The making of: ‘The Impossibility of Love’

The Conception of Probable Dissolution

I Quietly Drowned in Your Illusion

A Combustable Space of Mutual Dependency

Bathe Me in Your Magic

The Science of Sexual Desire and Reproduction

Philip and Alessandra shot the still life objects in front of very large screens in which they projected landscapes especially captured for this series of images. We spent a long time discussing if we wanted to leave the seams of the screens in the final shots (as to give a hint to the viewer that those were real projected landscapes and real built sets). Finally, we decided to keep only the grid pattern which is typical of projected images (below some close-ups of the images and the pattern used). Rather than retouching out the seems, our retoucher Kate asked them to shoot a grey image of the projection. She then created a filter out of that pattern and overlayed it into the existing landscape. One tricky aspect of this technique was that with certain print sizes this caused some rather ugly moiré patterns, so we had to keep the file flexible in a way that allowed us to adapt the size of the screen pattern to different print sizes and printing methods.

The final result was absolutely fantastic as it gave a whole new modern aspect to the series. It also fulfilled Kila & Rusharc’s desire to achieve the right balance between sci-fi, scientific experimentation and picturesque landscapes.

The other challenging task was to blend in the images all the ethereal elements such us smoke, glitter, sparkles.  As it is visible in the making-of the crocodile image (I Quietly Drowned in Your Illusion), lots of elements were shot separately and only afterwards put together and blended in as if shot together…. but the final surrealistic effect of this very strange still life series is incredible!

Here a short animation of the guys at work..

Below the screen pattern used to re-create the projection effect.

And here few details of the images. Click to enlarge 100%.

The Impossibility of Love (detail). Click to enlarge 100%

The Impossibility of Love (detail). Click to enlarge 100%.

The Impossibility of Love (detail). Click to enlarge 100%.

You can read more on Kila & Rusharc by checking their interview on It’s Nice That.

You can read more on ‘The Impossibility of Love’ on their blog!

CREDITS:

Photography: KILA & RUSHARC
Styling and Art Direction: KILA & RUSHARC
Retouching: Kate, Pepe, Sebastian and myself at RECOM FARMHOUSE
Ceramic pot on three legs: DELFINA EMMANUEL