For our first themed podcast episode of the year, Kristina and I are tackling our biggest challenge yet: Diptychs!

Diptych comes from the Greek meaning two (dip) fold (tych). Originally, diptychs were art that was divided into sections and hinged together. Eventually photographers adopted the technique as well. Essentially, you take two images, and display them next to each other. This in turn creates a third image – the sum of both parts.

What you actually decide to do with those two parts is up to you. However, to create a true diptych, there should be some kind of shared theme such as color, camera angle, subject, location, etc. One of my favorite examples is this photo by Berglind Mari.

Kristina has much more experience with diptych photography than I do. Here’s an example of her diptych portraiture photography, which she discusses a bit in this episode:

Diptych by Kristina Alexanderson

Diptych by Kristina Alexanderson

I was looking forward to tackling a diptych for the podcast, and walked away pleased and encouraged. I’ve always appreciated diptychs, but had yet to try shooting one myself. I now have the diptych bug and cannot wait to try again. Kristina and I had a great chat about diptychs, looked over some listener submissions, and dove deep into discussing our interpretations. It just might be my favorite themed episode to date!

You can listen to the episode now on your favorite podcast app, or right here on this blog post. Make sure to keep scrolling so that you can see our images, and the listener submissions!

My Image

Pushing Daisies LEGO minifigure flowers diptych by James Garcia

Pushing Daisies

 

Kristina’s Image

Diptych by Kristina Alexanderson

Diptych by Kristina Alexanderson

Listener Submissions

Thanks as always to our wonderful listeners for submitting their own photos! Here are the photos we discussed on the podcast:

Dance Diptych by Tobias M. Schiel

Dance Diptych by Tobias M. Schiel

Diptych by LJToyPhotography

Diptych by LJToyPhotography

We didn’t see this submission from Zee in time for the recording, but I just love how he continues to use the Painter Spider-Man motif across these themes!

"Miles and K2 team up to make a diptych of Captain America's shield..." by Demarcation Media

“Miles and K2 team up to make a diptych of Captain America’s shield…” by Demarcation Media

Love through Diptychs

If you enjoyed our diptych theme as much as we did, you’re in luck! For February we’re tackling the technique again, with an added twist. We’ll shoot diptychs with the theme of love. This will be our first time re-doing a technique, and I’m excited to see what we come up with. I also can’t wait to see how you interpret the theme and use diptychs to tell a story!

If you’d like to participate with us and get the chance of having our photo discussed on the show, use the hashtag #tp_love and tag both myself (@thereeljames23) and Kristina (@kalexanderson). You can also email your submission to us at toyphotographypod@gmail.com.

Until next time, thanks for listening and happy shooting!

-James

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