Staged Photography

Tom Chambers

Bryan Eisinger

Tom Chambers Photography:

Tom Chambers photographs his subjects based on dreams he has, so most of these photos can be classified as dreamscape photography, in my opinion, to the extreme. Many of his works are phenomenal and I love how he really takes these photographs in a very unrealistic way however he still makes them seem as if they were happening in real life esthetically in some cases. Its all about staged photography for him I think and I think this was a great running up project for the staged assignment photography we had to do.

I'm not sure how many of his photos that include dead animals or are just totally photo-shopped. Even though I feel there is a significant amount of post production using photo-shop in his work especially to get  the faces of some of the animals and exact positions of them interacting with people he still produces some very amazing works and if he doesn't use photo-shop I am even more impressed.

Photo Assignment: Color and Light

Fred Ritchin: After Photography

Fred Ritchin's: After Photography speak to the reader about how Photography is used in today's world with such importance as referring to photojournalism and this difference between reality, what we see on the news and what actually goes on that one begins to reconsider the importance of really staying informed in news and social media in the world today. It's so important now-days that photographers capture the moments of their subjects exactly as they are depicted whether dealing with war photography or any other kind of human bibliographical photography, because whatever the photographer wants us to perceive is essentially how we will perceive it.

The new age of photojournalism is coming and we will soon be able to create any image we want using a computer with a micro-chip so it's essential that we stay true to the materials of photography and not go overboard with portraying images that may be corrupting minds of individuals who are viewing them or even more biased to a certain fact or opinion of another person's viewpoint.

 

Lucas Samaras

Lucas Samaras is a Greek artist who's paintings, portraits, sculptures, and photographs are very unique and inspiring.

 
However he did this photo is amazing in the use of technique maybe camera exposure and the lighting on his face is almost surreal as it is emerging out of the water it may even be two photographs that were separated and cropped together. I also like the use of lighting and color in his photographs he somehow blend the colors in so well that its oddly captivating to the human eye.

His sense of composition is exquisite and really makes you wonder how one could make such a perfect picture, using his techniques and probably a  lot of time and strategically placed objects you can only catch maybe a glimpse into the mind of this great artist.

Gregory Crewdson

For my staged photography assignment I am looking into the matters of my own family life. Staged photography can be especially great for taking photographs of stories. I think the famous photographer Gregory Crewdson does a great job with capturing photographs of this nature.

He really encaptures pure emotion into his portraits, he knows exactly what he wants to portray in his photographs and how he sets it up is critical, the angle of the youngest woman in this sitting on the chair is key because she is almost like the freedom of this family that everyone seems to want and is almost envious of her even though she is their daughter and wants her to be careful or whatever it may be that they're upset about her for she's still young and full of wonder and curiousness, to experience things she's never felt before or gone outside of her zone to do, and they're all looking at her as if she was the person they wish to be now.

This is just some simple lady sitting in a bed of flowers, but the fact that she's in a home and shes a woman and she's sweating it portrays the life and heart of a domesticated women someone who's willing to escape this life she has. She's beautiful in the fact that she's a human being a hard working woman we usually underestimate the hard work and labor it takes for a wife or woman to stay and do house work. Now days we split the housework between men women and children, yet there are cases when the woman is expected to do housework and considered even normal which is how it has been for the past 50 years in an Americanized lifestyle. We tend to forget that these women have dreams too and jobs other than housework  nowdays however, they are still  expected to take full responsibility of taking care of the house while working full time jobs. Whereas a husband may only be expected to work and come home to his wife who does everything else.

Inspirational Photography

One of the most inspiring photographers I find to be in the art world are some of the works of Ansel Adams he is probably one of the most amazing, if not amazing landscape photographers of all time. Landscape photography is so difficult i feel because it's strictly based on the lighting of the daytime or night time depending on how you want your picture to come out, you can always just take a picture of whatever you see at whatever particular time of day it is because nature is beautiful no matter how the light shines on a mountain however it's always nice to capture that exact perfect moment of the sun shining just the right way on a landscape scenery.

This is one of Ansel Adams most famous portraits entitled "Moon over Half Dome"
I love how the moon makes the whole picture if you think how it would look if it was there I feel it would ruin the whole purpose of this picture, this picture in my opinion really shows how great the world is and massive, these huge mountainesque landscapes are nothing compared to the "tiny" moon if you were to be as close to it as the mountain is to you. It's totally a shift of perspectives.

The lighting contrast in this picture is magnificent. I really love the way he portrays the snow on the lighter colored trees with the snow of the mountain in the background and in the foreground or middle ground there are darker trees which contrast with the colors and reflection of the lake which i think is amazing in esthetic quality.




I also really like this picture because of the white and black contrast with more white than black but the darkness of the tree trunk really accentuates the colors of the snow and snow shadows. I really love how he recognized that and is able to capture it on film because this is really a most amazing photographer and his picture.

Duane Michals

One of the most inspiring artists of the world I find is Duane Michaels for his work in still life photography and capturing moving images. The symbolism he uses in some portraits such as Salvation is very influential and controversial to many religions around the world, particularly within the catholic faith as seen here because religion is meant to bring salvation to people and hope instead of death

we have a priest holding a cross as a weapon holding it up the the head of his subject.

The lighting makes the picture seem even softer and less harsh as its almost like the man on the right is willing to take the gun to the head or the words of the priest while the priest looks cynical due to the shadowing on his face. The symbolism is very important in this photograph however so is the facial expressions, one thing to notice however is that there is a very important balance between the lighting in photography and facial emotion or expressions which show emotions.

 I feel as if these go hand in hand, because each one of us has a light inside of us we use this expression when loving someone and when we love we have this radiance that's incomparable to any words that can describe it, and the same applies to darkness in one who is expressing sadness or fear whatever it may be, this quote by George Eastman helps embrace what im saying and i think is very relevant to this type of photography and really every photograph ever made.
 ” Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” - George Eastman

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This photo called Chance meeting is a very unique type of photography also called sequence photography one of the key aspects of Duane Michael's photography is that he sets a tone of being in the picture or as if you were in the moment of time where and when the picture was being taken. You also get the feeling of suspense and imagination as you kind of have to play t in your head how these two people met. How they were walking and what they were thinking and if you were ever in their situation you would know exactly how they felt or feel.