Tag: research

Richard Maxted – RESEARCH – Objects of Desire

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Richard Maxted specialises in still life commercial and advertising photography; his controlled use of studio lighting is an art form in itself. He graduated with a degree in Photography from Blackpool College in 1995, before opening his own east London studio in 2000. He quickly established himself within the industry, and his eye for detail and obsession with ‘getting it right’ earned him respect and admiration from his peers. He has worked for clients such as BA, RBS, V&A, Jim Beam, Campbells and Mandarin Oriental. His images mostly feature solid, single colour backgrounds that compliment the subject while still keeping the focus of the image on the product being advertised. The studio lighting illuminates the items beautifully while creating the occasional shadow or reflection, all artistically placed and well thought out. His subject matter varies widely from technology such as watches and cameras, to flowers and books which are both composed of organic matter. Strong studio lighting and plain, simple backgrounds seem to be common themes within still life photography, and I will carry this across into my images. I aim to create something similar to Maxted and Oprisco.

“Your personal work identifies who you are as a photographer. The ads and commercial work are the proof you can do the job, but personal work shows your eye, shows what you see and what makes you tick…”

– Richard Maxted

Liza Dracup – RESEARCH – Enigma of Time

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“Dracup is well versed in the history of photography (and the history of art) and subscribes to a different conception of what the camera can do. Her pictures – photographs seems too narrowly descriptive a word for them – are not about capturing a particular moment in time but about timelessness. Her focus is less on something fleeting … and more on the long afterlife of places, plants and animals.”

– Michael Prodger

​Landmarks exhibition catalogue
Mercer Art Gallery Harrogate 2016

Liza is a landscape photographer whose work draws on the British landscape, often focusing on the distinctiveness of the woods, rivers and wildlife of West Yorkshire where she grew up. Her photos place an emphasis on the extraordinary properties of the ordinary, and reveal hidden or unseen aspects which lead to a more informed, comprehensive and enriched idea of the northern landscape and its history.

In her series Sharpe’s Wood, the images are only shot between the hours of sunset and before sunrise, which enables them to capture the very essence of photography – time and light. Since the human eye cannot see very well in the dark, Liza uses the camera to “make the invisible visible” and this becomes our tool for seeing in the dark, as the camera understands more than us about light, or the lack of it. The actual location of the woods isn’t as important – they could be any woods, anywhere in the country, and our own sense of memory will determine how we respond to the images, dependant on whether we are familiar with the location or not.

Chasing the Gloaming (2011) is a series she produced in response to the moonlit oil paintings created by legendary artist of the Victorian era, Atkinson Grimshaw. The images depict rivers, woodlands and the Yorkshire coast as places that are ethereal and otherworldly, thanks to the use of the fading light that comes just after sunset and just before dark.

Martin Parr – RESEARCH – Enigma of Time

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Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, born in 1952 and based in Bristol/London, UK. He is most well known for his photographic projects that take an intimate and satirical look at the aspects of modern life. In particular he documents the social classes of England, drawing on stereotypes and society’s expectations. His work shows us how we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value in life; whether it be the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the things we buy or our leisure activities. His images show us the familiar in a way that we haven’t seen it before; it may be labelled as exaggerated or even grotesque, due to his unusual perspectives and strange motifs. His major projects include rural communities (1975–82), The Last Resort (1983–85), The Cost of Living (1987–89), Small World (1987–94) and Common Sense (1995–99).

The Last Resort was Parr’s first project that showed his work moving towards his now distinct personal style: it featured bright colours and vivid images, capturing the holidaymakers and tourists of New Brighton, which set alight his passion for observing society. The series has since become a modern classic. In contrast, Common Sense was a global project, and developed his technique further and gained him more recognition as a satirical photojournalist. The aim of the project was to highlight the idiosyncrasies of different contemporary cultures, such as a British cup of tea, a dazzling Hollywood smile and other similar cultural clichés.

 

“With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society’s natural prejudice and giving this a twist”

– Martin Parr

 

GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’.1985.

Photomontage by Dawn Ades – RESEARCH – Constructed Image

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While browsing the university library for books relating to my essay, I came across this book, “Photomontage” by Dawn Ades, and thought it would be a great idea to browse the pages to look for inspiration for the Constructed Image assignment. I have found this assignment the most difficult out of the three; although I appreciate a broad brief because it allows lots of creative freedom, it can prove tricky to choose which of your ideas will be the most successful and what subjects are most suitable to use, and therefore which ideas to take forward and pursue.

