I must admit that this idea came from “Pushing the Envelope“. Often conceptual inspiration comes to my mind without warning; other times it comes from the challenge of others, stimulating the creative juices.

As far as “Pushing the Envelope” was concerned; I accepted the challenge of putting a seemingly fragile bubble and a blazing flame into the composition, two extremes and one challenge.

Conceptual photography can be a subject matter, and it can also be a subject matter of gold, wood, water, fire and earth.

There is a question that keeps haunting me: “Does a flame have weight? If so, how much does it weigh?”

I don’t have scientific instruments to study this question; after all, I am not a scientist, and I don’t seek evidence and proof in art，but only for the metaphors and motives presented in the picture.

I intend to put two extremes on the scale; one side is the flame, while the other side is the eyeballs.

The props in the conception were all made by me. The scale is a branch with coconut shells, which I hung on the branch with chains.

How to make the flame is quite challenging. The flame lit by alcohol has a blue hue, not my ideal color temperature. Using a cloth to light it, it produced black smoke, which was also not the effect I wanted. Finally, I found that a flame lit with cotton soaked in cooking oil was the most long-lasting and had the right orange tone for my requirements.

I placed a small piece of foil at the bottom of the coconut shell so that it would not burn the shell, and I could continue to re-shoot when the effect was not satisfactory.

The light source was the large window in the studio; it is completely free.

I metered the flames and made sure I would not overexpose them; otherwise the composition would be ruined.

After many attempts, I finally executed the idea.

Can you grasp the metaphor and motive of this composition?

AWARDS

2006

15th. Trierenberg Supercircuit, Austria – Gold Medal

2007

16th. Georgia Southern Exhibition Circuit, USA – 3 x Honour Mention