Boo Bitchcraft

Photographing LEGO well is riddled with problems, many of which relate to an issue called ‘dynamic range’; this is to do with how much detail a camera can pick up in dark or light areas. Put simply, if the camera’s exposure is high, you see the details in dark area but the light areas are washed out and vice versa. Normally, when I photograph black LEGO bricks, I need to artificially increase the dynamic range so that you can see both the light and dark areas in detail.

What immediately struck me about Letranger Absurde‘s Boo Bitchcraft is how the concept uses this problem to its advantage, the details within the black have been allowed to disappear, so that unless you really zoom in on the full size image, only the silhouette is left behind . This photograph wouldn’t be as good if the artist had brought out all the tiny variations where the bricks meet up so this, fo me, is a great example of how what is already a great MOC becomes better because is has been presented in a way that compliments what it, as an artwork, is trying to achieve.

But it’s not just the framing and the exposure that impresses me, the build itself is nothing short of a fantastic array of bows and curves that beautifully build up the witch’s ‘classic pin-up’ figure. I love the fact that at first, I wasn’t sure how big it was, I was drawn in, looking for clues, a sign, a brick I could identify that would translate this visual shape into the brick-language that my head understands. Once I found one, I started to see more and this only served to increase my appreciation of the work: The tooth from a 1×1 plate-with-tooth creating the tongue of the boots, the lightsaber hilts and cheese wedges creating the frame of the lamp. It is a build as intriguing as it beautiful.

A masterful example of concept, technique and execution, Letranger Absurde has delivered a stunning work, the use of bows and slopes to construct the shapes involved give it an almost ‘freehand’ appearance, the face, the waist, the hat, the hair, the legs, there isn’t a part of this work that isn’t up to scratch or out of place and the frame completes it in a way that establishes the mood and atmosphere perfectly.

Halloween is coming, and witches are about.

You can see Letranger Absurde’s Boo Bitchcraft here and more of his work here.