cabinet de fumisterie appliquée

in the past my pictures have often relied on the use of soft depth of field to help me establish a particular sense of mood and place. recently i've been admiring a lot of work that manages to do something similar while still maintaining sharp focus. not that i think i'll ever shoot f22 or anything crazy like that, but i have been experimenting with f8 and f11 as opposed to my standard f4.5 or f5.6. to tell the truth, i have found it refreshing to work again with a camera that has f-stops at all (please don't tell my holga). i get the sense that the aesthetic of my work may be headed in a more formal direction altogether, primarily as a result of shooting in a square format, but i'll have to wait to see what the negatives look like to know for sure. i certainly seem interested in finding more subtle ways to direct the mood, especially through the use of composition and gesture.

these images work for me in that regard. i also really like these pictures for their sense of humor. many may find this an odd comparison, but this work kind of reminds me of joel peter witkin's gang of misfits, but in a much sweeter, sunnier way (while i am a huge fan of witkin, i'm not going to link to him because of the graphic and controversial nature of his images, you are obviously welcome google him if you like).

cabinet de fumisterie appliquée; a flickr set:
above: siamese twins/ below: drying women