3 GENRES
LANDSCAPE.
Robert Adams’ landscape photos commonly capture the contrast between man-made structures and the nature that surrounds it and the impact that they have on one another. For example, the first photo features a plain and straight cut house, along with a slab of concrete that interrupts the background of a mountain view. The land immediately next to the building contains one small bush, to insinuate that the plant life is struggling to survive where the humans inhabit. Likewise, the second image shows a huge cloud of black smoke polluting what used to be a clear sky. The whole scene, including the train is set very far away to make the smoke that is being created the main focus of the picture, this emphasizes the reality that one small train journey can have a large impact on the environment. Most of Adams’ images are black and white and are set in America. This means that he can use exaggerated shadows and highlights to emphasize the key elements of each photo such as the smoke or the white innocence of the small child in the first picture. Alternatively, Charlie Waite, another landscape photographer is well known for his bright colours and the capturing of patterns of repetition. His work celebrates the beautiful aspects of nature such as flourishing farmland or a field full of sunflowers. Like Robert Adams, Charlie Waite uses mainly sunlight to illuminate his photographs as a large number of them are taken outside. In both the third and fourth image, the tree in the centre is the focus of the picture because it stands out and juxtaposes the low-growing plants on the ground. However with the repetition in both pictures, the layers begin to blur together towards the background of the photo to create a sea of colour. (Photographers from top to bottom: Robert Adams, Robert Adams, Charlie Waite, Charlie Waite) |
PORTRAITURE.
Cindy Sherman is American fashion photography and she acts as a model, photographer and director for her own photos. Her images show the feminist views as they commonly display her own face painted with extremes of make-up to represent how women are expected to look and behave in a certain way in order to be ‘acceptable’. For example, in the picture to the right, Sherman is shown with coloured in eyebrows and new ones painted above, to give herself a shocked face. Furthermore, she has filled the shadows of her face with white make-up to give herself a pale complexion. Cindy Sherman’s photographs usually implement a sense of fantasy with the unusual make-up, costumes and sometimes clown outfits. In this way, Sherman’s Photographs are not in the usual portrait style, her photos capture emotional distraught through the body composure of the model. Horst P. Horst made his first breakthroughs in fashion portraits in British and American Vogue when his photos were published to display their clothes. This means that unlike Cindy Sherman, Horst’s photographs were designed to make the figure look flattering, elegant and admirable. His models were predominantly women and their dresses often showed off the female frame. This photographer usually shot in black and white as it gave a mysterious and dramatic effect to the model, he commonly used a very dark background and a bright centre of the photo and this is because he wanted the audience’s full attention on the foreground and middle ground. To add to this, he commonly used classical and Greek-inspired set-ups underneath four spotlights, one of which would be shone downwards onto the model. Horst very rarely showed shadows falling on the back-drop and avoided using filters. (Photographers from top to bottom: Cindy Sherman, Cindy Sherman, Horst P. Horst, Horst P. Horst) |
STILL LIFE.
Fleur Olby uses a lot of light and a lack of background to shine the spotlight on the plant, as shown in the top photo where the only visible shadow lies just beneath the stem because the light is coming directly from above. She also makes the stem of the plant out of focus, and this draws an audience’s eye towards the centre of the picture. Olby’s pictures are vibrant and are often composed of patterns of curved lines. Her images are very close-up and highlight all of the small details of each plant because they almost always contain one singular flower by itself. osef Sudek always used large format cameras and shot mainly in black and white, a large number of his pictures involved an egg, either broken or whole. His photographs explored the different shapes made with shadows or reflections are shown though glasses of water or around bowls. He was well known for his close study of inanimate object and his ability to ‘give them life’. The objects he used were often set up on a windowsill or wooden table however if there was a background it was normally blurred and out of focus to ensure that the main attention was on the object, he did this by using a shallow depth of field. Sudek used a combination of natural light and spotlights however he captured it as it shone directly on the still life, allowing the edges of the image to be left in shadows; this further emphasizes the importance and the simplicity of the objects. (Photographers from top to bottom: Fleur Olby, Fleur Olby, Josef Sudek, Josef Sudek) |