Samantha Everton - Vintage Dolls Exhibition at Dickerson Gallery...

Vintage Dolls is a show of thirteen carefully staged and immaculately produced photographs that explore themes of childhood, the uncanny and enchantment. Set in a world somewhere between dreams and waking, haunted girls inhabit strange rooms alongside shadows, wolves, dolls, and forests, where they morph into princesses, witches and prisoners.

Vintage Dolls is a successful exhibition showcasing Everton’s skill in theme, composition and production and proves her insight in to the power of childhood symbolism. Most interesting about the show is the way it demonstrates, either deliberately or by accident, the power of the child in art. That we as visual creatures, having come to know the world through our own childhoods, relate so strongly to these symbols. The image of the child runs far deeper than aesthetics or titillation and is a subject that demands our full and proper attention, requiring the viewer to exercise a more thorough process of self reflection as to how we should react to depictions of children within contemporary culture.



Masquerade
Pigment ink on rag
900 x 1080 mm

The above image has a very simple but effective lighting setup. A main fill light filling the scene from the right. As well as a warm (summerish) light gently flowing in from the rear windows.
I really like this image for the use of the props and the nostalgic feel it gives the image. The idea of fresh faced young girls and these old fashioned, rusted objects they are interacting with. I also dig the green wallpaper walls/floor and its relationship with the yellow light, looks beautiful.


Dark Bloom
Pigment ink on rag
900 x 1080 mm

The image above has a lighting setup consisting of a soft fill light from the left of shot. There is also flash placed behind the pram. The simple composition in this image really works well. The power of childhood symbolism is really displayed in this image with the young girl dressing in womens clothing and pushing a 'child' in a pram. A child that is physically to big for the pram...a lot underlying themes are going on.