4/12 EDIT: Photos added. I enjoy photographing different dolls for different reasons. I like photoing Jennifer because she instantly makes photos more amusing and accessible. Her pink hair automatically adds cheer to any set. Plus her small size makes her automatically endearing compared to any large object. Since the world is full of comparatively large objects, Jennifer always looks inviting, cheerful and sympathetic in my photos.

On the other hand, I like photoing Jareth because he looks so weird. His large size makes him closer in scale to real people, but his gangly proportions and angular face give him a stylized, inhuman look. Given his size, he can easily interact with 1:1 props, but his unusually long legs and pointy face constantly remind the viewer that he is a very idealized sculpture, which heightens the sense of weirdness when he is placed next to mundane human-size objects.

I also like taking portraits of him without props because his face especially is so weird, such an angular play of light and shadow, that it easily loses its resemblance to a person and becomes an abstract collection of planes. His face is not realistic at all, which allows me to see him as an object over which light moves in fascinating ways. Seeing him a thing that produces interesting shadows makes me more alert to the possibilities of light, form and mass in my photos and thus makes me a more attentive photographer in some ways.

These thoughts were sparked by a quick photoset I just did, close-ups of Jareth as he stands contemplatively next to the couch, lit by my low living-room light. Nothing special, just playing with planes, abstractions and shadows. I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to upload some selections, though. Right now I need to sleep.