Richard Tuschman

Originally Posted Friday, October 11, 2013

I wish I had made this picture.  Holy smokes, it is rich.  It was made by Richard Tuschman.  I saw his work for the first time yesterday afternoon.  I was sitting at my desk and decided to Google "photographs like Edward Hopper paintings."  Well. . . Tuschman has a series called "Hopper Meditations."  I looked at the "photographs" wondering how he did it.  So I Googled "Richard Tuschman techniques."  You can find anything on the internet.  I began to despair.  Here is what he does. 

First he builds a miniature model of the set based upon an Edward Hopper painting.  He gets scaled toy furniture, carpets, etc.  I saw photos of these.  He is a master.  I know I could never do them.  Then he sets up the lighting and photographs the dioramas.  Later, he photographs the people separately and photoshops them in.  Tuschman then makes layers of paint on wood and scrapes and repaints them until he has something he likes.  He scans or photographs these and takes the images into Photoshop where he manipulates them and turns them into layers that he places on top of the image.  He says that making these is as important as all the other parts.  It is integral to the process. 

I cheered up just a bit when I thought about how often he could post to a blog, but that is the dumbest acid test I can possibly think of.  I kept looking at his photographs thinking only one thing: can I do it better?

And so back to the beginning.  I began to despair. 

Here is a link to his website (link).  His work is truly a luxury.  Oy.