Background information: Dale May 1981-present
Dale Hay was born in Chadds Ford, PA in 1981. His family was very musical growing up, so he developed a taste for the arts. He later graduated from Parson’s School of Design in 1993. Dale still lives in New York as he is passionate about music, plays and performances. He has documented various performances such as West Side Story and 9 to 5. Dale has recently found an interest in conceptual Lego photography, mainly in Lego Star Wars so far. Dale May won the Communication Arts Award in 2015 and 2016 for his work.
Dale May’s work is mostly still life and portrait photography. His Lego works tend to be still lifes, with one or more character or piece per photograph with a plain colored background. Dale has also done portraits of Tahitian tribal people, which also use a plainly colored background, as well as photographs of beaches and waves. His portraits not only include Tahitian people but also portraits from musical performances, fashion shows and social events. The works that I am focusing on are his Lego Wars Exhibition pieces. These represent a conceptual representation of Lego mini-figures by combining them with other Lego pieces or other elements to enhance the photo.
Before Dale May’s Lego Wars project, he has mostly been shooting commercial photography. That is, celebrities and advertisements to make a living. He had hit a relatively dry spot in terms of job opportunities and decided to take a picture of a Lego stormtrooper keychain to test out his macro lens. The photograph really connected with him and he began to conceptualize some of his Lego figures with small people inside them and giving them a character. Essentially Dale May’s Lego Wars project came from him testing out a macro lens, and it simply grew from there.
Dale May’s work has influenced my perception of photography. Through his Lego Wars Exhibition he was able to make simple things look much cooler and more attractive than they would otherwise be. Since I grew up with Legos and Star Wars, this has a deep personal connection to my childhood. His work has shown that you can make simple things such as toys look fascinating and show that they are not just toys. Dale’s photographs have also shown me that you can make very cool variations of an image within the photograph by using simple tools such as hues and saturation.
Dale May’s work is mostly still life and portrait photography. His Lego works tend to be still lifes, with one or more character or piece per photograph with a plain colored background. Dale has also done portraits of Tahitian tribal people, which also use a plainly colored background, as well as photographs of beaches and waves. His portraits not only include Tahitian people but also portraits from musical performances, fashion shows and social events. The works that I am focusing on are his Lego Wars Exhibition pieces. These represent a conceptual representation of Lego mini-figures by combining them with other Lego pieces or other elements to enhance the photo.
Before Dale May’s Lego Wars project, he has mostly been shooting commercial photography. That is, celebrities and advertisements to make a living. He had hit a relatively dry spot in terms of job opportunities and decided to take a picture of a Lego stormtrooper keychain to test out his macro lens. The photograph really connected with him and he began to conceptualize some of his Lego figures with small people inside them and giving them a character. Essentially Dale May’s Lego Wars project came from him testing out a macro lens, and it simply grew from there.
Dale May’s work has influenced my perception of photography. Through his Lego Wars Exhibition he was able to make simple things look much cooler and more attractive than they would otherwise be. Since I grew up with Legos and Star Wars, this has a deep personal connection to my childhood. His work has shown that you can make simple things such as toys look fascinating and show that they are not just toys. Dale’s photographs have also shown me that you can make very cool variations of an image within the photograph by using simple tools such as hues and saturation.
Dale May's Pictures |
My Pictures |
I believe my attempt to recreate Dale May's Chewy Burch was a fairly accurate recreation of the original. Of course, since I don't have professional lighting my shadows and glare came out different. The overall color of not only Chewbacca but the background as well came out differently than the original. I could not get the exact color of paper to use as background, and the crayon I used to try to draw the symbol game out an entirely different color. It doesn't look quite as authentic as the original, but is a close recreation.
Again, most of my problems in accurately recreating Dale May's original, Armory, came from poor background and lighting. I was able to find all of the guns and pieces to have everything required to take the picture. However, my guns got a lot more glare from the light and a lot more shadow, making a much deeper contrast between it and the original. I was able to mimic the background shading by using the gradient tool to create the "shadow". I think this is a fairly close recreation.
This was a fairly simple picture to recreate in essence, but harder than expected in reality. It was relatively easy to find the clone required to make the original. I found a background as close to the clone's stripe as I could, in hopes of simply being able to change the hue for each copy then put them all together. However, The whites of the clone came out slightly tinted in the background color, so changing the hue changed the entire clone. I ended up having to replace the background and lowing the saturation to make the clone white, then color the stripes and background manually. It was after all of this that I was able to change the hue and get close copies of the original colors. My clones are more backlit and the colors are slightly less vibrant than the original but I think came out very similar to the original.
Personal Artist's Statement
Legos and Star Wars have been a part of my childhood nearly as long as I can remember. This made it really exciting to recreate Lego Star Wars images when I found Dale May's Lego Wars exhibition. It was not too hard to find all of the pieces and characters required to recreate some of his works, as I never got rid of all my Legos. I chose images that were simple and that I could recreate somewhat easily. The hardest part of the project was getting to coloration and lighting for all of the images to be similar to the originals. Overall I really enjoyed the project because It was a fun flashback to my childhood, getting to sift through a huge tub of Legos looking for that one elusive piece again.
Legos and Star Wars have been a part of my childhood nearly as long as I can remember. This made it really exciting to recreate Lego Star Wars images when I found Dale May's Lego Wars exhibition. It was not too hard to find all of the pieces and characters required to recreate some of his works, as I never got rid of all my Legos. I chose images that were simple and that I could recreate somewhat easily. The hardest part of the project was getting to coloration and lighting for all of the images to be similar to the originals. Overall I really enjoyed the project because It was a fun flashback to my childhood, getting to sift through a huge tub of Legos looking for that one elusive piece again.
Resources
May, Dale. "Dale May Photography / NY." Dale May Photography / NY. Dale May, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
"Dale May Photography | Facebook." Dale May Photography | Facebook. Facebok, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
"Meet the 'Lego Wars' Photographer." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 2 May 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
May, Dale. "Dale May Photography / NY." Dale May Photography / NY. Dale May, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
"Dale May Photography | Facebook." Dale May Photography | Facebook. Facebok, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.
"Meet the 'Lego Wars' Photographer." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 2 May 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.