Althouse: "They've shot the potato in such lavish detail and lighting that it looks like a jewel. It also harks back to the famous The Potato Eaters by Van Gogh."

December 3, 2018

"They've shot the potato in such lavish detail and lighting that it looks like a jewel. It also harks back to the famous The Potato Eaters by Van Gogh."

"If you pay attention, you see the beauty in the potato, a huge richness of colours in its skin. Each potato is different. These are portraits of individual potatoes. So, it's both still life and portrait photography."

16 comments:

Rob said...: To take an artistic photograph of a potato, you need a good eye.; 12/3/18, 11:36 AM
tcrosse said...: Keep your eyes peeled.; 12/3/18, 11:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Mr. Potato head drew on the expressive features of a potato. (In the old days, you used a real potato.); 12/3/18, 11:49 AM
Bob Boyd said...: "They've shot the potato in such lavish detail and lighting that it looks like a jewel."

Maybe Hillary should hire these guys.; 12/3/18, 11:58 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Personally, I don't think it looks like a jewel. It just looks like a well-lit potato.; 12/3/18, 12:04 PM
Bob Boyd said...: As does Hillary.; 12/3/18, 12:05 PM
Darrell said...: Looks like a potato to me.
I'll sell you some nice ones for $10 Grand, though. This week only.; 12/3/18, 12:18 PM
Wince said...: Looks like a well-lit asteroid.; 12/3/18, 12:28 PM
Henry said...: More Canadian Potato Museum than Van Gogh.; 12/3/18, 12:28 PM
rhhardin said...: Tomato, potato. Do one of Erato, the greek god of mistakes.; 12/3/18, 12:31 PM
tcrosse said...: "Shooting the Potato" sounds like some arcane sexual practice.; 12/3/18, 1:51 PM
Bilwick said...: I remember a friend of mine who used to complain that whenever he went to the movies, he always ended up sitting next to someone like Mel Brooks' unseen character in his award-winning animated short, "The Critic:" old, Jewish, needing to keep up a running commentary on everything. One day he goes to a Van Gogh exhibit and is standing mesmerized before "The Potato Eaters." The spell, however, is broken by an old woman with a thick Ashkenazic accent (like Brooks in "The Critic" or Zoidberg on "Futurama") standing immediately behind him.

"Boy," she said to a companion, "do I love potatoes." He told me later he felt like whirling around and elbowing her in the face.

(I told this story to a Jewish friend of mine and she said, "We used to go all over the city to torment this anti-Semitic bastard."); 12/3/18, 2:09 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: I don't know where Kamini Sawhney has been (besides India) but photographers have been making images of vegetables since the medium was invented. For instance, Edward Weston's most well-known image Pepper #30 https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/39.208, Paul Caponigro's Apple https://www.artnet.com/auctions/artists/paul-caponigro/apple-2, and others too numerous to list.

The point of doing this, for those artists at least, was to illuminate through photography the miracle of the thing itself , and in this way, the miracle of conscious life that is our gift as human beings.

Of course, these photographers are just shallow jokers to whom everything is a joke. We made portraits-- of potatos! How ironic! How clever we are!

By the way, that potato did not appear to be shot , even with a very small caliber weapon. Perhaps they could try photographing the outcome of such an experiment for their next show.; 12/3/18, 3:42 PM
rhhardin said...: If you want to attract women, put the potato in the front, not the back.; 12/3/18, 5:07 PM
Jupiter said...: tcrosse said...
'"Shooting the Potato" sounds like some arcane sexual practice.'

Or something. I got as far as "They shot the potato..." and just stopped reading. That was enough for me. They had shot the potato. I want to shoot the potato too!; 12/3/18, 8:01 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I'll be in my bunk.; 12/3/18, 10:26 PM