Seamus A Ryan – Shell

I first saw this image a couple of days ago in a photography newsletter that I subscribe to.  It is always a bit of a lottery as to what images I will receive, some have been exceptional and others have been best forgotten, but there is always a variety of genres, without one dominating the other.

This image I received on Monday, with it now being Wednesday, and it has been ruminating at the back of my mind, a visual version of an earworm.  Unusually, what has attracted my wandering eye to the photograph is its sense of beauty, something that I normally rebel against due to my schooling within the post-modernist framework.  Normally when I see a repeating pattern or a sense of balance it leads to me discounting the image as those tools are used too often to promote a photograph that is vacuous when the beauty has been discounted. 

Now this needs some explaining.  One of the tenets of modernism, one of its signature styles is creating a sense of order and this is achieved through repeating patterns.  In this case, what has been repeated is the natural growth of the shell, of how the previous part of the shell is naturally shorter than the next and has led to a recurring spiral, a form that is regular, organised and repetitive.  But it is this repetition that has given the shell its beauty, a regular organic form perfectly organised.  This is also reflected in the shell photographs of Edward Weston.  He produced a series of sublimely beautiful shell photographs in the 1920s, he also photographed a cabbage leaf and pepper which are also exceptionally wonderful, which depict the same qualities of Untitled, and was an influential figure within the modernist art movement.

Seamus Ryan has taken these qualities and built upon those foundations.  Instead of striving to replicate the imagery produced by Weston, Ryan has added his own style and creativity to the image.  Weston’s images are all black and white, whereas Ryan has chosen to use colour (colour film was available in the 1920s, even though it had a slow ISO rating, this would not of been an issue for still life photography).  Ryan has chosen to photograph the shell from above and accentuate its curvature, similar to Weston, but Weston’s version is a shell cut in half with the hole of the shell at the top.  These are compositional changes that add enough difference to suggest a sense of authorship and creativity instead of just merely copying.

But the last element I wish to mention is the veracity of the image.  One of photography’s strengths is its sense of veracity, a component of realism within the image that adds so much.  With the shell it is possible to see the texture, the ridges of its construction, an overwhelming sense of natural beauty that is not clichéd or manufactured, but a strong sense of repetitive elegance.  I could mention the contrast of the lighting, the naturalistic colours or even the golden spiral all aiding the composition, but I am content to just enjoy the photograph and the sense of beauty.

Seamus Ryan's website can be found at:

https://www.seamusryan.com/