Research Log

Lauren Greenfield

http://www.laurengreenfield.com

Lauren Greenfield is well known for her work on 'girl culture'; she aims to capture the thoughts and feelings on young girls today by photographing what they go through, their daily struggles and by capturing them in the most realistic way she can. Her work can be seen as a documentary, like her pictures above - they portray girls in their natural way of life without staging the picture. In most, if not all of her pictures, she finds opportunities to take pictures; she lets scenes occur naturally rather than getting her subjects to do a certain action or show a specific facial expression. 

Simon Wheatley

http://www.dontcallmeurban.com

This photographer looks into the whole urban gang culture found in the U.K; he mostly concentrates on gangs in London and captures them in action. His work has a realistic feel to it as he produces actual snapshots the moment rather than get actors to act the scene out. This makes his pictures valid, allowing  the viewers to almost see the scene first hand, as if they were there when the picture was taken in real life. This photographer can be useful to me as I am thinking of exploring gang culture around my community.

Sally Mann

http://sallymann.com

Sally Mann is well known for her work on the whole idea of family in society a long time ago. Most of her pictures are in black and white, preventing the viewers from being distracted by the different colours that can be found in a scene and focus only on the context of the photograph. She is very good at capturing the relationship between family members, especially between siblings - she does this by using specific facial expression on her subjects and by using their clothing. It is very easy for her viewers to figure out what relationship her subjects hold in her pictures, for example, father and son or sister and brother.

Ed Peters

http://www.epetphoto.com

Ed Peters is a street photographer in New York, famous for his use of colours. He captures modern society in a bright and colourful way, attracting viewers to his photographs. He tends not to capture the face of the subject, mostly because he doesn't want the viewers to focus on their face but pay attention to the scene and look at how society has changed over the years; he is capturing the changes that are taking place as time goes by. Posters are often found in his pictures, this so that the viewers can see what is going on outside of the scene, helping them to imagine being in New York's society and maybe even living there.

Robert Cartwright

https://robcartwrightphotography.wordpress.com

This photographer explores one or two of the social issues that are found in society; such as stereotypes or homelessness. He does this is a diversity of ways, using different techniques each time, this makes his pictures extremely unique and shows how experimental he is with his work. This allows him to choose the best techniques for each picture and select certain features that he wants to show off in order to produce an attractive and appealing photograph. Robert balances his work out between black and white and colour - once again, this puts a unique feel to his work.

Don McCullin

http://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/29-don-mccullin/overview/

Don McCullin is well known for his work on society during wartime; he captured the struggles society had to face. Most of his pictures are in black and white, allowing the viewer to concentrate most on the scene rathe than the colour of the photograph. He captured his images in real life settings, which abled him to show the feelings that were present in each picture. He was good at capturing facial expression, letting the viewer know what is going on in the picture and letting them know how his subjects were feeling at the time when the picture was taken. His use of angles is a very common technique found in his photographs, he uses angles as a method to show only specific things in a picture, rather than allowing the whole scene to be seen.

Ciril Jazbec

http://www.ciriljazbec.com/

This photographer did a project on the flooding that took place in Kiribati. His work on this stands out due to the endless amounts of colours he has included in his photographs - this is very ironic as the flood would have most probably lead to the viewers expecting more dark, greyish colours. However, Ciril Jazbec has captured the positive elements of society, even after the flood; he shows the unity that had taken place in order for society to be built up again. Most of his pictures concentrate on how the citizens of Kiribati worked together and helped each other, showing a positive side to society, which is probably not what the viewers expected - his work shows that the flood was a good thing and made individuals realise that they need to stick together.

Allysa H

http://allysah-photography.deviantart.com

This photographer's work is focused mainly on girls, similar to Lauren Greenfield's. Her work show how women are blind to society and how they are expected to be a certain way. Typical stereotypes are often portrayed in her photographs, for example, girls only care about their make up and the way they look. The use of portraiture is also common in Allysa's work, using this technique allows her to focus only on her subject's face, letting the viewer understand the context of the picture and figure out the stereotypes in each picture.