Photomontage and Collage are two of the processes that we can try for this assignment, and I like the idea of incorporating more than one photo into an image to create weird and wacky artwork, such as the work created by the Surrealists. A combination of images in this way can create something unreal and “fantasy” like, because people, places and objects can all be pictured together that maybe would never usually be pictured together in a single, unaltered frame taken in the present moment, or the “real world.” These techniques are totally different to the ones we learned and used last semester, and so I’m excited to try something new and expand my range of photographic processes.

 

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Hannah Höch, Cut with the Cake-Knife (c.1919).

Hannah Höch was a Dada artist, best known for her political collages and photomontages. Her compositions share a similarly dynamic and layered style to the works of her inspirations: Pablo Picasso and fellow Dada artist, Kurt Schwitters. Höch used her work to critique the failings of the Weimar German Government, by rearranging images and text from the mass media into collages. She preferred to be more metaphoric with her imagery, rather than taking a direct approach using text and confrontation, such as the work of John Heartfield. When the above piece was created, there was political chaos in Germany after the lost WWI. There was a struggle between two political parties; German society was navigating its way out of the old Weimer Republic and into the left-wing Communist movement. The artists within the Dada movement used photomontage to express messages of critique that would not be allowed to be put into words because of censorship. Pieces of machine can be seen exploding throughout the montage, symbolising the booming industry and culture within urban areas. This process is portrayed in a circus-like environment, rather than in a proud and sophisticated manner; the theatrical expressions and body language, mixed in with images of political figures, are used to critique the two political parties.

 

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Raoul Hausmann, ABCD (1923-4).

Hausmann was an Austrian artist, best known for his satirical photomontages and his provocative writing on art. He was the founder and central figure of the Dada movement in Berlin. He met Hannah Höch in 1915 and they established a romantic affair and artistic partnership that lasted until 1922. He was involved in Expressionism until 1917, when he was introduced to the principles and philosophy of Dada; these artists created works that could question capitalism and conformity, as they believed this was the motivation for the war that had just ended, leaving behind chaos and destruction. Similar to Höch, Hausmann created collages by superimposing photos and text together that he found in newspapers, magazines, etc. In fact, it is believed that Hausmann and Höch discovered photomontage while they were on vacation on the Baltic Sea in 1918. ABCD was the final photomontage he produced, before he turned to more-traditional media. In the image, his face appears in the centre with the letters ABCD clenched in his teeth, in reference to a Dada poem. An announcement for one of his poetry performances is also collaged right below his chin. You can also see the word “voce” to the left side of his face; this translates to “voice” and represents the voice of the people wanting a revolution.

 

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Top left: Kazimierz Podsadecki, Modern City: Melting Pot of Life (1928).

Podsadecki was a Polish painter and creator of Constructivist art. He was also interested in photomontage and experimental films. His early works were photos of compositions that he had made from various objects, and these may have been influenced by the concepts of Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. He quoted important modernist photographs and films within his work, which was unique within European modernist art of the time. Modern City: Melting Pot of Life is themed around life in a metropolis and participation in a modern technical civilisation. It is an example of Catastrophism, which was a popular trend in the culture of the 1920s and 1930s; the trend mentioned not only the previously mentioned civilisational progress and technological development, but perhaps most importantly the subject of war, which was often depicted by an apocalyptic vision of the future. The image is dominated by solid modern tower blocks which are pieced together to create a compact mass, which represents the way that architecture is dominating and unstable and is overwhelming the world and its inhabitants.

As soon as I saw this image, it reminded me of the skyscrapers and tower blocks that I saw and photographed on the university trip to New York in February. This has given me the idea to create a constructed image, such as a collage, featuring some of these buildings somewhere. My initial thought is a teacup and saucer with the landmark buildings stood up inside, like a little city within the cup. I will work on this and experiment with layers and masks on Photoshop.

The Photographer’s Eye: Lecture Notes

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This module is focused on the book titled The Photographer’s Eye by John Surkowski. The book outlines the 5 key characteristics that produce a successful photograph:

  • The thing itself
  • The detail
  • The frame
  • The time
  • The vantage point

The thing itself (photographs) are different from reality – reality can be filtered, clarified or exaggerated and allows for the creation of fantasy.

