Jessica Kaufman

Melt

Melt is a social practice project that aims to connect artists with the community that I hope will embrace and engage with their practices. Taking influences from Annie Leibovitz’s style of lighting and Arnold Newman’s compositions, I photographed and interviewed artists in their studios. I asked them about their process, approach, and aspirations. I have created a corresponding Instagram page, @1_800_melt, that will serve as a platform to find all of the artists that this project contains.

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I conducted an interview and then a photoshoot with each of the artists. Asking questions about their process, approach, and aspirations. Annie Leibovitz's stylistic lighting choices are derived from natural light to form her images and then uses a balance of natural and artificial light to create contrast in the image. In my project, I used natural light, when it was available to me to create more dimension in the picture. With the two lights clashing together they can create a more dimensional image to look at instead of a flat one light setup. In framing my images I took inspiration from the king of environmental portraiture, Arnold Newman. He worked in a way where he would create the environment he wanted to photograph in his framing and then place his subject where he felt they would be best highlighted. In doing this he can prioritize each part of the scene, making sure the composition is going to equally show off the subject and its surroundings. I paid close attention to Newman’s explanation of this when setting up my photoshoots with artists after their interviews in order to portray them and their studios in the best way possible.