Anatomy of a Photograph by Patrizia Piga

I used a still-life table, a Fatif studio stand with an Hasselblad 500CM on it, and a Leaf Mamiya digital back. Hasselblad 120 macro lens. The light came from Profoto Strobo Flashes. The image was edited with Photoshop CS6

Patrizia Piga was born in Torino, Italy. She attended studies related to advertising graphics and meanwhile the university in Foreign Languages. She has 20 years of experience in food photography, gained in Turin’s studio Piga&Catalano, that creates shots especially for major italian food brands’ packaging.

The transition from analo- gue to digital shooting leads her to get especially passionate in post production, which becomes part of her work, and awakens an old passion for drawing and illus- tration. So, in 2015 she decided to launch her first indipendent art project – a series of surreal photos, inspired by the universe of food, which could be described with the term Foodscape. With her working partner Flavio Catalano carries out the project Mystic Light, a series of still lifes inspired by the light and the compositions of the Flemish painters. Both projects participating in exhibitions and publications and are also used for advertising purposes.[Official Website]

Phantasmagorical / Patrizia Piga

Can you explain us the idea or the story behind this image?

This photo was commissioned by Air China and Slow Food China to be part of an installation, during Ciao&Bridge Event, the celebration of 50 years of cultural and economic relations between Italy and China, in 2015 and I was given total freedom on the creativity. One morning as I was waking up I had a vision: I saw two stacks of teacups which to me were forming the Great Wall of China.

I remember I burst out laughing, because I found the scene really funny, but mostly because, the name in Italian, La Grande Muraglia, sounds in rhyme with La Grande Brodaglia, which is Italian for “The Great Broth”. I mean, I already had the scenery complete with the title all at once! In the foreground, the Air China logo is displayed on the first cup. The idea being, every morning the sun rises and fills cups with a scented, magic and warm beverage, the same comfort you find flying with them. A visionary and ironic image.

Can you explain us what equipment you used for its realization?

I used a still-life table, a Fatif studio stand with an Hasselblad 500CM on it, and a Leaf Mamiya digital back. Hasselblad 120 macro lens. The light came from Profoto Strobo Flashes. The image was edited with Photoshop CS6, a Mac Pro computer with LaCie monitor

Tell us how it is taken from the most technical aspect.

I took all the shots of these image in my studio. It is composed of many different elements, all of them taken one by one on the still-life table. First of all, I sketch the idea, or my envision on a paper sheet. As I do this, I decide which perspective, which proportions and the direction the light comes from.

Then I get all the food elements, in a supermarket so that I can choose accurately every piece. In this case though, I bought all the vegetables in a local market chinese bench, so that I could build the wood behind the Great Wall. While shooting them, each separately, I decide what to shoot with the light and what stays in the shadow.I assemble all the elements with Photoshop, during the second important process of this image, the photo editing.

What problems and challenges did you face when you took the shot of this image?

From the beginning to the end, it was all a matter of problem solving. The purpose of the image was to make the viewer relate immediately to The Great Chinese Wall, even tough it was made of tea cups. After an accurate research I found the best possible point of view. I had to place all the cups in the right perspective, and so the tofu cubes composing the path.

The main challenge was to give the sense of reality on a first glance, even tough it is a product of imagination and fantasy.People who looks at it must be convinced it deals with something real in its utopistic impossibility. So I tried to be particularly accurate in layering shadows and depth. It was particularly hard to place the logo on the first cup, as it had to give the idea of being rippled because of the tea. Eventually, the making of the wood was very long and also a bit boring! Hundreds of Chinese vegetables arranged in perspective.

We are talking about the postproduction process. How do you get the final result?

The postproduction process, or the image editing here is a huge part of the photo building. As I already said, I use Photoshop for all the editing work flow.I made a selection of each element with Path Selection Tool to obtain hundreds of layers. Some of them already combine, all this due to the right control of light and shadows directly while shooting. Some others required to be adjusted with Edit /Alter, sometimes with the Liquify Filter.

I adjust each layer by using correction mask levels, so that I can get to the starting level wherever I want. So I use these levels combined with curves and all the appropriate chromatic adjustments. I made all the vapor and fog effects with curves and layers masks, using brushes with various adjustments to create the effects, the same process as with hand-drawing. The final atmosphere and the right feeling of surrealism were obtained simply by postproduction.

