portland, my first impulse was to make photographs of flowers (object). However, I remembered Wanders emphasis on story, surface detail, crafts, and his rejection of minimalism. I pulled back from the object.

As a result, the image goes from object (flower) to scene (flower in garden). Wanders also paid particular attention to surface detail.

The contrast in the above image between leaves, rough stone, mossy tile, regular brick and slick glass, the soft surface and the hard ones begins to make you wonder where this place is and how it can exist so near to downtown. (It begins to evoke a story.)

This photo juxtaposes oasis and bustle. A couple walking over the bridge would have activated a story here. Who are they? Why are they here? What is their relationship to each other?
At the Holocaust Memorial in Washington Park, broken possessions litter the path leading to the memorial referring to people in flight. Two people stand at the memorial reading names.

When you add humans or references to humans, a story almost immediately appears. Spent blossoms in the foreground and an older couple in the background at Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, Netherlands give this photo an extra layer of complexity.

Elsewhere in the gardens a man takes a photo of two young women.

What is his relationship to them? Elsewhere at Keukenhof, a flower-fatigued couple takes a break.

Object, scene, mood, story form concentric circles around the subject of an image no matter what the medium. The wider the images reaches, the great potential for engagement. When I went back to photographing one of my favorite subjects / objects flowers, I brought this experience of seeing with me. I have tried to photograph them in a way that alludes to story or steps along the continuum from object, scene and mood to story. I have also made better use of titles and captions to tell the story.
Here’s an example with mood:

Here’s an example post-Wanders with a sense of relationship between the object and the scene and context:

And lastly, here’s one with allusion to story.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it!
For other posts on Amsterdam see:
[…] my next post, I’d like to share with you how I applied what I learned from exposure to Wanders to my own […]
Lots of food for thought here. Adding enough to tell a story certainly gives more depth to the photo. The Keukenhof photos brought back great memories of Carolyn. We visited the garden in 2007 after the Paris Marathon. We took lots of photos at the entry area thinking this was the centerpiece of the entire park.. we soon learned the magnificence went on and on.
thanks so much for sharing.
Connie Linton
Hi Connie,
It sounds like you made good use of your trip with Carolyn! It is a huge park. It took me 5 hours just to wander through and I could have spent more hours. Thanks for reading and for sharing your memories! Jennifer
My favorite is the tree peony in context. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of textures and the repetitive use of the red color.
Hi Cindy,
Thanks for letting me know! That crazy mix of textures certainly makes me curious and the red throughout in the flower, tile and brick is an element I had overlooked. Thanks for calling that out! Thanks for reading and commenting!
An excellent and beautifully crafted post!
Thank you K C and thanks for reading! Wanders work was on my mind so I thought I would share.
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