PictureBook – The Rules of Paranoia – By Benamon Tame
We’re delighted to publish Benamon Tame’s ninth article to his column PictureBook. In PictureBook Benamon concentrates on the the story behind the image. As Benamon himself describes it: ‘As Photographic artists we do not just capture stories but create them, the journey behind and the image we present. PictureBook draws on Images selected from my own story series but will also look at the work of the other story tellers within the community’.
Don’t miss this uber creative article from Benamon, fabulous piece. Over to you Benamon. (foreword by Joanne Carter).
“Delphi watched behind the safety of her jar, dirty glass eye behind stained glass wall.
The other toys moved around like pieces on a strange game, one she was drawn and repulsed by. Above her head her twisted arms and legs twitched and moved unconsciously, her form folded impossibly as only a toy could.
From the curve of her jar Babel swam into view, the face at the top of her tiered body snaking down and his many hands wrapping round her jar until all she could see was his face and a wall of palms.
His eyes opened and she felt herself laid open to his gaze.
Delphi whimpered and Babel whispered, laying each word in her head like stones on a Go board, adding to the stones he had laid before. Each time he had spoken to her she had denied him and refused to answer but each time he returned and asked again it became harder to stand against him, his will encircling hers.
She would not share her visions, images of desolation and the House but Babel would always return”.
“The closing of the toy room and her awakening was not an easy time for Delphi and she had retreated from the room. Always a curious toy, her nature and her fear had fought against each other and in a strange compromise she had hidden in a jar. Given time she might have overcome the shock of her birth but whatever power had given the toys life had not entirely left her. Like Babel she still had some tie to the Other and it came to her in rare moments.Her eyes beheld other things and her fear was renewed, cowering from the past and the future.
Babel has seen the ripples of her gaze from his own visions and has sought her out to make her share what she has seen and use her to add to his future map.
Delphi is named after the ancient greek city which was the home to one of the preeminent oracles in the ancient world. The priestess of the temple of Apollo, known as the sybil or Pythia would enter a trance and her words were copied interpreted by her acolytes. I had originally intended the character to just be a bad agoraphobic but once i had decided on her name In the (ever expanding!) story Babel served Loki to try and a find a way out of the toy room and even though he is now in exile Babel has continued and believes Delphi’s visions may give him more. Babel will eventually win her over but her visions will offer him little, her head filled with disjointed images from a dark future where the Music box wall has fallen and a hungry Barrow House has devoured all.
In creating Delphi I started with a shot of the jar and a selection of images of doll parts. The head was deformed using Mirage and then added to the image of the jar using Juxtaposer. The new image and the original jar shot were then blended together using Blender to give the effect of the head in the jar.
The arms and legs were then added in Juxtaposer, and then blended in using Blender. I then started adding texture to the image using Iris photo suite. Textures were added and then selectively removed using the Apply with Mask option. The piece was then pushed through the grunge option in Snapseed and then fine tuned.Blur and Vignette was then added with Pictureshow.
For the typewriter remix the frame was created using the Slide frame in Lo-Mob and then cropped. Texture was added using Iris Photo suite and ScratchCam. Text was added with Phonto and the tape effect using Labelbox.
With all the Typewriter remixes I have added text as part of the background, this is usually a dictionary definition of the characters name. This is a screen cap from The Free Dictionary app which I then blend in to the image using Blender”.
Apps used: Iris Photo Suite, Snapseed, Phonto, Labelbox, Pictureshow, ScratchCam, Lo-Mob, Juxtaposer, Mirage, Blender and The Free Dictionary
Benamon Tame
Benamon is a UK based Photographer, iPhone photographer, writer and Gothic Surrealist. His work has been featured on iPhone photgraphy websites and blogs of note. International Galleried artist including the Mobile Photography Awards 2012, the International iPhoneography Show, LA Mobile Arts Festival 2012 and most recently the Light Impressions at Art Basel Miami.
One Comment
Catherine
Wonderful Benamon! Oh, Delphi is sad to me…I want her to hold out against Babel!