Pola Esther – Selections from Mutual Attraction series (201X)

The artist on her Mutual Attraction series:

A single photograph tells a certain story; I like to expand that story
by adding a second image. I play with these two images, juxtapose them,
connect them and check if they are able to attract or distract one
another. I often change the positions of the images. The dialog I’m
attempting to initiate is supposed to provoke a more abstract thinking
about common objects or situations. I try to transition them into a
fantastic universe. I want to share my fascination by pairing images
with the elements of nature like flowers, fruit, vegetables, trees,
animals with images containing human forms that can express human
desires, hidden intentions, intimacy and sexuality. (via Metal Magazine)

‘Story’ is the wrong word. ‘Idea’ might be better.

What’s interesting about these is the way they function both individually–each image warrants attention in and of itself; while they also interact with each other (as well as other images within the same body of work, not to mention within Esther’s oeuvre taken as a whole).

I choose the above images because of the way they use color and tonality to unifying the images. (Esther also has an unrivaled eye when it comes to texture–even if that’s not as readily evidenced in these selections.)

Yet, with regards to color specifically, it seems to me that you could do a lot worse than analyzing the relationship between colors in the above work within the context of this diagram from W. H. Smyth’s 1864 Sidereal Chromatics: