Tag: conceptual photography

Metallic Army Men Still Life: The Alchemy of Transformation

Greg Urbano’s 2014 still life photograph of metallic army men illustrates a crucial moment in his artistic development. Through intentional composition and lighting, he transforms simple toys into evocative symbols of memory and mythology, balancing childhood nostalgia with adult artistry. The photograph reflects Urbano’s conceptual approach and mastery of his medium.

Metallic silver toy army men photographed in dramatic low light against a black background, creating an ethereal tabletop photography scene.
Metallic Army Men Still Life – Purpose-Driven Tabletop Photography (2014)

In the opening chapter of Greg Urbano’s photographic journey, this 2014 still life stands as a pivotal moment—a declaration of intentionality. The image depicts metallic army men frozen mid-action, their silver surfaces catching and scattering light across a void-like background. What began as dollar store plastic toys has been transmuted through spray paint and careful composition into something far more evocative: a meditation on memory, mythology, and the photographer’s emerging visual voice.

The technical execution reveals an artist learning to control his medium with precision. Shot on a Nikon D5100 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens wide open, Urbano exploits the shallow depth of field to create a dreamlike atmosphere. The foreground figures emerge sharp and detailed, their helmets and rifles rendered in crisp focus, while those behind dissolve into soft bokeh. This selective focus mimics the way memory itself operates—certain moments crystalline and vivid, others fading into impressionistic blur. The 1/20 second shutter speed at ISO 100 suggests a carefully controlled tabletop setup, likely using continuous lighting that allowed him to maintain the drama of highlights dancing across metallic surfaces.

What distinguishes this photograph within the “Beginnings” chapter is its purposefulness. Unlike casual snapshots or experimental exercises, this image demonstrates conceptual thinking from inception through execution. The decision to spray paint the figures silver wasn’t merely aesthetic—it stripped these mass-produced symbols of childhood play from their conventional context. No longer green plastic soldiers evoking backyard battles, they become archetypal warriors, their metallic finish suggesting both classical statuary and science fiction. They exist outside time, suspended between the ancient and the futuristic.

The composition itself rewards extended viewing. Urbano arranges the figures in a dynamic diagonal sweep that guides the eye through the frame. There’s a sense of advancing movement, of forces converging, yet the shallow focus and monochromatic treatment create an ethereal quality that contradicts any literal interpretation. These aren’t soldiers storming a beach—they’re specters, memories of conflict rendered as beautiful objects. The black background becomes an infinite space, allowing the figures to float free from any specific context or narrative.

The lighting deserves particular attention. The way highlights trace the contours of each figure—the curve of a helmet, the angle of a raised arm—reveals an understanding of how light sculpts form in photography. Some figures glow almost luminously, while others recede into shadow, creating a tonal range that prevents the silver-on-black palette from becoming monotonous. This careful modulation of light transforms what could have been a simple craft project into a genuine photographic study.

Positioned within Urbano’s broader body of work, this image represents a crucial developmental moment. It demonstrates his willingness to manipulate reality rather than simply document it, to transform found objects into vehicles for artistic expression. The photograph bridges childhood nostalgia and adult artistry, acknowledging the army men’s playful origins while elevating them through photographic treatment.

As a statement of beginnings, this work reveals an artist already thinking beyond the conventional. He wasn’t content to photograph the world as found; instead, he reimagined it, spray paint and camera serving as tools of transformation. The metallic army men become a fitting metaphor for the photographic process itself—ordinary subjects made extraordinary through vision, technique, and intention.

Fubbles: The Ephemeral Made Eternal

The photograph “Fubbles,” taken in 2014 by Greg Urbano at Fort de Soto Park, captures a soap bubble mid-flight, showcasing early artistic vision. Enhanced by motion blur, it elevates the bubble into fine art, revealing themes of transformation and impermanence. Urbano’s technical choices demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of photography and artistry.

Large elongated soap bubble stretching through the air against a cloudy sky, photographed with a Nikon D5100 and 35mm lens at high shutter speed.
This photograph captures a long, tube‑shaped soap bubble drifting through the air against a cloudy sky at Fort De Soto Park in Florida. The bubble’s reflective surface and fluid form create an abstract, fine‑art appearance, with motion blur added during post‑processing to enhance the sense of movement. The image was taken on July 27, 2014 using a Nikon D5100 with a 35mm lens at ƒ/6.3, 1/1250s, ISO 100. It is part of the Top 100 Journey project and represents early experimental work exploring motion, shape, and atmospheric minimalism.

In the opening chapter of Greg Urbano’s photographic journey, “Fubbles” stands as a remarkable testament to the artist’s early instinct for transforming the mundane into the sublime. Created in 2014 during an afternoon at Fort de Soto Park, this image captures far more than a simple bubble in flight—it reveals an emerging photographer’s understanding of light, form, and the delicate boundary between documentation and fine art.

The composition presents a soap bubble mid-flight, its translucent membrane caught in a state of graceful distortion. What immediately strikes the viewer is the dreamlike quality of the motion blur, which Urbano candidly notes was enhanced in post-processing. This creative decision speaks to an important aspect of his early development: the willingness to move beyond strict documentary realism toward a more interpretive visual language. The blur transforms the bubble from a fleeting childhood toy into something altogether more ethereal—a meditation on impermanence itself.

Shot with a Nikon D5100 at 35mm, the technical execution demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of exposure for such translucent subjects. The aperture of f/6.3 provides sufficient depth while maintaining the isolation of the bubble against the softly rendered background. Most significantly, the shutter speed of 1/1250s at ISO 100 captures crystalline detail in the bubble’s surface, preserving the swirling patterns and subtle gradations that give the sphere its otherworldly quality. These technical choices reveal an artist already thinking beyond the moment of capture to the final image.

The monochromatic palette proves essential to the photograph’s success. By stripping away color, Urbano directs our attention to form, texture, and tonal relationships. The bubble’s translucent skin becomes a study in graduated grays, while the blurred background creates a tonal symphony that could easily hang beside the work of mid-century modernist photographers. This treatment elevates a whimsical subject matter into the realm of fine art abstraction.

Within the context of “Chapter 1 — Beginnings,” this photograph occupies a fascinating position. It demonstrates that even in his earliest work, Urbano possessed the vision to see artistic potential in unexpected places. The playful title “Fubbles” maintains a connection to the image’s origins—fun with bubbles—while the execution reveals serious artistic ambitions. This duality between playfulness and sophistication would become a hallmark of his developing style.

The photograph also speaks to broader themes of transformation and transience. A soap bubble exists for mere seconds before bursting, yet through photography, Urbano arrests that moment, preserving what cannot be preserved. The enhanced motion blur serves not as deception but as emphasis, amplifying the sense of temporal fluidity that defines the bubble’s brief existence. In this way, the image becomes metaphorical—a meditation on photography itself as the art of stopping time.

For viewers encountering Urbano’s work through his Top 100 Journey project, “Fubbles” offers essential insight into his artistic foundations. Here is a photographer unafraid to experiment, willing to blend capture with creation, and possessed of an eye that finds beauty in the transient and overlooked. The bubble, forever frozen in its graceful dissolution, invites us to reconsider our own relationship with impermanence and the extraordinary potential hidden within ordinary moments.