I love to be challenged. Wether it’s through my studies, my work or games. I believe that challenges are the best way to help us grow beyond ourselves and keep working towards a better self. My favorite way to be challenged though, is through puzzles.
Because of that, I recently got my hands on a bunch of puzzles from @rombolde and looked for an opportunity to challenge myself again. This time, the challenge was not only to solve the puzzles, but do so in a way that looks great when captured on camera. These are the results.
For me, the main aspect of amusements like these interlocking puzzles are the wonder they create in my mind. It’s like they create a dedicated space for my mind to go play, experiment and experience wonder in a way I used to as a child. You may call it a throwback into these times. It’s a way to escape stress and relief the burden of uncertainty and gives your mind and your hands something to play with. It connects the intellect with the physics of your body.
I wanted to capitalize on this feeling through the images I created. I wanted to create the illusion of a bigger scene in which the puzzles where placed. The feeling of „static“ had no place in my vision and I tried to capture these images as a peek into the “world of wonder“.
When throwing myself the challenge of photographing these puzzles, I wanted to make sure they didn’t feel „static“ or „boring“ in any way. Puzzles are meant to be used and played with, they’re not designed to sit on a shelf – although let’s be honest some of them look so good you could use them to decorate your house. I wanted the puzzles to feel like someone was playing with them and give the images energy and life.
This is the reason why I didn’t just style a scene and lighting environment for the puzzles. I decided to solve the puzzle in a ready styled scene and photograph the entire solving process. Through this, I was able to capture the puzzles „in action“and include movement and my hands in the images.
The color palette for this was challenging to match, but needed to be effective. Through lots of red and brown tones in the wooden parts of the puzzles, the perfect match was a simple and subtle integration of the complimentary color to red: green.