Unit 31 CTM Sam Sherwood: Analysis P1 (a-d) professional photographers and their photographic work

Unit 31 - Photography For Media Products

Assignment One

Peter Lik

Peter Lik is an Australian, landscape photographer. Born in 1959, Peter took his first photography eight years later when he was given a Kodak Brownie camera for his Birthday. His professional career began in 1984 when he travelled to America from Melbourne, Australia. Throughout his travels he was introduced to various techniques of photography, including large format photography and also panoramic camera, which he continued to use after leaving America. Having a great interest in landscape, he then pursued a project consisting of taking landscape images from the 50 states in America. He has since photographed the most beautiful and exquisite landscapes around the world. Peter’s aim seems to be to capture the most fantastic pictures, to make people say “wow!”

He is completely self taught and has learnt from his traveling how to take pictures they way he does. He became very fond of panoramic cameras in Alaska, so he real interest in landscape and panoramic shots began on his first trip to America after visiting the state of Alaska.

CELESTIAL DREAMS

BLAZE OF BEAUTY

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was born on February 20th, 1902 and died April 22nd 1984. He grew up in San Francisco, then developed and interest for photography and music during his youth. He produced his first photograph in 1921. Adams is best known for his black and white landscape photography. Fred Archer and Ansel Adams developed the Zone system, this is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development. He photographed Yosemite National Park and these pictures have been reproduced an innumerable amount of times for merchandise, including calendars and books. Ansel Adams was influenced by named Paul Strand, who shot a very wide variety of images, including portraits and landscapes. Adams and Paul Strand were both known to have spent time photographing in western America, and are both known for very sharp images.

Adams’ most famous images show landscapes with large depth of field and extremely sharp detail, he is known for paying extreme attention to detail, meaning he would consider the weather and lighting to a great extent, to capture his idea of a perfect photo.

The Tetons and the Snake River

Henri Catier-Bresson

Henri Catier-Bresson was an extremely famous photojournalist from France, born in August 1908 and died in August 2004. Originally Henri’s passion was painting, however in 1931 he was insired by Martin Munkacsi, a photojournailst from Hungary who captured three African boys in silhouette, titled Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika.

“The only thing which completely was an amazement to me and brought me to photography was the work of Munkacsi. When I saw the photograph of Munkacsi of the black kids running in a wave I couldn't believe such a thing could be caught with the camera. I said damn it, I took my camera and went out into the street." - Henri Catier-Bresson.

This one picture influenced Henri and he is now the so called ‘father of modern photojournalism’. During his career Henri not only photographed Mahatma Gandhi, but also covering his funeral and cremation. As well as this, he had the opportunity to photograph Marilyn Monroe, and many other famous legends.

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore is an American Photographer, born on October 8th, 1947. He is became interested in photography as a child and first owned a dark room kit when he was just six years old, using a 35mm camera, Stephen began taking pictures for fun. He took large influence from a book called American Photographs, by Walker Evans. Since the age of fourteen Stephen has been presenting to people and companies to sell. Since then Shore has been traveling America, and has become well known for his use of colour in his photographs, showing various American cities in a different perspective.

Nick Knight

Nick Knight is an English photographer, who is famous for his fashion photography. During his career as a photographer, from being a student, to now, Knight has won many awards in the industry, including ‘Most Inspirational Photographer’ and ‘Photographer of the Year’.

When asked what influenced and inspired him, Nick Knight responded with,

‘Everything inspires you. It could be the man I see at the bus stop, it could be a late-night TV documentary, it could be a phone conversation, something someone says to you. Those are all inspirations. But I think it's more about desire than inspiration, to be honest. I think inspirations merely fuel your desire. I remember last year when we were working on Bring and Buy and Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down, I can recall feeling so excited to get to work. Although I was physically very tired, I would wake up an hour or so before I had to. The desire to work was so strong. When I am in that state, everything inspired me. In that state, I feel I can't contain my excitement.’

He has also stated that Weegee and Rodchenko have been extremely influential to him over the years, but it depends on the work he is doing at the time.

