December 10 of 2020, DTOX had hired me to document one of the most elaborate and consuming murals I’ve had the liberty of seeing…
and the responsibility of documenting.
As soon as I stepped into Cosmic Clouds, I was consumed by floor-to-ceiling celestial portals taking me through multidimensional experiences that span the entire interior.
Now that the construction is complete and the location is officially open, the only portion of wall not transformed by this masterpiece is lined with large scale canvases painted by the same artist. Beautifully extending the style and thoughtful qualities of DTOX’s art and mind.
First Look During Construction
At every location I shoot, I always start by experiencing the art, not as a job, but only as a fan. That process inherently leads me to my first thoughts of how to photograph the product. I’d say this notion convinces me that I’m doing something that I’m meant to be doing; When genuine observation leads me to thinking of how I can involve my camera; When I almost accidentally think about photography when confronted with inspiration. There is a lot I love to do that does not always give me this notion. Not all that you love to do is what you’re meant to do as a profession, but anything made into a profession should be something you are meant to do.
At this point I’m at the first step of every mural job, making a plan on the fly. Every scenario is so unique. Whether it’s outside or inside, the locations always have obstacles that must be totally eliminated. Here is what all I took note of:
Obstacles
Lighting: An incredible bonus to this artwork is that it was painted in two phases. One phase for natural clear lighting, and another for black-light. This would mean I have to document each wall three different ways, 4 walls just turned into 12! The final images for print ended up being the 50/50 lighting where both clear light and black light were visible in the image. (Limited edition fine art prints may still be available at DTOX’s website, here.)
Daylight Only
50/50
Black-light Only
Angles: The two walls on the ends had an incline two-thirds of the way up that slanted, in towards you, up to the ceiling. This causes distortion to the image based on how close and wide you are versus further back with zooming in. This distortion also effects how the images line up in post when matching up the corners of each wall to stitch together for a panorama.
Bringing three dimensional elements into a project like this makes for several undesirable effects when trying to convert to a two dimensional edit. For example below, if you look at the same corner from two angles, the upper half that slants away from the wall becomes dramatically stretched out and loses its uniformity to the rest of the work:
Distorted Pyramid
Flat Uniform Pyramid
Corners: Not only was this 4 walls, but all four walls connect through the corners ultimately creating one single mural.
[I still want to create one super long edit to account for this but have yet to try it yet.]
