a blog about photography: technique

Showing posts with label technique. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Jill Greenberg

I just read of the remarkable discovery of a new species of monkey and it prompted me to think of Jill Greenberg's series on monkey portraits. Here is the CNN article on the new species of monkey and here is a glimpse of some of the monkey portraits as was featured in Jill Greenberg's 2006 exhibit at Clamp Art.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

I look at this photograph and have to ask myself, why? Why do I find that a random group of passersby with dull, lifeless expressions in a rather ordinary, mundane environment, a sidewalk, is somehow, strangely captivating if not compelling? I have no idea why!

Philip-Lorca diCorcia does this and other equally disconcerting shots. I get the feeling of being off-balance, unsettled, uncertain. I'm not sure what I'm seeing. Are his images real life documents or theatrical stagings? Snap shots or cinema clips? There is a filmic quality to them yet a static quality, as well. Something frozen in time, whether it be the pedestrians on the sidewalk, the wealthy women and boy at the dinner table, the women adorned with chandeliers ... whether it be the banal or highly decorated. Is it real or is it fiction? One thing is for certain, his lighting and technique is key to making the inconsequential seem important.

Above, an example of diCorcia's fashion advertising work.

To see Philip-Lorca diCorcia's work in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, click here (MOMA). Here is a bio and slideshow and another bio that also references a court case of interest. And, here is an interview with diCorcia about his series called, "The Hustlers" which resulted in a book featuring male prostitutes in Los Angeles, California. The portraits of the men were then published with their name, age, place they were from, and the dollar amount they were paid to model which was a payment equivalent to the payment they would have received otherwise for their services.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Tami Bone

This is the work of Tami Bone ...

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Illusion of the Year

A photograph of two lovers was sent to the Archimedes Laboratory where Courtney Smith, Gianni Sarcone, and Marie-Jo Waeber collaborated on this 2011 Illusion of the Year entitled, "Mask of Love". At first you see a single face adorned with the Venetian mask. Upon further inspection, you will see the original image of the two lovers. This type of illusion is called a bistable illusion. To read more, click here.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Contrast affects perception ...

Here is an interesting illusion as created by increasing and decreasing contrast. "The Illusion of Sex" (2009 Richard Russell for Best Illusion of the Year Contest; 3rd Place) illustrates, by use of photographs, our perception of what appears female and what appears male. The increase in contrast makes the same image of the same person's face appear more feminine. According to Scientific American Mind magazine, this would also explain "... why females in many cultures darken their eyes and mouths with cosmetics: a made-up face looks more feminine than a fresh face."

Friday, March 12, 2010

André Kertész

Homing Ship, New York
13 October, 1944

The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago has a very succinct bio on André Kertész that reiterates his under-recognized talent. (Click here to read it.) The bio starts off mentioning the quote by Henri Cartier-Bresson whereby he stated, "Whatever we have done, Kertész did first." The "we" in this case referred to a group of artists in Paris in the 1920s and specifically to the photographers that included Robert Capa and Brassai.

I have to admit that I learned about Kertész in the requisite History of Photography course at School of Visual Arts, but it is only now that I am really appreciating him. Initially, I probably like others dismissed his talent, not yet able to fully realize that what he did was just simply "pure" photography. It may seem trite or even pretentious to say "pure" but tell me upon looking at his work that you don't feel that exact descriptive.

Kertész's photography at first glance is understated, sometimes playful, sometimes ordinary, but upon further inspection, it is as if it breathes a new life into the viewer. The things we take for granted and his sort of one-on-one viewing of life brings us into a different perspective. We see the things Kertész saw as if with new eyes and I don't mean the obvious -- of course, a photographer can bring a new look to the familiar or convert the jaded and sway the popular opinion -- but this is about shedding every preconception and seeing the imagery as if you stripped everything away to its bare essence. It is so cleansing that we abandon the known to celebrate the apparent simplicity as a brand new interpretation. It may seem elementary on the surface, but it is layered so that the longer you look at one of his photographs, the more it reveals, the more unnerving that we didn't stop to, say, "smell the coffee". His work forces us to stop and inhale deeply.

Even his distorted images, long before the advent of Photoshop, don't feel "altered" per se. There is a sort of innocent confidence about them in the sense that they feel experimental yet deliberate and as if he worked only with the visuals -- the composition and the shape and form, not the technique.

It was in 1912 that Kertész began his long, illustrious and prolific career. He was born in Budapest in 1894 and in 1925, he moved to Paris where he remained until the threat of World War II prompted him to move with his wife to New York in 1936. He was still shooting in the 1980s when he then created a series using a Polaroid SX-70. He was clearly one to evolve and continue and persevere. His conviction was especially apparent in the fact that even when slighted -- even when others were credited for his work or when he was omitted from important exhibits, he did not let this deter him.

The term Kertészian was coined to describe his language which was essentially a combination of Hungarian, French, and English -- likewise, it has been observed that Kertész had three distinct periods, the Hungarian Period, the French Period, the American Period.

Kertész did something that ironically is not always done -- he shot photography so honestly that you tend to think that he created the art itself. That is what I mean by "pure".