LEO SZN
Riverside, Calif. 2024
This still life features a sunflower recharging itself, pulling energy from the summer sun, and is part of an ongoing Signs of the Zodiac still life series. The Sun represents Leo’s ruling planet and its central role in the lives of those born under this sign, while the sunflower embodies Leo’s strength, pride, creativity, and warmth. The image captures the essence of Leo’s energy—vibrant, life-affirming, and radiantly confident—making it a nice representation of this charismatic zodiac sign.
Concept
This image was a first in the Signs of the Zodiac series in a couple of ways. First, I actually set out to shoot this for the new series. The first two entries in the series were shot for other reasons and found a place representing Gemini and Cancer. Leo was the first sign I shot specifically for the series.
The concept came pretty easily after a conversation with photographer Tawnya Mahoney of Ontario Canada. We had a conversation back and forth through Instagram direct messages, where she shared with me the following:
Leo energy to me is strong, confident, bright (I always see the colour yellow with Leo energy), proud and fun. The best way I like to describe it is as the sun. Leo is the sign that is ruled by the sun, so I feel like they love being the brightest in the room and with their energy it powers everything around it. Warm energy. Optimistic. As a plant I see a sunflower. Tall and strong and bright.
That was enough to conceptualize the shot and get to work. From this point, there wasn’t much of an evolution other than changing the background color to be more like a sunset. The original concept was a blue background, but all the blue backgrounds I could achieve dragged the overall seen to something darker than I wanted it to be.
Concept Sketch
Made during the conversation with Tawnya. It’s rare for me that the final image didn’t change that much from this idea.
An early test shot. The original idea had a blue sky background but I couldn’t achieve a blue that I felt worked for the way I wanted the image to feel.
White Board Sketch
An instagram story posted a few days prior to shooting the still life. Honestly just did this for fun.
Behind the scenes video showing the set design for LEO SZN, my Leo themed still life image and part of my ongoing SIgns of the Zodiac still life series.
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LEO SZN - 2024
About the Image
This still life features a sunflower recharging itself, pulling energy from the summer sun, and is part of an ongoing Signs of the Zodiac still life series. This image can be seen as a powerful visual metaphor for the qualities associated with Leo. The Sun represents Leo’s ruling planet and its central role in the lives of those born under this sign, while the sunflower embodies Leo’s strength, pride, creativity, and warmth. The image captures the essence of Leo’s energy—vibrant, life-affirming, and radiantly confident—making it a fitting representation of this fiery and charismatic zodiac sign.
About the Art Print
Printed on archival matte paper, this 8x10 print is open edition. This print is signed, but will not be numbered as it’s an open edition. Print will be signed and dated with the month and year of printing.