I do not have portraits of Eric Campbell and Johanna Christensen because I was unable to shoot them.
Sam Chao:
In Sam
Chao’s earlier work, there seems to be a style that focuses on almost a sort of
minimalism. In his series of leading lines, repetition, and foreground
background, there is an essence of calmness that is portrayed. Not a lot of
action is portrayed, leaving the observer to focus on the beauty of the shot as
a whole. None of his early works seem extremely busy or hectic. Though he never
said anything about it, I think subconsciously he moved towards this idea
without knowing it. It is not until the series project that he decides to stray
away from the idea and go towards more active and lively photos.
In his
later work, there is a lot of experimentation with photo editing. Granted a lot
of projects were designed for us to use photo editing, but he truly embraced
the idea and used it even when it was not necessarily required. His
experimental sketchbook is where he truly begins embracing the idea of photo
editing because ever since then, his photos have almost all been edited
differently. His “10 Photos” and “The Thrill” series both capture this use of
photo editing even when they were not necessary to complete the project.
Ian Schleuter:
In all of
Ian’s work there is a sense of minimalism. Though in his early work some of the
vibrant colors in “3X3” and “Leading Lines” stray away from the idea of
minimalism, but the subject matter keeps in line with the idea. His early work
still focuses usually on a single object or model, a minimalist idea, though
the abundance of colors tend to stray away from that.
He begins
to truly embrace minimalism beginning with his series project, and he carries
that idea over to his most recent works as well. With the series project he was
finally able to truly explore minimalism and he continued with it afterwards
with his “Diptychs”, “Triptychs”, “Text Edit”, and “Plant Photography”, all
displaying an enhanced vision for minimalism. In his later works, not only is
the subject minimal, but there is very little (or no) activity and the colors
are usually limited to only a few.
Abby Mysona:
I believe
Abby dabbles in a couple different styles throughout her works this year. The
first idea that is very prominent is the idea of photo editing. Almost every
photo she has shot, from beginning to end, has been edited in some way, most
notably her use of filters. Every shot is put through a different filter and
though her beginning works from “Photography Assignment 1” and “Rule of Thirds”
use black and white quite a bit, by the end of her works, such as the diptychs,
frames, triptychs, and text edits, she is constantly using and experimenting
with various different filters and effects.
Another
style that I believe Abby has picked up on is motion and activity. A lot of her
works, even from the beginning, are extremely active. There are photos that
send your eyes rolling across the screen, from corner to corner, bobbing and
weaving along the way. There are also photos that may not have the same affect,
but are so lively and active. I think these ideas are best represented by her
series on motion, and especially her series on toys. In the toy series she is
able to manipulate the surroundings and backgrounds to whatever she pleases,
and she creates a very dynamic and lively atmosphere for the photos.
Chuan Chen:
I think
Chuan has gasped the style of surrealism extremely well. Not only does she put
in appropriate filters to portray the correct mood for photos, but she uses the
idea of the unreal in her photography. Though her use of filters goes back to
her very first works, her use of surrealism evolves during her series project
and after with the diptychs and triptychs.
Chuan’s
whole series project was about editing photos to portray a fantasy, the unreal.
She edits objects and people into photos where they should not be, and
continues to include this idea of the unreal into her diptychs and triptychs.
Thomas Madsen:
I think
Thomas’s work is quite interesting because one of the styles he has picked up
is the idea of real life. I think his photos generally do not use a lot of
editing or filters, especially when he has a choice in his series project. It
is hard to say that Thomas adheres to any sort of style though. Throughout his
works, I believe he has adapted his style to fit the constraints of the
assignment. For example, though he does generally use the true colors of the
photos, he uses only black and white for his “Portraits” and “Leading Lines”.
Most of
his photos are vibrant and his use of color is good, which is a good contrast
to the rest of the class that generally uses filters. I like his idea and use
of “real life”, but what I like more is that he can adapt his work to adhere to
the assignment. He changes his style depending on what he needs and this always
keeps us on our toes because his last series could be completely different than
his next.
Sasha Carey:
One style
Sasha has picked up is the idea of activity. Her photos keep the observer’s
eyes wandering around the photo, whether it is due to her photo editing or her
use of motion. Sasha uses photo editing prominently in many of her photos. Even
from the beginning she is constantly experimenting with different filters,
saturation, contrast, and other photo editing techniques.
Though
her first few assignments (such as “3X3”, “repetition”, “Depth foreground”,
etc.) do not utilize motion as much, we see a progression in her work to more
active. Even from her “Portraits” we can see the start of this style of motion
because some of her portraits are not only shot straight on, but there are ones
where the model is either moving or moving something else. Her use of motion
becomes extremely prevalent after her series project because it was based off
the idea of “Abstract Motion”.
Eric Campbell:
Eric
adopts the idea of repetition very well in his photos. You can see a
progression in his works that lead to this idea of repetition from the
beginning of this year with his “Rule of Thirds”. Though he does not fully
embrace the idea at the time, you see the beginnings because he takes photos of
certain patterns and repetition.
This idea
becomes extremely prevalent during his series project, for though he is
exploring the idea of the “Abstract”, he is subconsciously (or possibly
consciously though he does not identify this idea in the title of his series
project) photographing this idea of repetition in many of his photographs. In
his “Abstract Series Project”, he goes even further and adds patterns that are
not necessarily repeating, but identify with the idea of repetition (patterns
such as swirls that do not repeat, but progress in a repeating rotation).
Johanna Christensen:
One style
Johanna has developed over the course of this class is one of brightness and
contrast. Though many of her beginning works (such as “Portraits”, “Diptychs”,
and “Triptychs”) all use black-and-white very prominently, we can see the
beginning of this idea in her “Fantasy” series. In her “Fantasy” series, though
not all the photos are extremely colorful, most of them are because she edits
and manipulates the background of the shot.
This idea
progresses afterwards in her “Experimental Sketchbook” series after leaving
this idea behind for a few series because the idea of the series was to
experiment with the effects of photo editing. During and after her
“Experimental Sketchbooks”, her photos become more lively and colorful,
something she carries over to her later works (such as “Conceptual”).
Carlos Ronstadt:
When
asked about his style, Carlos Ronstadt replied that his work is “kind of
mysterious. It’s dark and shadowy and all that”. As a colorblind photographer,
Carlos is able to see the world in a different light; a different filter some
might say. Though his poses obvious complications to his work, it also gives
him an advantage in certain areas. Carlos is able to focus less on the coloring
of the photo and more on the subject matter, “I don’t use the colors as a
reference point; I usually just ignore the colors as a colorblind person would
do. I just let the editing make itself, I don’t really use colors.” He is able
to edit the photo more to portray his message and less to make a scene with the
colors.
Though
many would say that colors can portray the mood of a photo, he generally uses a
black-and-white filter to portray his photo through his eyes. When he uses
different filters, he says he can generally tell a change in color, just not
what the color will be: “I’ll just do something to make it look cool and then
hopefully it looks cool to other people and it’s not a weird color that doesn’t
make sense.” Sometimes though, his photo editing is purely unintentional. He
sometimes forgets to place a black-and-white filter just because he sees the
photo as black-and-white itself, “Usually when I don’t use black-and-white,
it’s purely unintentional because I forget to, ‘cause I can’t really when it’s
black-and-white or not, but it just works”.
