Research for Photographers

Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer that was born 1972. She is a world renown artist artist known for capturing the depictions of moments in everyday life in ways that seem poetic and intimate. Her chosen aesthetic of the photos often give off a dream like quality. The subliminal elements of her photos are also enhanced through her emphasis on using soft colors. Her work is on display in various places of the world ranging from London to Paris, São Palo, and Kyoto. The image that I chose from her is a picture of a swan from her 2004 Alia series. What I like and find interesting about this photo is how it emphasizes the duality to every situation similar to how there two sides of a coin. The swan its reflection seems to embody that Japanese saying where we have a face we show others and a face we never show to anyone but ourselves. In this scenario, the swan itself with its lighter color scheme looks innocent and harmless but the reflection having its darker grey color palette serves to warn us that the animal is capable of hurting us if provoked.

 

                               

Dana Scruggs is a Chicago-born photographer that has been living in New York for the past 7 years. She is known for launching her own magazine, SCRUGGS Magazine, which was her response after not being able to be hired by all the major magazine outlets. Her published works all tended to focus on her vision of the male form and physique. They also served as her visual diary and personal manifesto due to the fact she photographed and wrote everything herself. She is also known for breaking several barriers in her industry by being the first black female photographer for magazine outlets such as ESPN Body Issue and Rolling Stone magazine. The image that I chose is from one of her recent photo shoots with Olympic-bound fencer Curtis Mcdowald. What I like and find interesting about this photo is that she captures the fierceness and determination of this athlete in his prime. As mentioned before, she tends to focus on the male form which is shown here in the form of his upper torso and muscles. She has also edited the photo and picked a certain angle to make the background seem out of focus and faded to draw more attention to the model.

 

 

                                        

Lee Friedlander is an American-born photographer that was born in 1934 and moved to New York for his photography career in 1956. He originally started off photographing jazz musicians, but later transitioned to his more recognizable works of capturing the essence of American landscapes. His overall focus was to show off the overlapping of light and content. He took the pictures of urban settings, streets, storefronts and portraits in such a way that he described as the photos were staring at you, almost like they have an attracting aura. Some of his more recent collections were about American settings from the perspective of someone driving a rental car. The image I chose is one of those photos from the collection, in this case it is Las Vegas. What I like about this photo is how it captures the city in sort of a romanticized way. The picture is taken in black and white to show off the different levels of light, contrast, and reflections. He chose to have the liberty statue replica in the center since it is a symbol of this country's freedom and also due to the fact that he focuses on American urban scenery. Him also being in a car is a nod to his road trips across the country to find more urban settings to take photos of.

 

 

Gueorgui Pinkhassov is a Russian-born photographer that was born in Moscow in the year 1952. His interest in photography began while he was still in school. He studied cinematography at The Moscow Institute of Cinematography and worked as a camera-man and on-set photographer at Mosfilm studio. From there he joined the Moscow Union of Graphic Artists in 1978, which allowed him to travel more freely and have more opportunities for photo opportunities.  He currently resides in Paris as a French citizen still taking up his work. His photos are mostly captured in a way that emphasizes more of the extraordinary details of an otherwise average day. He makes sure to take photos that are richly colored, complex in thought, as well as poetic in its angles. He describes his work in a way that the moments he is capturing are like moments of chaos and that instead of trying to control it, you must fall in line with it, meaning he prefers natural scenarios instead of fabricated ones. Most of his recent work is of documentary captures as well as iconic cultural events. The first photo on the left side is from his Blackpool Illuminations collection. I find this one interesting because there is so much variety in the coloring, making it seems like a mix between a holiday festival and the vibrant neon lights from Las Vegas. All of the lights and shadows also seem to melt into each other like a painting. The second picture on the right is from his Urban Mobility collection. What I like about this photo is how he aligns the reflections in a way that it seems like the people in the photo are wearing the greenery as a part of their clothing. The photo itself also looks as if it would be part of a scene in a movie, with the level of detail it captures.

 

Sources:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/rinko-kawauchi/

https://www.danascruggs.com/about-me 

http://www.artnet.com/artists/lee-friedlander/

https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/gueorgui-pinkhassov/