‘The detail’ refers to the use of photography to capture things that are too ‘ordinary’ to paint; details can’t narrate but they are symbolic and evocative for the viewer.

‘The frame’ encourages the photographer to choose and eliminate the frame to focus on particular subjects. New relationships can be formed by isolating subjects from the background.

‘The time’ explains how photographs can only describe the present, at the exact moment of the ‘click’ of the shutter. Therefore, photographs will always be in the past when viewed.

Cameras allow for different vantage points to painting as they are more portable and a variety of angles can be taken by handholding a camera, rather than painting with an easel.

Project 1: Objects of Desire

Transform an everyday object into an ‘Object of Desire.’ This could be achieved by taking the route towards studio still life photography. A bigger light source will remove any unwanted shadows in these images.

Photographers:

  • Richard Maxted
  • Association of Photography (AOP)
  • Simon Larbalestier
  • Carol Sharpe
  • Adrian Lyon
  • Wilson Hennessy
  • Tal Silverman

Project 2: The Enigma of Time

Use ‘time’ somehow in your images.

Photographers:

  • Francesca Woodman
  • Catriona Grant
  • David Scheinmann
  • Alexey Titarenko
  • Michael Wesely
  • Duane Michals
  • Gina Glover
  • Bill Brandt

Project 3: Constructed Images

Construct images using any of the following:

  • Multiple Exposure
  • Multiple Printing
  • Montage
  • Image and Text
  • Mirrors
  • Layers

Photographers:

  • Hannah Hoch
  • Man Ray & Dora Marr
  • Herbert Bayer
  • John Stezaker
  • Barbara Kruger
  • Paul Hill
  • Abelardo Morell
  • Mindo Cikanavicius
  • Zander Olsen
  • Robin Maddocks
  • Oleg Oprisco
  • Gillian Wearing
  • Loretta Lux

The History of Photography

There are various dates that contribute to the birth of photography. According to history books, photography began in 1839. However, it is said that Joseph Nicephore Niepce took the first photo that still exists back in 1827. Then, Hercules Florence first used the word ‘photography’ in 1832.

Prehistories

Among the first photographic processes were Paleoloithic cave paintings dating all the way back to 10,000BCE.

There are early written records of experiments with light and the Camera Obscura from 1,000BCE. Photographers such as Johannes Vermeer began using the Camera Obscura within their practice from 1,500BC.

70CE – Roman chemistry experiments.

1,100CE – The Alchemists used light to darken silver salts.

1,717 – Johann Schulze experimented with “fleeting sun pictures.”

1790 – Thomas Wedgwood experimented with the Camera Obscura and silver nitrate sun prints.

The Camera Lucida was invented by Dr William Hyde Wollaston in 1807.

The first photograph of a person was taken by Louis Daguerre in Paris in 1838, where a man is pictured having his shoes shined on the pavement next to the road.

William Henry Fox Talbot took his first image titled “The Oriel Window” in 1835, and created the world’s first photo book called “The Pencil of Nature.”

In 1847 the law in France considered photography as a ‘mechanical process’ and not art.

Up to 1851, the Daguerreotype was “the technology.”

Frederick Scott Archer provided the breakthrough in 1851: the Collodion glass negative, with the advantage of detail and speed.

Roger Fenton used the wet Collodion process and a portable darkroom in 1855.

In 1871, Richard Leach Maddox invented lightweight gelatine dry plates which were a revolution at the time!

Further research then lead to snapshot photography and the Kodak camera with roll film.

The Portrait

The literal definition of a portrait is: a drawing, painting or photograph of a person. A more accurate definition, however, would be: a representation of a person. Ask yourself: Does it simply record the outer surface, or provide insight into their character?

Cindy Sherman dresses up in various costumes and poses for her photos, frequently portraying female stereotypes found in film, television, and advertising. However she does not label these as “self portraits” because in that moment she is interpreting another person, not her genuine self.

Robert Cornelius produced the world’s first deliberate portrait in 1839.

David Bailey is another huge name in portrait and fashion photography, and is best known for his iconic portraits of artists, musicians and actors of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Andy Warhol and the Rolling Stones.

