Irving Penn

Irving Penn was born in 1917 New Jersey and died in 2009. Penn studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, under the tutelage of Alexey Brodovitch who was a Russian graphic designer. In 1953 Penn established his own studio were he photographed a number things including still life and portraiture.

Penn has been one of photography’s conspicuous innovators in the two oldest and most successful genres; still life and portraiture. It is unusual for an artist to be so comfortable in both of these genres But that’s what was so special about Penn, he had the ability to photograph amazing still life and portraits.

One of my favorite and most inspiring still life’s that Penn did was the cigarette. Penn found his subject matter just outside on the street. He then took these cigarette ends into his studio to photograph.      Penn transformed one of the most consumed and discarded products from consumer society and turned it into something beautiful. Penn photographed the cigarettes using the platinum palladium process. By using this prose Penn has made something as insignificant as a cigarette butt, and made it into and object of desire.

 

Annie leibovitz

Annie leibovitz is a world famous photographer most well known for her coloration with Disney. Leibovitz was born October 2, 1949, in Waterbury, Connecticut.

What Leibovitz has done hear is she has taken the old Disney cartoons that we all know and love and she has brought them to life. By using famous people for her models. Leibovitz gives the viewer a relationship with the image. She has managed to relate the well known films with well known people.

Leibovitz has taken everyone’s childhood memory’s and made brought them to life. Leibovitz composes her images in a similar way to Gregory crewdson in the sence that they both have big budgets. However Leibovitz has many tiffrent components to her image. She then computer edits them to give the images this magical feel to them.

Leibovitz creates these images in such a way that when you look at them it starts to bring your childhood back to life. I think that what Leibovitz has don here is amazing and the reaction to the images can be quite emotional for some viewers.

Laura Letinsky

Laura Letinsky is a cotempary artist /photographer who was born in Winnipeg, Canada. She is now currently a professor at the University of Chicago, Department of Visual Arts.

Letinsky has been developing her style since the late 90s. 17th Century Renaissance painting has influenced her throughout her work. Using a large format camera letinsky creates these stunning images of what looks like the after mouth of a meal. Letinsky creates her images in a controlled studio environment were she smashes fruit and spills wine.

This effect of the destroyed dinner table give the work a Memento mori feel to it. The big empty space in the images gives them a sense of emptiness. Memento mori means ‘remember that you must die’ so the empty whit in the images to me fells like that is the lose of someone and the leftover food is what has been left behind.

I really like the work of Letinsky I think that her images are simple but very effective. Also I think that her images are full of meaning and the sense that everything must come to an end.

Keith Arnett

Keith Arnett was a well-known conceptual artist before he seriously picked up a camera. Although he is not that well known for is photography there was one project that he did called ‘Pictures From A Rubbish Tip’ that interested me. Arnett has taken these abstract photos looking in rubbish bags on a tip. Discussing as it sounds the way that he has taken these photos is amazing. When you first look at his images the colors are stunning. It is only until you get up really close that you relies wheat the image are actually of.

I like the images that Arnett has taken here but they are quite repulsive when you take a closer look. It is quite interesting to think that all of the junk and rubbish that is in this place once use to be in our homes. What Arnett has made me relies is that everything comes to an end and things that we once used to hold deer eventually become obsolete.

Not all of the mages that he took were at the rubbish tip he sometimes photographed in the studio. By photographing some of the rubbish in his studio Arnett has taken something that s literally rubbish and made it beautiful again.

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper was an American artist (1882-1967) who was most famous for his paintings of American cities and city life. More than ant other artist Hopper made the visual iconography of the American city his own.

Filling stations, motel rooms and office spaces created this atmosphere of abandonment. The paintings that Hopper made were almost like stage set or stills from a movie. Hopper then placed these characters into his scene that gave the painting a whole different story.

Hopper was above all painter of rooms and interior spaces. Not all of hoppers paintings had people in them for example ‘Rooms by the sea’. This is just a painting of a room that has the door open looking out to sea. Hopper paints this room with these beautiful shafts of light that cascade onto the walls and fills the room. The way that he painted the light was amazing. This actually inspired me to experiment with the light in my tableaux shoot.

The paintings that Hopper did with these beams of light offer a view to the outside world. It makes you want to go inside the painting and see the beautiful sun that is casting the shadow across the walls.

One of my favorite Hopper paintings is  ‘Nighthawks’. The way that Hopper has painted the light is this is amazing. Every time I look at this painting I think that it could almost be a photograph. The way that the light floods out the café and lights up the street is astonishing. The light in this image looks like it is coming from a flash with a zoom reflector that bounces of the celling. I think that his lighting techniques and the way he paints the light are stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

 

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.