Monday, April 11, 2011

I think Vermeer would have been a camera guy (upstairs/downstairs)

Upstairs/ Downstairs: currnetly on PBS (highly recommend)

Vermeer Paintings

Quite by accident yesterday, I began to watch a mini-series on PBS called Upstairs / Downstairs.
Anyone familiar with this show? My google research told me it's a classic Brit drama remade.
Anyways, I was completely mesmerized with the cinematography, and especially with the treatment of the lighting on this tv series. All I could tell that it was classic Vermeer style; clean white light spilling in from a side angle or milky white light pouring in from a window that looks just like this one above. I would say the downstairs scenes looked even more Vermeer. The leading ladies looked oh so beautiful.
Marvelous skin. I don't know who's behind this geniusness but someone studied the paintings pretty seriously.Credits for the show only cite the art director. Maybe he's the guy.

I first became familiar with Vermeer in while I spent a year in France when I was in college, oh so long ago. My dad sent me an essay about European art written by a Korean artist who travelled Europe. I liked Vermeer's work immediately. I can't remember if I actually saw the paintings in a museum.

Then, when I briefly studied theatre set and lighting design, Vermeer came up often amongst designers. Now that I am a student of my camera and lighting, I am feeling that his work will be a obsession all over again. This is a guy who was obsessed with light.  Wonder what he could have done with a camera...

On an end note- let's support public television!

No comments: