JellyBelly by Florian Müller
Florian Müller's project "JellyBelly" are portraits of jellyfishes. Grainy, disco-colored Jellyfishes in dark water -more specifically Aurelia Aurita and Rhizostomeae. They appear like phantasmagoric alien entities, caught in a fairly, unconstrained dance in the deep, omniferous gloominess. Florian wanted to create photographs like paintings, rough but flimsy pictures. More dejavus than concrete remembrance. This project were shot in aquariums in Cologne, Duisburg and Bonn, Germany.
I like jellyfishes since I was a kid. The moving, like dancing in the water, the fact that they are 98 - 99% made of water, that you can see through them, fascinated me. As long as you are not touched by a toxic one, they are beautiful. I found some aquariums which have some jellyfishes and arranged some time for a shooting. I asked to switch of the background-light in the aquariums and set up some soft light from the sides. Then I covered my lens with some kind of tent made of black molton and four suction cups to attach this construction to the pane. I wanted to create some big, grainy, unreal pictures so I used a high iso number. In times of an endless flood of images and greed for perfection I see the necessity to look into an entirely different direction: The images is not enough, it is the abstraction and the individual view of the beholder, together they reach into and below the surface of customary patterns of conception.
-Florian Müller
Adobe Lightroom and VSCO filters. The VSCO filters are always a great start for me, a great starting point. First I used an old b/w filter like the Fujji Neopan 1600, a grainy film I liked to use when I was shooting on real film. I increased the black, softened the light areas, erased some reflecting particles in the water, adjusted the colors, worked with some color gradients to reproduce the original light in the aquarium. I am working with a Nikon 800E, so the final tiff-pictures are quite big. To enlarge them I use "photozoom", a very powerful tool to create real big pictures. My aim was and is to create real big prints of these "portraits". I just sold one in 1,5 x 1,5 meters and it's impressive!
-Florian Müller
First reaction is "How did you do that? Did you take a night-dive?!" Then it depends if the people are photographers or not. The photographers ask me how I shot through the pane without reflections, asked me if I used pol-filters (no) and where they can get this tent I described above.Usually the responses are great. Due to the fact that these jellyfishes are tiny creatures, it's fascinating to see them in a big size, but not as a macro-"nature"-picture but as an artsy piece of disco-colored, grainy photography.
What did I learn? That I like jellyfishes even more!-Florian Müller
About Florian Müller
Florian Müller's work has been exhibited and published internationally and received numerous awards. After a couple of personal projects, jobs as set-photographer for TV production companies and advertising agencies he developed the desire to progress and to force and establish his way of photographing in order to extend his own artistic and photographically context. In times of an endless flood of images and greed for perfection he saw the necessity to look into an entirely different direction: The images is not enough, it is the abstraction and the individual view of the beholder, together they reach into and below the surface of customary patterns of conception. In this case abstraction is focused on the reduction to certain facts, forms and objects but not as an experience of pure non-objectivity. The imagination of the viewer supplements what is absent; what thematically is not dissolved receives, an invisible layer through the observer. It is a about the evocation of thoughts, associations, emotions and memories.
I checked out that PhotoZoom website... wow I never knew it existed the difference is huge!