Interviewer: Insistent blogger (N)
Interviewee: Almoutasim Al-Maskery, Photographer (A)
N: Looking at this picture, what can you say about it?
A: Is it a painting?
N: Yeah
A: Very accurate in it.
N: What can you say about the "Camera Obscura" method alledgedly employed? He set up a box with a lens in it....whats that about?
A: A light going through a small hole then getting...flipped. Its like a pinhole.
N: What about the lens?
A: We actually see things upside down. Through the hole, thats the way the we could see things when it reflects on a wall like in those days. But with a lens, it fixes the image so we see it the "right" way up.
N: Oooh, thats so cool!
N: So what about his method? Why is his use of lighting intelligent? More recognized than other artists..
A: His lights give an accurate shadow. But you don't usually see the light shadow around the face. Its usually darker than in the painting.
N: Where?
A: Around the neck, they would be black. So his skill was in making the details in the shadow show. Let me demonstrate something to u....
Try this: Al grabs a newspaper and makes a tiny pinhole in it. A window with blinds on it is behind him, with light shining through. On a desk, infront of the window, he holds the pinholed newspaper closely to a white piece of paper.
I observe on the white piece of paper...the shadow of the blinds reflecting on the blank paper on a small scale.
It looks beautiful.
N: DUDE!
A: (Laughing)
N: So he would use the lens to flip the images...
A: The image you saw was distorted, the lens flipside upside down, yes.
N: What can you say about the "light source"...was it real or imaginary?
A: It was kept in, emphasizing probably, that lights coming from a window. Theres a dilema here. Its probably coming from a window hitting the subject but its probably from a different room - from a pinhole. Light from the window, hitting the subject, reflected on the pinhole he's drawing from.
The other alternative, [that the light] is not there so he imagined it. He created a lightsource in his head coming from an imaginary window located high up above [Mary's] face. The reflection you see in the mirror, the top right corner.
N: Freaking wow. But how could all the subjects be lit the same way?
A: Its not very accurate. The lightsource from the top should be hitting her (martha) more intensely on the head...
N: Both head
A: No only the one.
N: Any final words?
A: Its amazing how humans could use light with advantages to make like easier for them to reach their visual goals.
N: :)
After this interview, I realised the importance of taking at least one photography class if not minoring in it in some way. As an artist, one of the biggest obstacles for me when depicting reality is understanding how shadows fall on people or objects.
It may be scientific, but learning the fundamentals of it - something Caravaggion clearly mastered, would allow me to manipulate and exaggerate the shading.
Much like how our ancient ancestors accentuated the bust and female body parts to depict fertility - Caravaggio exagerrated shadows to depict drama.
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