Throughout is career Nick has had jobs with companies such as Alexander McQueen, Audi, Vogue, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Swarovski and even directed a music video for Lady Gaga.

His style of photography is very unusual and captivating, using various photography and editing techniques that allow him to create photographs unlike any other.

Peter Lik

CELESTIAL DREAMS

Peter Lik has deliberately gone against the rule of thirds for this photograph. The focus of this is the tree, that has been centered in the picture. Many photographs have the focus to one side that roughly fits in with the rule of thirds. However Lik seems to have placed his focus in the center to draw your attention towards it. The picture has said to have been created using two different exposures, allowing Lik to construct this astounding picture. The tree is in silhouette however the rest of the foreground is still light and in a higher key with some shadows. Lik does follow the rule of thirds rule with the rest of the picture (excluding the tree). The field in the foreground fits in with the bottom third, then in the middle third, there is the horizon where you see the orange sunset fade into the dark purple sky, this runs into the top third. Also the tree fits almost perfectly with the middle third, so Peter Lik has definitely taken into consideration the rule of thirds, but broken it for the focus of the photograph. Because of the tree being in the center, the balance of the image is even so nothing looks strange or out of place.

The horizon could be seen as a leading line in this image by Lik, there is a distinct line that separates the foreground from the foreground. It may cause people looking at the image to scan from bottom to top of the photograph, you see the tree and then the foreground then background.

The symmetry in Lik’s photograph is broken by the mound in the field, this causes the overall image to be more interesting, because there is still symmetry within the photo, however it has been interrupted by the shape of the field, so there is even more detail Lik has thought about before taking this image.

The image has a full depth of field, so this means everything in the picture is relevant and Lik wants the viewer to look at it, however due to the silhouette of the tree (the subject) it stands out very well. Lik has been very clever with his technique and possible editing, because even though there is so much to observe in this picture, you are still drawn to the tree.

Depth is shown very well in this image, the lighter foreground contrasts with the subject of the image (tree) and also the dark purple sky in the background. Therefore the contrast between the various light from the photo, and the shadows in the mound that give a better perspective of how far we are away from it, give a great image with a lot of depth.

The photograph hasn’t been naturally framed, Peter Lik has most likely framed this using the rule of thirds, assuring each part of the photograph fits in with what he wishes to achieve. It is a closed frame photograph, meaning it has not been cropped to show very little of the image, everything in the frame can be noticed without a struggle. The light could be considered painterly, the purple sky may head been emphasised to create more of an effect and much more interesting image. As stated before many people believe Lik has used to different exposures to create this photograph, therefore this will lead to an image that has been digitally created by two photographs.

Purpose and Meaning

Peter Lik's image is likely to be used in a variety of different mediums. Photography and Nature magazines. This could include National Geographic, which is extremely likely to obtain high quality, sharp images of beautiful locations around the world. Peter Lik's images fall perfectly into this category, and magazines similar to National Geographic would include his images. The images would be used to emphasise the beauty of the world and the wonderful places, and present the aesthetic beauty.

Second Analysis

Steve McCurry

Dust Storm

This strong an iconic vertically shot image was taken by Steve McCurry in India. The focus of course is the women dressed in bright red colours, contrasting against the sand coloured dust storm. The image is extremely captivating and presents a strong message to the audience, revealing the life in which the civilians of the town suffer natural hazards such as dust storms. The women have clearly gathered together to create protection against the dust, sand and grit that is just about to reach them. The framing is also exceptional, capturing a wide range of the trees in the background. Six of these trees see, to be darker than the others visible in the image, which coincidently is the number of women crowded into the centre of the image.

The foreground present s another side to the story of the image. Although not completely clear, there are two pots placed on the sandy floor. Although explained by McCurry that he simply got out his car and took many images, it seems as though everything has fallen into the perfect position, allowing him to professionally frame it, and capture an exceptionally strong photograph. The rule of thirds once again has been greatly taken into consideration, and it is clear that the trees can be divided into three clear divisions, as well as this; the pots, the women and the top of the trees can be horizontally divided into three separate sections, which clearly represents the rule of thirds.

Image Analysis