9 Shots

http://9shots.blogspot.co.uk

9 shots is a collective group of photographers who are well know for their street photography. This may fit in to my project as this type of photography gives viewers a view of society in a different way. 9 shots captures emotively - where they are mostly isolated, surprised or exhausted. By doing this, they add a unique element to their work, making it seem as if they have a connection to their subject, creating some kind of bond between their viewers and their subjects. It is also common for their photographs to be underexposed, causing the subjects to look greyer and darker than how they loo in real life. 

James Ellis

http://mrelllis.tumblr.com

James Ellis is very good at capturing people in certain scenes. He portrays society in a negative light most of the time, highlighting substance abuse and social issues such as domestic abuse. He does this by using several techniques, such as close-ups, he is able to allow the viewer to create a bond with the subjects in the pictures. He also uses the element of colour to show contrast between his main focus and the scene in the background as there is something going on in the back most of the time. Facial expressions are a big theme in his pictures as they are emphasised in almost every photograph, aiming to let the viewer know what the subject is feeling.

Wittner Fabrice

http://www.wittner-fabrice.com/

This photographer has visited New Zealand, India and Vietnam, capturing their exciting and different cultures - this produces diversity in her work. There are a variety of techniques found in his work, which gives each of his photographs a unique feel and sets a different atmosphere for the viewers each time. His captures his pictures in real life situations where events are happening rather than capturing their daily lives; this emphasises on how different yet amazing different cultures found i society can be. This photographer could be useful to me in the future as I am thinking of exploring the different cultures that can be found in our society. The methods used in his work will be of great influence to my own work in the near future.

Anna Delany

http://www.annadelany.com/

Anna Delany focuses on urban life through people and places; she portrays them in their natural way of life and addresses certain stereotypes of them that are found in society. Most of her pictures are in black and white, this may be because she eliminates any other distractions for her viewers so that they concentrate only on the scene and the subjects. Moreover, it can be argued that she produces these monotone photographs so that the idea of racism is also put out along with the urban life; as this is probably something they experience on a daily basis, especially in America, where her work is based. The idea of black and white hides the tone of their skin a bit more, not allowing the viewer to consider this as much as the other aspects that are found in her pictures.

Phillip Abbott

http://photo.net/photos/hardboiledPhil

This photographer is remarkable at capturing specific individuals found in society and portray them in their own light. He focuses the whole picture on a certain individual or a group of very similar individual in order to illustrate what kind of people are alive today in society. This makes everyone seem special and important, with his photographs concentrating more on the positive side of a community. However, it can be said that due to the fact that a picture only focuses on one person or a group, he could be showing how society has become separated and people are too different to be with each other and help each other. His work is very ambiguous and open to the viewers, so that they may have their own interpretations of his work.

Richard Sandler

http://www.richardsandler.com

Richard Sandler is very well known for his work on social injustice - he does this by making subtle or overt suggestions in powerful ways. Although his work is in black and white, it gives his work an intense feel, giving his photographs power and importance when portraying society in a negative light. He is very good at showing the differences between people and how they all differ from one another; this is mostly done with his use of angles in real life situations - he positions his camera in certain ways so that he can only capture the social injustice that is in the picture. This is also emphasised by making the camera focus only on the main subject, making the background either blurry or dark so that viewer cannot see it as much.

Stepan Handzha

http://stepan-h.tumblr.com

Sepan focuses his work on deserted locations and accidentally human shapes, evoking feelings of isolation, loss and contemplation. By doing this, he portrays how a society can be lost and abandoned leaving behind endless traces of people. Most of his work contain manmade items, like statues, cars, buildings and so on. This highlights the little things that are found around us in our society but don't pay attention to, such as graffiti. This photographer is good at using close-ups and wide-angles in order to force the viewer to focus on a specific object and the background or a whole scene. He uses several methods to achieve the atmosphere of isolation for the viewer and they all work just as well as each other.

