I thought I’d share this image from a project I started last summer. I spent a few weeks haunting thrift shops wherever I went, looking for the ugliest shirts that I could find. Of course taste is a strictly subjective call, which I more than found out on numerous occasions along my quest for the ultimate ugly apparel. I cringed with dread whenever I took a pile of shirts to the thrift store cashier to purchase them, as many times the cashier or people in line remarked how great the shirt looked or how cool it would look on me. I think there are enough ideas here to fill a book on aesthetic judgment but I’ll leave that aspect to others.
The shirts were hung on black velvet hangers in front of a black background in the studio and then photographed individually. Each shirt was lit by studio flash and then the final composition was composted in PS at a huge size. The final file was near 500MB and strained my computer to the max. Lots of patience was needed because the process was so slow. Finally I had a huge print made around 55”s. The print was mounted on foam core and has been in my local photo stores window for a few months.
*Best viewed large.