Photographer Research - Franck Bohbot

Why I've chosen him

Franck Bohbot is a French photographer living in New York City. He is a documentarian with an eye for the theatrical who found his way to photography by way of cinema, and although he turned his focus fully to photography in 2008, the formal and aesthetic influences of the cinematographic form continue to underlie his present work. His work inhabits a space between reality and fantasy, documenting and storytelling. Bohbot frequently takes a formal, typological approach to crafting visual narratives, highlighting the surreal symmetries of our constructed worlds and capturing the poetry of everyday places with a unique attentiveness to the interplay of light and colour.  Rendering public spaces, street scenes, and architectural sites of interest in his distinctive muted palette, he documents inanimate structures with all the sensitivity of a human portrait. The lighting featured in his work is often soft, yet many shadows are apparent in the rest of the composition. This contrast works effectively in his landscapes, allowing specific details to stand out. I am interested in his levitation pieces, which he creates by having someone in their natural habitat be lifted up into the sky e.g. a picture of someone walking on a road will be transformed into a picture of someone walking in the air. I also like his location photography portraying many formal elements such as depth, pattern, colour, line, form and shape through landscapes of different galleries, cinemas, libraries and swimming pools etc.

Franck Bohot isn't a surreal photographer, however he has experimented with this movement in his levitation project that he shot in 2007. I admire in these images how he has managed to shoot someone performing an ordinary activity in an ordinary location, but edited their outline to levitate from the ground. This concept is fascinating, as I am used to creating surreal pieces that are extremely surreal, but in this project Bohbot has created simple surreal photographs - which work just as well. The majority of the images are in black and white, which avoids colours clashing together in the frame, as the focal point is the person 'levitating'. In this image, the pattern isn't as strong as the photographs below, however this technique has a lot of potential to create patterns. For example, I could repeat the persons body creating an arch from the bottom left hand side of the frame to the bottom right if I was to take influence from this photographer. 

This photograph comes under Bohbot's Last Stop - Coney Island personal project that he shot in 2013. The majority of his photos from this shoot feature an attraction that appears deserted and quite haunting amongst lonely roads and beaches during the day, as there is no life evident in the frame. This picture however is the complete opposite to most in this project, as the setting is appropriate - night time. Attractions like the ones in Bohbot's project are meant to run best at night, where the lights contrast with the night sky and stand out to the public. There is a sense of movement featured in the Wonder Wheel as it's details are blurred and suggest that it's spinning, conveying how there are people on the ride which makes for a more successful piece of photography in comparison to the other lonely looking pictures. The pattern is strong in the fences that separate the underpass, along with the moving wheel. Colour is also a strong formal element of this piece as it is the attractions lights that allow it to stand out, whereas if there was no light, there would be a lack of colour. Therefore, the lighting plays an important role in this image, as natural lighting often works as well as false lighting.

This is a photograph that acts as part of Bohbot's House of Books long-form project that he began in 2011 and has been exploring ever since. This is the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design, which he shot in 2015. What drew me towards this image was the symmetrical architecture of the roof and the reoccurring podiums that grow smaller the further they travel back into the frame. These two features act as the pattern in the composition, complimented further by the lines, shapes and tones. Bohbot has manipulated the lighting in this image as it casts a soft beige tinge over it to emphasise the warm and homely feel of being in a library. This lighting matched with the neutral colours of the interior has the connotation of a home, as it appears welcoming and positive, instead of cold and drowsy. In my opinion, this is how a library should feel, because some people travel to them in order to find a book that they can use as escapism from their current situation. I also admire the depth that Bohbot has captured in this piece, as this is a more successful piece of framing than if he were to have shot the picture closer in the room; there wouldn't be as much pattern, and this is the most interesting feature. 

This is a photograph that's part of Bohbot's Cinema Series that he shot in 2014. It's called The New People, Cinema in San Francisco, California. Immediately it's the pattern that draws me to this type of image; the pattern in the ceiling and on the walls that are reoccurring and symmetrical. The colours in this piece are the most effective in my opinion, as white contrasts with black the best out of all the colours. This colour pairing is then complimented by the black wall in the center of the frame and the bright white screen. The only accent colour in the composition is the tinge of red that comes from the group of chairs in the middle. The fact that these hold no people makes for a more effective photograph as there is no interruption to the pattern and framing of the subject. I don't often shoot many photographs that lack in colour, because this is my favourite formal element, however I am inspired by this photographer to perhaps explore some black and white imagery as it works extremely well when there is an additional accent colour featured in the frame. 

How he has influenced me

I wanted to capture some natural pattern photographs featuring the formal element depth like Bohbot because it is these images of his that drew me towards his work. I visited the National Portrait Gallery and The British Library in London which allowed me to take these two photographs influenced by Bohbot.

For shoot 9, I went to a fair in London, and captured some photographs linked to Bohbot's work, and specifically looked for a wheel to shoot against the sky to convey its pattern.

Summary

Ultimately, Franck Bohbot is a photographer who has explored a large variety of themes in his work that feature many formal elements, mainly pattern. His photographs of the cinema, library and theme park all featured depth, and are images that have been caught in their natural habitat. No certain structure has had to go into shooting the photos because they are natural locations, which is what inspired me to capture a few photographs similarly in my London shoot that I have presented above. I am also looking to explore the surreal movement in a style like Bohbot's because this fascinates me as it is something I don't often see by photographers.