Donavon Smallwood

http://cargocollective.com/donavonsmallwood

This street photographer is well known for his work with people on the street, typically in relation to cars and public transit. It is clear that most of his work consist of people falling or doing something on the grounds; it is not clear why but it can certainly be argued that he does this in order to portray the struggles of society. His work is a collection of black and white as well as colour images, this shows diversity and encourages the viewer to explore his pictures. Although his photographs are predictable, he still finds different ways in keeping his work fresh and making each one seem unique and interesting. One of the ways he does this is by capturing all ages in society - children and the elderly. This is to show their place in society and how the different ages each fit into the community in a different way. However, due to the fact that most of his subject are on ground, despite their age, it shows that maybe they are not so different after all.

Yanidel

http://www.yanidel.net 

Yanidel is famous for his street photography of people, however, it can be seen that he is very good at capturing relationships between people and portraying them in a good light. He shoots people together, perhaps holding hands or doing something intimate; this shows the different types of relationships that are found in society, such as friendships or relationships between families. By portraying them in a positive light, he beings out a brighter side to society. On the other hand, he also captures relationship that may be failing or fading away and he portrays this through the actions of his subjects, for example, by having a subject smoking when with his girlfriend, he could suggest that he is experiencing stress as the relationship is not wring very well. This balances out with the good relationships, showing how society has its fair share or both good and bad relationships.

Matt Hoyle

http://matthoyle.com

Matt Hoyle is very good at portraying people in an eerie and brilliantly cohesive way. He aims to make his viewers uncomfortable when looking at his photographs; he is good at using angles and editing so that his subjects look unnatural and creepy. He did some work under the theme of a freak-show, which really put emphasis on his unrealistic work. He mostly uses close ups that are really sharp and clear, showing every detail of his subjects' faces, this makes the viewer feel as if they are to lose to the subject, thus making them feel uncomfortable. I like the idea of this and I am considering using it in my work as it explores the idea of identity; this can be useful as I can explore identity in society and find different ways to portray this.

Lee Jeffries

http://leejeffries.500px.com

This photographer is very famous for his work on portraiture. It is evident that his work is very unique and his viewers can easily tell that it's his; this is due to the monotone found in hie work and the details that he includes on his subjects. Their emotions are conveyed brilliantly using high contrast and ISO - facial expressions are a big element fond in his work and they are used purely to connect the viewer with the subject by letting the viewer know how the subject feels and gives them a bond to create. Once again, this is another photographer who also explores the theme of identity in his images, thus he may be useful to m in the future and I would like to use his photographs as examples.

Seymour Templar

http://www.photoworkshopadventures.com/Team-Seymour-Templar.html

This is a very modern photographer, who concentrates on capturing people on their phones, kissing and in low light - he is very good at this. This depicts society as very technological and modern, the fact that most of his subjects are kissing in his images suggest that society has become very intimate. It can be argued that his work is showing society in a negative light as it shows how mobile phones are taking over people's lives. It can also be said that he shows society in a positive way as he photographs the two different people in society; those who love technology, being stuck to their phone, and those who like to socialise, meeting new people and share experiences - he shows that people like this still exist despite what the media says.

Richard Avedon

http://www.avedonfoundation.org/

Richard Avedon is well known for his portraits on identity, depicting the different groups of people found in America. He did a project called 'American West', focusing on the different types of individuals that exist in that particular society. His work is mostly in black and white, which emphasises on the similarities between the individuals - this is quite ironic as his ultimate aim is to show the differences between the people who live in the same society. However, at the same time, he is trying to portray how society is not so different after all; although they all have different personalities, they still have similar traditions and cultures that they all stick to. By using the high key lighting technique, he is able to really show off his subjects and prevent the viewer from being distracted by keeping the background plain and white. I really like his work as I feel it is very unique and differs from most portraits I have seen in my research. I would like to use his techniques and produce similar images in the studio. This will allow me to depict the different characters and personalities that are found in our society.