Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer born in Brooklyn, New York 1962. Crewdson is well known for his elaborate scans and huge crew. Crewdson makes these amazing photographs in Massachusetts on 10×8 film that is absolutely stunning.

The thing that is so amazing about Crewdson is none of his photographs are Photoshoped or computer generated in any way. Crewdson rents out whole streets and builds sets from scratch. The scans that Crewdson sets up are movie quality. They look like stills from a film.

I think that Crewdson work is not too similar to the work of David Hopper. Although Hopper was a painter I can see that Crewdson could have taken a lot of inspiration from Hopper. Crewdson has photographed these elaborate scans in old American towns and the light in the images is amazing. Hopper is well known for painting the light in his paintings. The ‘nighthawks’ by Hopper is such a classic image and I can just see Crewdson recreating this with his production team.

  

Brian Griffin

Brian Griffin is a famous English photographer who was born in Birmingham on the 13^th April 1948. Griffin has worked with many people doing various portraits. Most of Griffins photographs have been desaturated this is his prefured way to work in digital.

Our group was lucky enough to have a portraiture workshop with Brian Griffin. We were split up into little groups of 4 and he showed up how to set up the studio for portraits. The first shoot that we did was a portrait of me. Griffin placed me in the studio were he wanted me and then began the set up the lights. Griffin used three lights for this shoot. The first light was a beauty dish placed directly above my head using the boom. This lit up my shoulders and the back of my neck. The second light was in front of me to the right of the camera this had a zoom reflector that lit up my face. The third and final light was a hair light that was behind me pointing down just on my hair.

After we had set up the lights Griffin made the images black and white and carried on shooting. This was the final effect of this shoot.

 

For the second shoot that we did another member of our group had their portrait taken. For this we had a slightly different set up. Instead of standing up Griffin got the model to lean over the still life table that has a surface and a backdrop. This gives the effect of the model lying on the floor.

Griffin had set the shot up in a similar way using three lights. He then

Desaturated the images to give the photos a film nuwar look to them. This was the end result of the shoot.

I really enjoyed the workshop with Brian Griffin. I think that he is an amazing photographer and I defiantly learned a lot from him. I think that I am going to try and use some of the lighting techniques in my own work. I now understand more about how you can light up your subject.

Steve Schofield

Steve Schofield is a well known English photographer who has worked for many people and company’s including; Vogue, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Marie Claire, Tatler, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, EMMY, Empire Magazine, Guardian Weekend Magazine.

Schofield spent the majority of his early career in London. He then moved to the US in 2012 and now works between New York and Los Angeles. There is a series of work that Schofield has done that I am really interested in. this pices of work is called ‘The Land Of The Free’.

In this body of work that he has made, Schofield explores the fascination that the British public has with American popular culture of fandom. Schofield has photographed star trek fans or (Trekkies) and star war fans that are dressed up in their costumes in there homes. When looking at this work the viewer is given a glimpse into the life of a Trekkie or star wars fan. When you look at these images the people look out of place photographed in their costumes sitting on the sofa or standing in the living room. However his is what Schofield is trying to do. He is photographing the extrovert/frenetic in an ordinary setting.

I really like the way that Schofield has photographed these portraits by leaving in the surroundings of the home in shot. I think that this gives it more character and tells us a bit more about the subject.Schofield has used a big soft box over a flash to light his images. By using a big soft box you get this overall flat light to the image which has a lovely effect to it.

The First Still Life

Photography’s first still life was a picture of a table set for a small meal. A French photographer called Nice Phore Nirpce made this photograph in about 1827. This was years before the world new there was such thing as photography.  

Here is the photograph. It is a very simple idea but is very effective. For saying that this the first recorded image of a still life set up, I think that the photographer has focused more on recording the image than making a statement on the genre of still life.

 

Little Red In The Hood

For this little test shoot we got in little groups to come up with a tableaux. Our group came up with the idea of fairy tails with a twist. We thought of doing a jack in the bean stork, But instead of magic beans we could have had magic mushrooms. The idea that we settled on in the end was a twist on Little Red RidingHood. Instead of the innocent little red riding hood with a basket of muffins. We decided to fill reds basket with alcohol.Also the axe man that is meant to look out for red is sneaking up behind to kill her.

We wanted to make the lighting really moody. To achieve this we balanced the day light with flash heads that we took out. We then used a faster shutter speed to make the background darker. this made a really nice moody light.

Jemima Stehli (strip)

Jemima Stehli is a British photographer who did aself-portrait series in 2000. The series was called strip. Stehli got various art critics to come to her studio for a shoot. She sat the male critics down in a chair and began to strip in front of them. Stehli positioned herself to the right of the shot facing the subject with her back to the camera. She then gave the art critics the shutter release for the camera. As Stehli began to strip the art critics would squeeze the shutter release and take a photograph at any time they wanted.

This self portrait is about the man reaction to the strip that Stehli is performing. In some of the shots the man looks quite shy and awkward. However in others the man looks like the alpha male with his legs spread apart looking strait at Stehli as she strips.

 

Self-Portrait

A self-portrait is a portrait of your self. It can be a simple mug shot of the face or it can be a bit more complex, for example like the work of Alexa Wright.

The self-portrait can be about the identity of the person. It can tern the personal into the political. Also it concerns friendship and relationships using your face or bobby to express your feelings.

 

Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff is a contemporary German photographer who is most famous for his portraits. Ruff studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (1977-1985). This was the academy of Düsseldorf, Germany. When i was looking at Ruffs work i came across the book ‘Thomas Ruff Andere Portraits + 3D’ this was a book on the sea rise of portraits that Ruff had done. The book was really interesting. One of the things that Ruff says is ‘If things are the way that they are then why should I tray to make them different’.

Ruff also comments on the renaissance and says that in that time portraits were a sign of social status. The props, jewellery, clothes and objects in the paintings were meant to illustrate the persons background. What Ruff is saying is that he didn’t want people to do this with his work. Ruff says that he thinks it is outrages the way that people treat his portraits. Ruff didn’t want people to think about the persons background in the photograph. He just wanted the viewer to look at the  photographs.

There is a 3D aspect to this book. Ruff has combined two faces together in one. the effect of this gives it a strange look. Ruff wanted to do this because he said that it was like combining to heads together. Ruff said that is was interesting because this could not be done in real life.

Tableaux

Tableaux is a photograph or painting that requires more than one participant to create or reenact a scene. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Tableaux as ‘a picture; a picturesque or graphic description.

Still Life

Still life is a photograph, painting or drawing of an inanimate object or arrangement of objects. An example of this would be John Blakemore and his studies of tulips. The term Still Life comes from the Dutch ‘stilleven’ witch became current from about 1650 as a collective name for this genre of art.