1. Personal Background: Name: Shelly Corbett Shelly Corbett is a toy photographer that has been taking photos for 10+ years. Shelly Corbett found her interest in toy photography while in a tuff time in her life. She was going through a midlife crisis and as she just had a second child, she lost the motivation to do photography. But while she was at a friend's Lego photography convention something clicked for her, and she found the motivation and drive to do start again. Because of that she corrected her life and found the importance of doing photograph with toys. as of now she has the privilege of traveling to places she could never dream of visiting and is doing a grand opening of LEGO House, and multiple toy photography meetups in the United States as of 2022.
2. Style: Shelly Corbett uses a very interesting style of still life photography that really interested me. She works in toy photography, specifically, Lego figures. She goes outside in a forest or small puddle and puts Lego figures in the natural environment based on their appearance. This makes her have some limitations in the photos because of how much variety and diversity Lego figures actually have. The photos capture a close up on a figure doing something in the wilderness that most other photographers don't do or have. The background is blurred, and the focus is on the figure and what that figure is doing. She sometimes uses more than one figure and doesn't do headshots of them but takes photos instead of what they are doing to im ply that they don't know that Shelly is even taking the photo.
3. Philosophy: Shelly Corbett tries to let the toys she takes photos of tell the story, so that may be a group traveling, someone meditating alone, or a figure traveling a huge sea. The major idea Shelly tries to tell is that toy photography is a form of communication, a natural storytelling method and a terrific way to connect with your inner child. All of those things connect to Shelly in a way that makes her want to continue to create theses photos. It is very personal to Shelly, and it is connecting to her past or inner child as a way of her coping with past trauma in her life, and connecting with the inner child heals that trauma. This is one of the ideas in her work because other people may be facing the same problems that Shelly confronted and the action of going back to your childhood will help heal and cope with the trauma that you may have faced.
4. Influences: Shelly Corbett has influenced me because her story and form of photography is something that I really admire, since I love looking back at my past and how much I cherished things as a child. This form of photography makes me remember those things that I used to love, like Legos, and inspires me to continue to do things that I love. My work now will incorporate more of my past and more of the things I treasure. This will allow me to experiment more with my work and allow me to love my work to the fullest extent.
For the first photo, I tried to get the same angle and feel as Shelly's photo by getting the same red background and perspective of the photo. I didn't get the same string that batman is swinging on though or the same seat. I also didn't get that "in motion" feel as Shelly's photo because in hers, Batman looks like he's in motion and holding onto the swing, not being forced to hold on like in mine. In general, I feel like I captured Shelly's overall feel of the photo well.
For this photo I tried to get the same background and foreground as Shelly's photo which I feel like I did well on because I didn't copy it exactly, but I added a different take onto it. I also feel like I did a good job making Patrick the main focus of the photo like Shelly's. I didn't get the wet and cold feel to the photo though, and that the subject was actually in the rain or mist. I think like this was my best recreation of the three photos I did and am very happy with end result.
My First Surf
SURF TO LIVE (Corbett) Link: https://shellycorbett.com/product/blank-greeting-card-surf-to-live/
For this final photo I attempted to create the same feel as Shelly's beach scene, but in an artificial way, and so for the place I had to take the photo I thought I did well. I also felt like I did nicely in making the subject, Stich, the same as Shelly's. I don't think I did well on the background and how there's a gradient of colors and not just one color. Also, I sense that I didn't get good lighting on Stich. But besides from those things I believe that I did a good job on recreating it.
Artist Statement
I loved spending the time taking these photos, since they really reminded me of playing with Legos when I was a child. I had some problems picking the photos I would recreate because I needed the Lego figure and most of Shelly's photographs had figures I did not own. But through some digging I was able to find three of Shelly's photographs to recreate which tell the story of the simple pleasures of childhood. The first photo I chose to recreate was (Holy Fairy Godmother!!), this photo represents the delight of childhood while playing outside on a swing set. The second photo I chose was (Starfish Trooper), this photo represents the imagination of childhood and how you can imagine almost anything through dress up and pretend play. The third and final photo I chose to recreate was (Surf to Live), this photo represents the new experiences of childhood and how when you're a child you experience everything for the first time so that first experience can make a greatly impact. Surfing for the first time, like in the photo, can be a big experience of someone's childhood.