Tagged: image making

October 7, 2020

The deep dive

I’m currently amping up my photoshop skills.

There have been two projects so far; both to do with layering. They have been fascinating and frustrating in equal measure, but also totally necessary in order to make the images I am ambitious to create.

I have been inspired by such photographers as Ilina S, Erika Tschinkel, Sabina and Zhang Jinga, who all suffuse their images with an air of the fantastic, with their use of subject, composition, lighting and post production. Their images and technique remind me of the painstaking work of special visual effects teams in film making.

My rudimentary efforts so far make me think of how one can know when an image is “complete”. I’ve never been able to work that out in my writing, editing or darkroom work. The idea that creative work is never finished but abandoned comes to mind.

Maybe such knowledge comes from knowing how to best use the tools, which is what I’m learning now. Tutorials abound and I’m practising regularly.

January 3, 2020

Faces and spaces

“There’s nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face…” Irvin Kershner.

Portraits, in magazines, newspapers and galleries, have always fascinated me. Representing and interpreting a personality without words has always been a great skill.

I love taking photographs of people, but have done very little formal posed work until now. While I’ve enjoyed taking portraits, I have become more interested in making environmental portraits, like those of Arnold Newman: where somebody is photographed is integral to who they are.

So far, I’ve attempted to capture people in spaces that are important to them. In time, I hope that I can capture a person as much with light, speed and exposure as much as with the space that surrounds them.