 

More Stories

Yucel Basoglu : Fine Art Photography

Yucel Basoglu : Fine Art Photography

I think black and white photography is the best technique that shows you the purity in human and in nature.
Love for dinner by Tomassco

Love for dinner by Tomassco

Tomassco-a fashion photographer, born in a small town of Kelme in Lithuania. Discovered an interest in photography at 10, shooting friends and first selfies.
The Carousel

The Carousel

In the small town of Binghamton, New York there spins a 1925 carousel that once inspired Rod Serling and has since become a portal into...the Twilight Zone.
https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/bannerpr.jpg

We invite you to participate in the first edition of the Portrait Photography Awards. Our call is open to any artistic interpretation of portrait photography.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BAnImage.jpg

ImageRights provides intelligent image search and copyright enforcement services to photo agencies and professional photographers worldwide.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mono2022.jpg

The best 100 images along with the winning images published in the yearly book “Monochromatic – Best Photographers of 2022”

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/banner24.jpg

Call For Entries #24 | After 23 editions and more than 100 published photographers, our print edition has proven to be a simply effective promotional channel.

Patagonia by Nias Zavatta

Patagonia by Nias Zavatta

Patagonia. Suspended atmosphere is silence, is no time around us. More you go down throw South America and more you start a deep dialogue with loneliness and frailty. Nature becomes the main part of this relation: it just enters, sometimes with violence sometimes with gentleness. 
From the ordinary daily flow; SurReally by Nico Chiapperini

From the ordinary daily flow; SurReally by Nico Chiapperini

My mum was a teacher in a primary school. I was eight years old when I went with her on a school trip to a Jurassic Park for children. There I took some pictures of fake dinosaurs with my father’s SLR. It was my first time and I used two rolls of film.
The Monks of Myanmar by Iñigo Bravo

The Monks of Myanmar by Iñigo Bravo

Myanmar is a religious country with more than 85% of the population practice buddhism. It’s common for children spend period of time as a monk in a temple and at the end decide to come back with parents or follow holy religion.
Hairless dogs; Prophecy by Sophie Gamand

Hairless dogs; Prophecy by Sophie Gamand

The physical qualities of hairless dogs and the mystery surrounding them inspired me to create a gallery of faces like old wise men or philosophers, shamans from a different era, maybe a different universe.
Siggi’s World by Frédérick Carnet

Siggi’s World by Frédérick Carnet

Siggi is a strange person who can’t let you staying stoical. The day after my arrival in Iceland, at Grindavìk campsite, I meet Jeff, a Quebecer.
Daria Djalelova ; Do not Forget

Daria Djalelova ; Do not Forget

Now she is 82 years old and she didn’t forget this terrible time. She often shows to me her father’s photos. She saw him at the last time when he had left her and sat in the last train.
Unwrapped by Gary Sheridan

Unwrapped by Gary Sheridan

The Unwrapped series touches on aspects of the human psyche, individualism, perfectionism, escapism, overall a sense of self-obsession self-destructing.
Delhi – A City Brimming with Life by Amlan Sanyal

Delhi – A City Brimming with Life by Amlan Sanyal

The sheer volume of people, the crumbling infrastructure merging with 21st century ambition, the bamboozling bazaars, and the ancient ruins and sprawling temples peppered throughout the metropolis all combine to create a city without equal.  
Aloe kingdom by Daria Nazarova

Aloe kingdom by Daria Nazarova

“Aloe” is a secret kingdom created by Yana Perovskaya in 2011 at her own expense with the help of two close friends.
On the margin of roads by Ricardo Teles

On the margin of roads by Ricardo Teles

In the last five decades, there have been big internal migratory movements among the Brazilian regions, with great consequences to the history of the country.
Lucio Farina : India – The colors of life

Lucio Farina : India – The colors of life

This is part of a story of my journey between Varanasi and Rajasthan State during the winter of 2016. India is not the easiest place to visit, is big, busy, crowded, incredible in any sort of way.
A profession which disappears in Europe; La Vallée des Larmes by Alexis Vettoretti

A profession which disappears in Europe; La Vallée des Larmes by Alexis Vettoretti

The world of mine is a world apart, where religion is omnipresent, it is a profession that is still dangerous to our time.
By the river

By the river

The last thing Ian expected when he finally built a bridge to freedom for a group of enslaved prostitutes in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, was the confronting realisation that opportunity was not enough.
The Red Saint by Peter Kemp

The Red Saint by Peter Kemp

For Dutch photographer Peter Kemp the storytelling element is essential in his photography. “It has to be open to different interpretations, making people look more carefully at the picture, triggering them to create stories from it.”
Inside the Camera Bag of Alex Righetti

Inside the Camera Bag of Alex Righetti

The essential tools for my work is of course photography gear with an emergency cleaning kit. Although arguable, in my case the lens choice strictly depends on which session, or travel, I have planned.
Interview with Max Caffel, owner of 31 Studio

Interview with Max Caffel, owner of 31 Studio

The 31 Studio / The Platinum Printroom is the foremost specialist for Platinum and Platinum-Palladium printing in the United Kingdom.

