All the easy oil has already been drilled. Taking good photographs should be hard. In this case, I am putting my face into the asphalt to get as low as an angle as possible. I could have shot it on my knees but its the extreme low angle that creates a heightened sense of drama. In 1977, Color Photography was not really accepted as fine art. This image deals with the my pioneering work with "Staged Photography" but also with the color aspect of color photography. As far back as 1970, I was influenced by modernist color theories. My art professor at Ithaca College, Robert Richenburg, a former student of Hans Hoffman, always talked about Hans Hoffman's Push and Pull theories of intersecting and overlapping planes of flat color. It continued in 1975 in grad school at Hunter College with professor E.C. Goossen. Goosen authored books on Stuart Davis and curated shows at the MOMA for Ellsworth Kelly and Helen Frankenthaler among others. Color Field art conversations always dominated his lectures and discussions. It was the big art movement of the time. This photo of a solid yellow toy truck in front of a solid yellow Volks reflects that influence. What makes it special is that now large areas of colors that arose in painting now appears in color photography. Robert Funk is a pioneer of toy, doll, miniature, plastic thingie and staged photography. He also photographs his own paintings. Most of his work is done on location. He does not use photoshop to strip in images. He doesn’t take photographs he creates photographs and has works dating from 1973. He was widely published in the 1970's and early 1980's. As an undergrad in painting, he studied with first-generation abstract expressionist Robert Richenburg and hyper-realist painter Janet Fish and then in Graduate School for Art History with famed critic E.C. Goossen. He went on to work as a Photographer, New York Advertising Art Director for Print and TV, and an Art Collector.