Other Portrait photographers include:

  • Diane Arbus
  • Garry Winogrand
  • W. Eugene Smith
  • Richard Avedon
  • Philip Lorca DiCorcia
  • Adrienne Norman
  • Astrid Schulz
  • Steve McCurry
  • William Wegman

The Self Portrait

David Slater is a British wildlife photographer; he is most famous for his image of “the monkey that took its own photograph.” On a trip to Indonesia, he was following a group of Sulawesi macaques in the forest, in an attempt to connect with them and co-exist peacefully with them, while of course photographing them along the way. After a long day, Slater sat down close by to the group of monkeys for a rest, while they were having a group grooming session. Soon enough, the monkeys came closer and become grooming him too! They also took a liking to his camera and so the photographer placed the camera on his tripod with a very wide angle lens, predictive autofocus and a flashgun set, in the hopes of capturing a facial close up. His efforts were worthwhile as the monkeys began grinning and pulling faces in the lens of the camera, pressing all of the buttons and inevitably some photographs and “self portraits” were taken, including the iconic photo we now recognise today! However, his photo has caused Slater a lot of financial difficulty as he has been frequently dragged through the courts over the debate of copyright of the image; is Slater right to claim ownership of the image, or does the copyright belong to the monkey itself as he was the one who pressed the shutter?! This debate has opened up an interesting conversation about copyright and what is technically defined as a “self portrait.”

Screen Shot 2019-04-06 at 19.40.42

Francesca Woodman photographed herself in empty interiors, often nude or semi-nude, to portray her suffering with mental illness such as anxiety and depression. However, her pictures are not traditional self-portraits. In her images, she is usually half hidden by objects or furniture, or she appears as a ghostly blur. She plays with distorting reality into a surreal fantasy by squeezing herself into small cupboards or wrapping herself under wallpaper like a blanket; she often seems to be retreating and hiding within the materials of the building. The images create an underlying sense of human fragility, vulnerability and isolation, which is further exaggerated by the fact that the photographs are printed on a very small scale, making them seem personal and intimate. These images connect with me personally as I know how it feels to battle your own demons and I completely understand and am inspired by how Woodman can capture her inner feelings within a physical image.

Space?, Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-1978 1975-8 Francesca Woodman 1958-1981 ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AR00350
Untitled 1975-80 Francesca Woodman 1958-1981 ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AR00351
From Angel Series, Roma, September 1977 1977 Francesca Woodman 1958-1981 ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AR00354
Untitled 1975-80 Francesca Woodman 1958-1981 ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AR00357

Other Self Portrait photographers include:

  • Peter Kennard and Cat Picton
  • Hippolyte Bayard – took the first known self portrait
  • Nan Goldin
  • Claude Cahun – inspired by Cindy Sherman
  • Dorothy Wilding – first female photographer for a royal household
  • Marta Hoepffner
  • Vivian Maier
  • Wanda Wulz
  • Arno Rafael Minkkinen
  • Yves Klein
  • Lee Friedlander
  • Duane Michals
  • Phillip Toledano

The Place

“Place” refers to vast open spaces and landscapes. It includes mainly nature photography but it can also include man-made structures and urban areas; it has a very broad and flexible definition. When photographing a landscape, cutting out the sky can change it from simple being “a view” to a landscape photograph – framing is important!

There are four main types of landscape:

  • Natural landscape
  • Urban landscape
  • Social landscape (e.g street photography)
  • Psychological or Emotional landscapes (inner landscapes)

Robert Adams, a landscape photographer, said that there are three main elements to photographing places: Geography, Autobiography and Metaphor. Taken together, they strengthen and reinforce each other and create a successful and powerful photograph.

Pre-17th Century, landscape was confined only to the backgrounds of other genres. But after the 18th Century, there were three types of landscape photography:

  • The Sublime – awesome sights, nature at its most fearsome.
  • The Beautiful/Pastoral – inhabited landscape, smooth and ordered.
  • The Picturesque – ruins and incomplete buildings, gives an edgy feel.

