Research Log

Gordon Magnin

http://gordonmagnin.com

Gordon Magnin is a Los Angeles-based artist, who produces work that is a perfect combination of his education, talents and environment. His work represents a continuing series of imposed abstractions through the mediums of collage and photography. His images are originally intended to direct and control public perception, consumer activity, and self image, and are modified to create a sense of ambiguity to heighten mystery and defy closure. The main formal element of Magnin's work is evidently pattern, where he manipulates the face of the subject and creates an illusion through sometimes twisting the features of their face or cutting out segments. I like this technique as it hides the specific features of the people, whilst also creating imaginative and interesting portraits.

Melinda Gibson

http://melindagibson.blogspot.co.uk

Melinda Gibson is a collage artist who transforms existing scenes into unique works of art via her signature cut-out style. Gibson is an extremely talented, creative and imaginative individual, who shows places, spaces and scenes in a new light revealing aspects unnoticed by the photographer or highlighting those that Gibson missed in the original. Her prime source and basis: well-thumbed magazines, old prints and her personal image archive. I admire her technique, of creating silhouette shapes of people's figures and filling them with new images, sometimes just one, and sometimes a mixture. It's an effective way to convey pattern as you are able to fill the figure with whichever pictures you prefer, and it is also an effective way to employ shape. These two formal elements work together in Gibson's work in order to create an artistic and surreal approach to her photography - something that is extremely successful. 

Erwin Blumenfeld

http://www.erwinblumenfeld.com

Erwin Blumenfeld is regarded as one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. An experimenter and innovator, he produced an extensive body of work throughout his thirty-five year career including black and white portraits and nudes, celebrity portraiture, advertising campaigns and his renowned fashion photography. Blumenfeld captured his first magazine cover in 1937 and from then onwards continued with advertising photography, along with developing his personal and commercial work. I like the versatile approach to Blumenfeld's work, as he doesn't focus on just one path in photography, he has taken many routes - evident in the diverse appearance of the two photographs above. Pattern is an extremely strong formal element featured in all of his work. 

Phillip Shannon

http://www.phillipshannonphotography.com

Phillip Shannon is a commercial photographer based in Leeds. He has been involved in a vast variety of photography projects, which has resulted in him capturing images based around food, still life, jewellery, people, locations and creative photography. The above images are examples of his still life and creative work - creative photography is something I am the most passionate about which is why I have included these two photographs in this research log. Being able to manipulate a picture of a product and turn it into something visually pleasing and creative is my idea of successful photography. Because of Phillip's broad approach to this topic, his work will be the most influential for me in my opinion because he has explored 4 topics out of 6 that I have always been interested in.

Flora Borsi

http://www.floraborsi.com

Flora Borsi is a young fine art photographer from Hungary. She uses exquisite photo manipulation to create surreal images that are thematically focused on identity, relationships, emotions and dreams. Her immaculate technique and subtle conceptual ideas create beautiful evocations of universal emotions, from lust and desire to despair and loss. Borsi's work portrays a realistic idea of dark fantasies and atmospheric dreams, which I believe is conveyed in the majority of her work. Her images suggest a visual idea of the imagination, getting an insight into the mindset of certain people e.g. the above photograph displaying how the girl may feel trapped through the use of a glass, even though she looks perfectly normal on the outside. Pattern can be conveyed physically through the use of the subject's background, or I could do a whole shoot on portraying people's feelings in a physical sense to convey the pattern of someone's mood.

Franck Bohbot

http://www.franckbohbot.com

Franck Bohbot's 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 images inhabit a space between reality and fantasy, documenting and storytelling, every frame like a still from a nonexistent film. He tries to craft visual narratives, highlighting the surreal symmetries of our constructed world. He pays close attention to light and colour, using it to determine whether or not a photograph will convey what is there in the frame or what's invisible or lacking. Pattern and depth are two strong formal elements featured in Bohbot's work, as he travels to the same place in a different location e.g. he will visit a mixture of libraries, cinemas, galleries etc. all situated in different areas to compare the difference in architecture, and again, colour and light. I am most interested in his surreal shoot (the above photograph being an example) where he captured images that linked to his "levitation" project.  

Andrea Klarin

http://www.andreaklarin.com

Andrea Klarin had a passion for photography at the age of 18. He decided to pursue this passion as a career once he turned 22 years old. He describes his work as "The constant need to move and evolve. As well, there are some of the characteristics within the fashion world that reflect on aspects within the contemporary world through art, music, architecture, design and photography". As part of my idea to perhaps explore the topic pattern through fashion photography, it was relevant for me to find a fashion photographer like Klarin. I like the black and white technique he often uses as this leaves a sense of mystery to the pattern being portrayed - making the photograph more diverse and thought out.

