Photographing Paintings for Yale

[Linder]

Finishing up my application for Yale, and it says this in regard to your images...
 

"In the review process, the admissions committee is concerned with scale and the tactility of the work. For this reason, paintings and drawings must be photographed showing the surrounding wall or background. Paintings and drawings must not be digitally masked in black to the edges of the work. Three-dimensional works should also show the surrounding space and context."

 

I am wondering how much context to include? My paintings are very large (one is 9 ft. tall) and that is very important in assessing them. You really can't truly experience the larger ones until you see them in person. So I am wondering if it would be inappropriate to include, for instance, the ladder I used to paint it next to it? I am used to having to have nothing but the work in the photo for it to be professional.

 

Heres my website for examples of my work...

www.lydiagoldbeck.com

[Onedayx3]

This seems an odd request to me. This is the reason one includes the dimensions of the work. I understand it's a problem if applicants are constantly adding digital "frames" to their photos or over cropping them. I would just allow a small border of background.

[michaelwebster]

Leaving a little wall around the edges is a recent trend in documenting paintings.  It makes since for those painters who want their canvasses to be more of an object than an image, as is much of conteporary abstract painting.  The yale thesis shows are a good example of the kind of work I am talking about:  http://art.yale.edu/Painting1MFA2012

[Linder]

My professors were all actually a little taken aback as well. They all said it goes against everything that has been the precedent before. I had to reshoot all of my work because I had masked out everything around my paintings in white. Makes sense this is coming from Yale then, I suppose. I decided to just use regular photos against the wall without any scale reference. I hope at least a bit of the huge scale comes through in the photo.