Thursday, 11 September 2014

W ( 6 ) - Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna is known for his black and white landscape photography.

Michael Kenna
 Michael Kenna went plenty of places throughout the world to take photos. He mostly used a Hasselblad medium format or a Holga camera. Lots of his photos are taken in dawn with an exposure of 8 to 10 hours.

The photos that I'm showing below are part of the photos he took in South Korea from 2005 to 2012.









The great exposure that makes a black and white photo looks deep. I love the composition in his photos, it's balance with the great use of space. Besides, the great use of shadow and reflection create different feelings.

The way that Michael Kenna did in his photo is to lead your eyes to follow his direction explore the place and feel the atmosphere.

W ( 5 ) - Nadav Kander

It's such an honour to meet one such a great photographer Nadav Kander in real life. Not only get the chance to listen his ideas and concept, I get to know the reason why he's a great photographer.

Nadav Kander

I get to see few pieces from his several series including Yang Tze - The Long River, Dust and Obama.
Maybe the greatest thing to learn about is not about the technique or what kind of camera he's using but his opinion that created all the beautiful photographs.







From landscape to portraits, I think Nadav Kander's work has a great impact from the emotional sides. Throughout the Q&A session, someone asked him about the expression of Obama as people tend to get a perfect portrait when they are taking a photo, yet Nadav had revealed the identity of Obama but not a fake smile in front of the camera. I think the idea of shooting the reality is great, without making things to look perfect maybe is one of a kind of perfection.

Another question that asked by another lecturer, asking about Nadav who travel a lot to take beautiful scenery, and asking which is the next destination going to be. The answer from him really impressed me. He said he never know his next destination, because he always explore to new places. He mentioned about when we travel to a new place, our eyes try to capture all the details and looking into all the things on the first 5 days, and after that, we don't even bother about what's going on in the surrounding. His idea of photography is to observe all the details and capture the moment but not a place that he's so used to be.

Every exploration has it's own meaning, and maybe it's time to look for one.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

W ( 4 ) - Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell uses the idea of pin hole camera and make his living room into the photograph. And eventually, he travelled into different destination to look for great interior to finish up his series of the Camera Obscura. 

Abelardo Morell
It's like making the wallpaper with the scenery, he created photographs of the city view right into a dark room and expose the photo for 10 hours for the great effect that he's looking for.









Taking  everything outside into a dark room, most likely what Abelardo Morell did. What I found interesting is the composition and the situation of the room itself that combine the reflection of the city scape. By capturing so much stuff in a small area, the feeling of fullness in his photos are telling a kind satisfaction by creating a sense of busy yet harmony.

Before he started to use the colour film, the black and white in the photos doesn't make it looks flat but making the photos very 3 dimensional. What's more interesting in the colour photos is the great reflection of the view of nature aligning with the city with the composition of having everything at once.

It's interesting to see two images merge together although they are totally different story, and i think Abelardo Morell had created a great series of photos.

W ( 3 ) -Todd Hido

Nothing is done on purposed but Todd Hido's photographs did capture all the shining lights on the unusual door or window.

Todd Hido

The greatest thing about the photos are because of the great timing and the atmosphere. As the photos were taken at the golden hour when the sun is about to set and the lights is perfect in every photos. Besides, the perfect misty situation that gives a tint of softness, created the mysterious situation with the composition of houses that makes you wonder, " what's going on? "






Light travels in the speed that makes it invisible, and maybe the reason why lights is so magical is because it's identity of the 7 colours. The great exposure that gives different tonality in every photo of the houses in Todd Hido's photographs has translated the feeling of isolation and a pulse of sadness. 

Every houses has it's own story, the family or couple or a bunch of friends, Todd Hido created a sense of isolation with the warmness from the lights coming through the windows or doors, yet being bounced back by the loneliness. It's kinda like singing a lullaby own your own, it'a happy yet sad.

I personally think that the fog is great, by the softness of the harsh lights, it makes the photo more completed not only the houses standing alone but the atmosphere of being alone.

Maybe Tood Hido's Hunting Houses is a translation of what Annie Proulx once wrote, " Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved. " 

W ( 2 ) - Robert Polidori

"When images are soft, they just remain evocative, or in your imagination. You get a mood, and it remains on the emotional level. The viewer has to put more of him or herself into it. When there is more detail, it’s like that old expression: There’s no fiction stranger than reality. Reality will compose the most extreme paradoxes and contradictions and adjacencies, which can’t be understood."

Quote from Robert Polidori impressed me in a different way of thinking that creates a new dimension of imagination which brought our thinking to a whole new level.

Robert Polidori

There's plenty of work done by Robert, and there's one series which introduced to me by my lecturer when I was doing a consultation with her.

It's the " After The Flood " that featuring the destruction in New Orleans caused by the Hurricane Katriana. He found the streets deserted, and, without electricity, eerily dark. The next day he began to photograph, house by house, trying to record every doors that opened to him to explore.










What you just saw were part from the collection. The thing that really impressed me is the emotional approach rom the quality that brought by Robert through his lens. Everything is broken, from all directions and towards all directions. Probably this is what Robert wanted to showcase through his photos, the different dimension of perfection although it doesn't look " good ".

The melancholy of every opened door in the photos, portraying someone who's asking you to continue your journey by the door yet it's all destroyed. Things are everywhere on the floor, walls are broken and every curtains were washed. The dirtiness that uphold their dignity, standing upright that telling us the story when the hurricane hits. Probably the saddest love story or a fiction about kinship or friendship.

The composition of the photos were well thought, opened door is placed at it's perfect position that bring your eyes along and leading you throughout the photo, like every hidden meaning, it created a space of imagination and expressed the photos as a media to connect our thinking all together.

Maybe every great shot has a story, but as a viewer, what we can tell is all introduction of the photo, and the photo itself.