Photography:
Second Place, Most Creative

Ben Kawaichi
UCLA School of Arts & Architecture

Three Ghosts

Artist's Statement: This is a triptych created from photos taken at the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles. Though I did not have a firm idea about the piece, I knew I wanted to work with the wonderful patterns and shadows found in the buildings. Looking at the prints and thinking about the history and intrigue behind the building (I'm a huge Blade Runner fan), I decided to explore the idea of the hidden and magical side of the world. When working with the scanned images, I began to see figures of ghosts emerging from the shapes. I decided that ghosts would be a perfect topic for this triptych.

It seems that every culture has ghost folklore, usually having to do with the souls of the dead. What interested me, however, was not the idea of ghosts as former humans but rather the notion of an invisible world occurring within our own world. For this piece, I concentrated solely on what the feeling of encountering a ghost would be.

It was very important to have the three images successfully tie in as one, and I felt the color and texture of the images would be essential in achieving this. To this end, I used a similar palate in all three, choosing dull yellows and soft grays as well as a hint of turquoise in order to evoke a spooky, ancient feel. The high contrast was chosen for a surreal quality. The Bradbury Building has wonderfully elaborate tiling and I used an example of each in every picture. To further ensure the three pieces would work as a triptych, I used strong diagonals in the bookend pieces to create cohesion as well as lead the viewer's eye from one to the next.

In terms of the actual ghosts, I colored them a translucent white with a slight red tinge on the edges with an emphasis on coloring their eyes red. I felt this gave them some- thing in common and a personality. I did not want the three of them to be obvious at first glance; instead I wanted the viewer to be drawn to the three red eyes and from there, realize the three spirits.