Koen Hauser

http://www.koenhauser.com

Koen Hauser works as a photographer and visual artist. He studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academic in 2002, leading towards him now being known for his intangible body of work flowing between fine arts, fashion and applied photography. He frequently references or paraphrases the iconic visual language of historical photography. Together with Hauser's distinguished feel for appearance and his love for the mysterious, alienation, strange and uncanny, these are key elements that form the core of his body of work, which has a distinct metaphorical dimension. This photographer is one who inspires my ideas for fashion photography, capturing intricate patterns and details featured on a feminine garment, maybe even some masculine.

Randy Scott Slavin

http://www.randyscottslavin.com

Randy Scott Slavin is an award-winning director and surrealist photographer based in New York City. He is widely known for his powerful music videos and branded productions that mash up clever concepts with bold imagery, and channel the energy of pop culture. He has always tried to continually take concepts to the next level, to push the ideas to be more engaging, mooing and stimulating. When Slavin began shooting landscapes, he was compelled to push the perspective. He developed the technique to turn the real into the surreal after experimenting heavily with panoramic photography. His project "Alternative Perspectives" is a collection of the works culled from these photographic explorations. 

http://uk.complex.com/style/NaN/Invalid%20date/the-25-greatest-architectural-photographers-right-now/cyprien-gaillard

Cyprien Gaillard

http://www.spruethmagers.com/artists/cyprien_gaillard

Paris-born, Berlin-based artist Cyprien Gaillard could be described as an archaeologist of recent history. In his films, photographs, collages, sculptures and performances, the Sublime sits alongside the profane, and brutality is underscored by moments of quiet beauty. Multiple Imagery is a technique that I am looking to employ in my project at some point, and this photographer is one who explores this in a beautiful way. All of the photographs featured in the grids have depth to them, and form, pattern and line too. I will most likely be taking on Gaillard's approach to multiple imagery's, by photographing different areas in one location to convey this to an audience, rather than always doing the normal step by step process of something like an apple being eaten. 

Damien Blottiere

http://damienblottiere.tumblr.com

Damien Blottiere studied Fashion at the Parisian Art School Duperre. He was always interested in images and photography, and worked first as a fashion editor for Mixte, Purple Fashion and Dazed & Confused until he decided to devote himself entirely to photography. Blottiere plays with images and creates a universe for the models of the objects by building a "hand made" set or collages looking like animals, flowers or surrealistic sculptures which are an open window to the childhood and his own world of magic fantasy. When it comes to pattern being featured in his work, this also means effective shapes are created. This is emphasised in the top image, which is only one of a set of pictures similar to this one. This is my favourite photograph of Blottiere's and one that inspires me the most. 

Michael Bosanko

http://www.michaelbosanko.com

Michael Bosanko is a light graffiti photographer, who first discovered this style of work when he was photographing a moonlit landscape and it went unexpectedly wrong. He then began to un-clip his camera from the tripod and realised that putting his camera into long exposure, he could move the camera and use the moon itself to draw out a word. He then developed onto using torchlight to 'draw' which resulted in a beautiful set of photographs that are similar to those I have included above. All of his work is taken during the night so that the light is able to stand out against the dark sky, enhancing the glow and making the subject more visible. I like the mixture of patterns Bosanko creates and the majority of colours he explores with in his pieces. His landscapes appear quite fantasy like which makes them even more effective when paired up with surreal/abstract objects e.g. the squares falling around the caravan above. 

Ashleigh Berryman

http://ashleighberryman.co.uk/

Ashleigh Berryman is passionate about still life photography and photo montage. She uses these mediums to visualise her passion for bringing the imagination to life. Berryman strives to create unique and tactile imagery which engrosses viewers and evokes emotions. She is a passionate collaborator and thrives on working as part of a creative team to create new work. Berryman graduated from Norwich University of the arts in 2014 with a First Class Degree in Photography and is now London based. I like Berryman's versatility, as she doesn't just focus around one theme in her work; she explores with a mixture of formal elements such as texture. reflection, shape, form, colour and line. She has undergone a variety of projects for her work, but my favourite has to be her 'miniatures' project because this is where she truly experiments with surrealism.

Nick Fancher

http://nickfancher.com

Nick Fancher is a Columbus, Ohio-based portrait and commerce photographer as well as an author and educator. He specialised in lighting photography, specifically in unconventional locations. The picture above is the main photo of his that inspires me for  my project as I am looking to capture some photographs that display pattern through face make up. It would be interesting to use luminous paints and have them enhanced and glowing through one beam of light. I am interested in looking at Nick Fancher in more depth through a photographer research because his work interests me with its variety of themes. 