Edward Burtynsky photographs manufactured and industrial landscapes, such as factories. He documents people and their place in relation to the world, and their impact on the environment. He photographs quarries and mines which document extraction in the landscape – begging the question “how long will our oils and fuels last if we continue?” He also photographs pollution, rubbish, recycling materials and landfill sites. Large factories are placed in our environment due to our consumer lifestyle; as humans, we use and dispose of things all the time. Man-made structures include roads, houses and cars which are also mass-produced and take a toll on the environment. However, Burtynsky wants to show that even industrial, urban or conventionally unattractive places can appear beautiful through a lens and the power of photography; landscapes don’t always have to be “beautiful” and “perfect.” His work is Post-New Topographics, the book of photographers that also photograph urban landscapes and focus on how humans are affecting and damaging the planet. He uses large format prints to capture every detail and make sure it’s visible.

Landscape photographers include:

  • Ansel Adams
  • Jitka Hanzlova
  • Liza Dracup
  • Albert Bierstadt
  • Noemie Goudal
  • Eugene Atget
  • Bill Brandt
  • Lewis Baltz
  • Stephen Shore
  • Bernd and Hilla Becher
  • Joel Sternfeld
  • Simon Roberts
  • Rut Blees Luxemburg
  • Edward Burtynsky
  • Richard Mosse
  • Ed Rusha

 

Oleg Oprisco – RESEARCH – Constructed Image

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Oleg Oprisсo is a fine art photographer; he was born in the small city of Lviv, Western Ukraine. His interest in photography began when he worked in a photo lab for three years aged 16 years old, where he gained an understanding of the images and poses that were most liked by customers, and he still uses this as a reference for the work he produces today. In 2009, he switched formats from digital capture to film.

His images and creations often have deep, thoughtful meanings behind them. He photographs ‘real life’ scenarios, then manipulates the image to add other features such as people and props, creating a ‘dream-like’ or fantasy feel. He takes his inspiration from his everyday life, such as the things he sees on his way to work, and recognises that there is so much beauty to be found in everyday life; a view that I also personally share, and I want to capture this in my work. Everyday items may appear simple, but beauty can be found within them if we take the time to look and change our mindsets from viewing them as mundane.

Some inspiring examples of Oprisco’s work are below:

Wilson Hennessy – RESEARCH – Objects of Desire

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Wilson Hennessy grew up on a farm in rural Australia; later in life he took a photography degree and assisted a number of top photographers until he began working on his own in 2008. He now shoots for editorial clients, including recent campaigns for companies such as Audi, Barclays, Vodafone and Shell. A particular focus of his work is automotives and cars, reflecting his recurring interest in motor vehicles and their mechanics from a young age to adult life.

He specialises in bright, colourful, graphic still life photography. His product photography has a very commercial feel and is professionally shot in the studio with immaculate lighting to showcase the products to their full potential and evoke feelings of desire from the viewer. His choice of subjects range from technical appliances like laptops, watches and cameras, to alcohol, shoes and food products; all items that are very commonly consumed within today’s society. His backgrounds are often bright, block colours that compliment the subject while still making the product the main focus of the image. The mixture of his eye-catching colour schemes, variety of interesting compositions, and bold graphic components all draw the viewer’s attention and encourage feelings of desire for the products he is promoting; these features also showcase his unique style and make his work easily recognisable and distinguishable from other artists.

Below are some examples of his work that have inspired me:

Watch feature, Bremont Americas Cup watch

Eugène Atget – RESEARCH – The Enigma of Time

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Eugene Atget was a French photographer; he was born in 1857 and died in 1927. His career bridged the 19th and 20th centuries, during which time he worked in around Paris for 35+ years. He created an “encyclopaedic, idiosyncratic lived portrait of that city on the cusp of the modern era.” In other words, he created an informative yet peculiar picture of the city of Paris, with the aim to capture the beauty of the city before it became completely modernised.

He first began his career around 1890 by hanging a shingle on a studio door in Paris, reading “Documents pour artistes” (Documents for artists). His ambition was to provide other artists with images to use as a source for their own work, including images from some of the following genres: landscapes, flowers, foregrounds for painters, and reproductions of paintings, plus many more. His entry into the field of photography coincided with the invention of dry-plate photography, which made it easier to create photographs quickly, while the rise of photomechanical reproduction allowed photographs to be distributed widely. However, despite these technological advancements, Atget used a large format view camera to capture his images in detail, and large glass plates measuring about 18 x 24 cm.

In around 1900, his interest in vieux Paris (“old Paris”) took centre stage, and Atget went on to established himself as a ‘specialist in pictures of Paris.’ His documentary vision was highly influential, especially for the Surrealists. He photographed deserted streets and stairways, street life and shop windows, which the Surrealists found beguiling and richly suggestive. Most of his images were taken at dawn, and are notable for their use of diffused light and wide views that create a sense of space and ambience.