Featured Stories

Portraits by Richard Ansett

Portraits by Richard Ansett

My style and relationship to photography has been built from this foundation and I have come to realize that my fascination with other people’s lives is entirely relative to my own lack of understanding and sense of dislocation.
India; Pilgrims and faith by Olivier Borson

India; Pilgrims and faith by Olivier Borson

My interest for photography dates from my adolescence with my passion for astrophotography. I expanded my field of view and I began to photograph my surroundings.
Portrait of the Aryans by Abhishek Nandy

Portrait of the Aryans by Abhishek Nandy

Beyond the rich heritage of monasteries, the spirit of Buddhism, the captivating Landscapes and the Indus, one specific facet of Ladakh which has always fascinated me is the legendary inhabitation of pure-blooded Aryans in this parts of the region.
Curious Devices by Jeanette May

Curious Devices by Jeanette May

Curious Devices project was selected and published in our print edition 23. Jeanette May’s still lifes reveal our complicated relationship with obsolete technology by juxtaposing the seductive designs and the inner workings of Curious Devices. Her photographs display a reverence for finely crafted merchandise, industrial design, and scientific wonders.
White background : White is not a color by Tine Poppe

White background : White is not a color by Tine Poppe

In the days following the 22nd of July 2011 terrorist attack by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, the streets of Norway were filled with colorful roses and speeches of love conquering extremism, fear and xenophobia.
Looking Out from Within by Julia Fullerton-Batten

Looking Out from Within by Julia Fullerton-Batten

During the days prior to the pandemic I was ultra-busy planning a photographic shoot with a large team of people, assistants, stylists, hair and make-up team, prop stylists, set designers etc.
The scars of war; Friendship Village by Kip Harris

The scars of war; Friendship Village by Kip Harris

The scars of war are deep and long lasting. That is particularly true of the Vietnam War. An entire generation along with their families, children, friends, and society
The Tribal Heartland of India by Tania Chatterjee

The Tribal Heartland of India by Tania Chatterjee

Bastar is the tribal heartland and treasure trove of ancient Indian culture. Today Bastar, is a part of the State of Chhattisgarh, India. It is a land of undiscovered surprises, with mysterious forests, breath-taking waterfalls
Keyhole by Erwin Olaf

Keyhole by Erwin Olaf

This is what you see when peering through the keyhole of Erwin Olaf´s installation. A girl in a red coat sitting on the floor. A woman, with her back towards the camera.
Secret garden by Fenqiang Liu

Secret garden by Fenqiang Liu

Secret garden was selected and published in our print edition 21. Spring, many nesting pairs of Great Egrets gather at Kraft Azalea Garden in Central Florida, the United States to begin their nesting rituals. I was inspired to share with the world the beauty of the Great Egrets.
Street Stories by Castro Frank

Street Stories by Castro Frank

Contemporary Street Photographer, Castro Frank was born on August 28th, 1983. This Los Angeles native’s style of photography fuses together a journalistic approach with an artistic eye to create imagery.
Love for Uganda by Victoria Knobloch

Love for Uganda by Victoria Knobloch

Many times I already traveled to Uganda and have gained a lot of insight. But I travel there not only for photography, but also because of my humanitarian project Deseret Foundatione.
Greatest jockeys; Fortza Paris by Marco Cheli

Greatest jockeys; Fortza Paris by Marco Cheli

Fortza Paris; Marco Cheli’s project was selected and published in our print edition 16. Over the years, until today there are many young Sardinians, specifically from Barbagia, who leave their island with the dream of becoming a jockey of the Palio di Siena.
Woman by Zuzu Valla

Woman by Zuzu Valla

They say,Life is a fightíí and I´ve learned how to fight in the ring of life from my parents. Tibor Sopor, multiple boxing champion of Czechoslovakia and my mum who gave me all her love.
Wet-plate collodion process; My America by Rashod Taylor

Wet-plate collodion process; My America by Rashod Taylor

With this work I want the viewer to get a good look at what it is like living in America as a Black man. I use the wet-plate collodion process to connect the past to the present and explore the atrocities of slavery and Jim Crow
The Story Of one Family by Anna Galley

The Story Of one Family by Anna Galley

This story is about my grandmother. She is now 90 years old. She has 5 children, 10 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren. This story shows how one person is able to pull together a large family and keep  love in this family for many years.