Katharina Jung

https://www.flickr.com/photos/indpndt?ytcheck=1

Katharina Jung is a fine-art and portraiture photographer from Hermeskeil, Germany. She creates an endless amount of surreal photographs with the use of Photoshop and her vivid imagination. She manipulates people and transforms them into characters who are able to perform inhumane things, such as levitating from the ground, having more than 2 arms, breathing under water and being friends with forest animals. Her work is true fantasy style which is what attracts me the most. A lot of her pictures are captured in a forest environment with lots of shadow, allowing the manipulated people to blend in with the surroundings naturally. I admire the patterns that Jung creates through the use of added crows, explosions, balloons and water splashes to the composition etc. 

Jon Duenas

http://www.jonduenas.com/

Jon Duenas is a fashion and editorial photographer currently based in Portland. His first steps as an artist were in illustration as a child. While in college, he began experimenting with old film cameras he found at thrift stores, and slowly photography captured his interest. His work focuses on fashion with a minimalist aesthetic and introspective stillness, allowing space for the viewer to visually explore and connect with the images. He used to focus on portraits, mixed with other images using the overlay and opacity tool on Photoshop. I like the technique multiple exposure that he employs into his work because this allows him to take an ordinary image and transform it into something far more fascinating by overlapping it with a landscape of pattern. If I was to attempt this multiple exposure technique, I would take portraits of people and mix them with patterned landscapes also, like Duenas has here with out of focus car lights.

David Munns

http://foodphotography.co.uk/

David  Munns is an award winning London based food and drink photographer. After completing a foundation at Cat Hill, David went on to study photography at Bournemouth and Poole college of art and design. Shoreditch became his work place after returning to London in 1989, assisting a food and drink photographer, quickly graduating from 2nd assistant to shooting for his own clients. David set up his own studio in Clerkenwell in 1996 and has worked in the area ever since, which has been a success as he has many happy clients in all disciplines of food photography. He has worked on magazine advertisements displaying tasty treats which have been captured with the use of extremely bright lighting and a neat layout, elements that encourage someone to want to go and purchase the product being advertised.

Marina Aurora 

http://trendland.com/marina-aurora-food-photography/

Marina Aurora is a very independent photographer who isn't very famous in the photography industry. She creates photographs similar to those of Carl Kleiner's below that people often  mistake her work for his own. She photographs flat lays the most, of ingredients to a certain recipe in an artistic and attractive way. Aurora also keeps coloured themes in her photographs,  for example, the picture above features of purple the most, with a touch of red and a hint of brown. The rest of her pictures are like this one, having one colour dominate the rest in the composition. I like her work and believe it uses the formal element pattern effectively with the bowls and ingredients next to eachother in a tidy style. 

Carl Kleiner

http://www.carlkleiner.com/

Carl Kleiner is a male photographer who has a creative relationship with some of the most well-known brands in the world, including Google, IKEA, H&M and Herman Miller. He is also associated with many more that he captures very intriguing and stylish photographs for. His work is similar to Marinaa Aurora's above, however Kleiner's projects are much more varied. He has an edge to his style that is extremely inspiring and influential. I like his flat lay pieces, like the picture above of some ingredients laid out in a neat and organised fashion on a table top. He doesn't use bland backgrounds in his work such as the typical black or white backdrop; Kleiner uses pastel tones to compliment the colours found in the subject he's photographing. Of course pattern is a very strong formal element featured in all of his pictures, sometimes found in the background and often found in the subject. I am certain I want to visually reinterpret pieces like his flat lays of ingredients in my project. 

Marcelo Cantu

http://www.marcelocantuphoto.com/

At the young age of 24, Marcelo Cantu has garnered the reputation as one of the most creative photographers of his generation. Since the age of 12, he has worked to refine and develop an in depth knowledge of digital photography. His technical craftsmanship and artistic creativity refines his artistry. Marcelo recently graduated from Parsons The New School and specialises in portraiture, fashion and conceptual photography. With each stunning image, he gives free rein to his curiosity by experiment, leaving any project he grazes with a touch of ingenuity. Aiming to revive the momentum in the beauty and fashion industry, he blazes the trail of uncharted territory. He reconstructs peoples faces through the use of make up, which is beaming with pattern and colour, with an unprecedented degree of realism and fantasy. The costumes he dresses the majority of his models in is beaming with creativity and eccentricity which is captivating as a portrait. If I were to develop any portraits through the use of make up, I would indulge in Cantu's style.