Upon looking at Atget’s work, I have been inspired to take a slight documentary style approach to the Enigma of Time assignment. I have decided to experiment with photographing historical sites and buildings to represent time in my images and document these sites in their current, modern state, similar to Atget’s work. Unfortunately I can’t capture the sites before they became modernised like when Atget captured “old Paris,” but I will capture them in their current state which will document how they have aged with time and been preserved. One of the locations I intend to visit is the historic village of Eyam in the Derbyshire Dales, also known as the “Plague Village” because of it’s incredible backstory: in the 1600s, its unselfish villagers sealed themselves off from the outside world to prevent the deadly disease from spreading to other communities. I think photographing the village and attempting to capture the narrative of its history will be an interesting challenge and produce some effective images.

I have taken inspiration from the below images:

Henri Cartier-Bresson – RESEARCH – Light and Shadow

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Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne in 1908. He developed a strong fascination with painting early on in his life, particularly with the subjects of Surrealism and Cubism. His camera of choice became the Leica, after spending a year in the Ivory Coast in 1932. After this moment, he began his life-long passion for photography. He created the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris in 2003 for the preservation of his work. Over his lifetime, he received an extraordinary number of prizes, awards, and honorary doctorates.

One of the main features of Cartier-Bresson’s work is “shadow play.” Shadows are areas that lack light; photography itself is all about painting with light, and you can’t have light without dark. Shadows can add another layer to our images, even creating two scenes within one frame by overlaying shapes and textures over any other given scene. An example of this is the below image of Cartier-Bresson’s, where what appears to be the shadow of a mosque is cast on the wall of another building. This adds religious connotation to the image which otherwise wouldn’t be there.

theory-of-composition-shadowplay

“While other photographers work around shadows, Cartier-Bresson uses them as little jokes, surrealist tools, and moveable backdrops to transform ordinary street scenes into photographs that make us wonder “How come I did not see that?”

GREECE. Cyclades. Island of Siphnos. 1961.
FRANCE. Paris. The Palais Royal Gardens. 1959.
CHINA. Beijing. Final days of the Kuomintang. A peasant, whose market has closed down and came to Beijing to sell his vegetables, sits to eat his provisions. A shopkeeper resigns to have nothing more to sell in his store. December 1948. Since July 1946, China has been torn apart by civil war between the Communist forces of MAO TSE-TUNG and the Nationalist forces (Kuomintang) of General TCHANG KAI CHEK. Slowly the Communist gained terrain and in December of 1948 they took siege of Peking.

Brandon Woelfel – RESEARCH – Who’s Who

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Brandon Woelfel is a modern day freelance photographer who gained sudden fame through social media, currently holding over 1.5 million followers on Instagram and over 400 thousand followers on Twitter. He is based in New York, and in 2016 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Art at The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

His beautifully unique style is described as “vibrant” and “luminescent” and is rich in pink and light blue hues, with a prominent use of bokeh and shallow depth of field. He also uses props such as umbrellas, fairy lights and colourful smoke bombs to create aesthetically pleasing images; he often chooses pretty and effective backgrounds for his portraiture, such as illuminated streets and cityscapes, to flower bushes and neon signs. This inspires me to think creatively about the backgrounds of my portraits and consider using similar locations for my shoots, rather than using plain and simple backgrounds.

But it’s not just his incredible use of lighting and colour that make his images successful – there’s also a unique intimacy to his portraiture, where everything feels authentic and the bond between photographer and subject can clearly be seen. Brandon is described as “such an expert at putting his subjects at ease that he becomes close friends with many of them and repeatedly uses these new friends in new shoots.” This interests me as art can connect people that may otherwise never have met or spoken to each other.

Other than creating breathtaking images, Woelfel’s work also has a deeper purpose:

“Photography and art have a huge impact on the world,” Brandon says. “Communicating across various cultures, we’re able to break through language barriers and share our experiences through images. I think it’s important to note that if you truly love what you do, then achievements will follow. Working every day to realize that you can always improve will keep you ahead of the game.”

– Brandon Woelfel

 

Below are some of Brandon’s portraits that inspire me: