Sabrina Brooks -Weekly Artist Post- Does that Chicken Have a Necklace?!: The Art of Peter Lippmann

Peter Lippmann

1. The answer is, “Yes, that is a chicken wearing a necklace.” This sort of abnormality can be expected from photographer and designer Peter Lippmann.  Peter Lippmann was a photographer whom was born in America and migrated to Paris over the course of his career. His style is high-contrast with significantly shadowed forms. To relate him to another artist, Lippmann is a modern-day Caravaggio with a camera. Casting dramatic shadows that emphasize the death and decay in otherwise normal still-lifes.   He most likely combines high aperture and ISO with photo manipulation to create these sharp, strikingly vivid compositions. Enrapturing the viewer with enhancing the beauty of the vibrant color of various fruits and other vegetation with perfectly placed drop shadow.
2. Lippmann uses these techniques to enhance the abnormality of seemingly normal subjects. Average medicinal plants suddenly seem alien and fantastical. Occasionally, Lippmann will reveal his more humorous side and adorn a chicken with bracelets and jeweled necklaces or give a brave old duke or count a pair of earrings. Jewelry photographed in the mouths of wolfs and lizards become less about bodily decoration in favor of adopting an odd ferociousness. His photographs are strange but enrapturing at the same time. Lippmann primarily depicts nature and the domination of nature over modernity for instance, his series on nature taking back control over a poor unfortunate vehicles. 
3. In this since, I have become one of Lippmann’s numerous fans. I revel in his weirdness and relate to his thought processes. He makes me want to view this world as one that is completely fantastical and alien. I enjoy his play of darks and vibrant colors that make his photographs appear CGI or cartoon. I want to learn more about his technical processes and get my hands on a camera so that I can imitate him.