Trending Stories

Interview with Gili Yaari; Published in our print edition #01

Interview with Gili Yaari; Published in our print edition #01

Gili Yaari is an Israel-based photojournalist specializing in documentary and news photography, covering daily issues all over Israel and in West Bank settlements including spot news, religious events, political and social issues.
Indonesia; Moto Bali by Florian Ritter

Indonesia; Moto Bali by Florian Ritter

For the Europeans or the North Americans, being the by far most frequent travellers seem to be amazed, astonished and fascinated by the simple life style, paired with an ongoing healthy approach to life.
Fashion Photography: Blendscapes by Studio Elsien Gringhuis And Photographer Tse Kao

Fashion Photography: Blendscapes by Studio Elsien Gringhuis And Photographer Tse Kao

Fashion designer Elsien Gringhuis’ designs of her latest capsule collection are an abstraction of the landscapes of the Dutch Island Schiermonnikoog. She incorporated photographer Tse Kao’s photographs of the islander landscapes.
The state of emotional destruction; Bandage Portrait by Kai Nagayama

The state of emotional destruction; Bandage Portrait by Kai Nagayama

This series I named Bandage Portraits. It is meant to explore the state of emotional destruction and resilience. It is so easy to be ignorant to your own feelings even though you are aware of them.
Stift Rein – The oldest active Cistercian monastery in the world by Mathias Kniepeiss

Stift Rein – The oldest active Cistercian monastery in the world by Mathias Kniepeiss

The monastery in South of Austria was built 1129. It has amazing facilities and rare treasure from different time periods. The library contains more than 100.000 books, incunables and manuscripts.
The Langtang Survivors by Jan Møller Hansen

The Langtang Survivors by Jan Møller Hansen

Hundred disappeared when entire villages and homes in Langtang were wiped out when landslides, avalanches and icefalls caused by the two earth quakes that hit Nepal on 25. April and 12. May 2015.
Waterscape by Hengki Koentjoro

Waterscape by Hengki Koentjoro

Captured in its various countenances, water poses in these series as an enchanting backdrop to the centre stage figures. It roars through the gaps among a group of stoical rocks and it dances around a water temple creating a mystical mist.
Incognito by Hakim Boulouiz

Incognito by Hakim Boulouiz

One of the most unusual ways would be being hidden, unknown, completely erased in urban dynamics, athe opposite of contemporary society’s pressure, hoping to find some peace and inner harmony.
Larry Louie – A Working Day In Dhaka, Bangladesh

Larry Louie – A Working Day In Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bangladesh has experienced one of the highest and most rapid urban population increases in the world. Dhaka city has a huge population of 14 million with over 300,000 migrants arriving annually.
The Delightful “Abuse” of the Flat-bed Scanner by Chana Bar Rashi

The Delightful “Abuse” of the Flat-bed Scanner by Chana Bar Rashi

The medium of scanography – using a flat-bed scanner – is a fascinating possibility to show the natural world in a completely new way. 
Xinjiang: Identities on Borrowed Time by Maxime Crozet

Xinjiang: Identities on Borrowed Time by Maxime Crozet

On the North-Western borders of China lies the immense region of Xinjiang (literally, “New Frontier”). Until a few years ago, the region had a majority of Uyghurs, a Sunni Muslim people speaking a Turkic language, and also included Kazakh
Fisherman’s daughter by Dasha Raiskaya

Fisherman’s daughter by Dasha Raiskaya

It’s better to go fishing alone. Immerse yourself in the process. In silence. Without being distracted by extraneous sounds. Focus and imagine that you are pulling out a big fish.

Other Stories

stay in touch
Join our mailing list and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest stories, opportunities, calls and more.
We use Sendinblue as our marketing platform. By Clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Sendinblue for processing in accordance with their terms of use
We’d love to
Thank you for subscribing!
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted.
- Between 10/30 images of your best images, in case your project contains a greater number of images which are part of the same indivisible body of work will also be accepted. You must send the images in jpg format to 1200px and 72dpi and quality 9. (No borders or watermarks)
- A short biography along with your photograph. (It must be written in the third person)
- Title and full text of the project with a minimum length of 300 words. (Texts with lesser number of words will not be accepted)
This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Contact
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted. This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation.
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Get in Touch
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.