Common Ground.

Both Cindy Sherman and Alex Prager’s photography is very excentric and colourful, with character. Extravagant makeup is used in both photographers work, making the images very eye-catching and intriguing. They’ve taken iconic film stills and created a more modern twist to the image. Sherman mainly using herself as the model, not making it a portrait but just using herself to convey issues of the modern world. Whereas Prager uses well-known celebrities to help recreate the iconic pictures.

Both of these photographers tell a story in their images, the story is not always clear but in each picture you can see there is something more to the character and the image always conveys an emotion.

Alex Prager.

Prager, whose style is defined by its retro, narrative-heavy, deeply atmospheric cinematic qualities, isn’t new to designing shoots around classic films. Her photos are inspired by, and often reference, the work of Hitchcock, David Lynch and Federico Fellino. She makes sure that all the colours in her work stand out and draw attention, whether it is an orange or a pastel pink.

  

Cindy Sherman.

Typically, she was known for photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress, and model. Taking pictures, mainly of herself, she recreated film stills and transformed herself into several characters, this made her become well-known and respected for her style of work. The colours she uses throughout her work tend to be bright and vibrant, like the second picture, making the images a little more interesting to the viewer.

 

Contemporary Photography.

Zena Holloway was born in Bahrain in 1973 and raised in London. As an underwater photographer and director, her interest in underwater photography started when she was 18 while working her way around the globe as a scuba diving instructor. Charmed by the magic of the underwater world, she began experimenting with a camera and gradually taught herself the skills needed to master this most technical of photographic techniques. Her images are striking, instinctive and driven by a deep understanding of her medium. She delivers the remarkable, combining the highly technical aspects of underwater photography with superb creative direction resulting in extraordinary, ethereal and magical imagery evocative of mystical fairytales suspended in time. She has taken underwater photography to entirely new depths.

Giulia Pesarin was born in Verona, in Italy in 1981. Attracted to the role and image in contemporary art as an expressive medium, from some years I work in photography, through the analogical and digital photo. I have been working for really long time in the photo environment, I always carry out my projects with several national professionals. I often work in contact with artists coming from dance and performance art. In my photography I always try a deep connection with my experience and to my origins.

Tommy Ingberg is a self-taught photographer and visual artist, born 1980 in Sweden. He works with photography and digital image editing, creating minimalistic and self-reflecting surreal photo montages dealing with human nature, feelings and thoughts. Tommy leaves the interpretation of his work up to the viewer but says, “For me, surrealism is about trying to explain something abstract like a feeling or a thought, expressing the subconscious with a picture. The Reality Rearranged series is my first try at describing reality trough surrealism. During the two and a half years I have worked on the series I have used my own inner life, thoughts and feelings as seeds to my pictures. In that sense the work is very personal, almost like a visual diary. Despite this subjectiveness in the process I hope that the work can engage the viewer in her or his own terms. I want the viewers to produce their own questions and answers when looking at the pictures, my own interpretations are really irrelevant in this context. ” During the last couple of years he has received international recognition with his work shown in numerous publications and receiving awards and honorable mentions from many different competitions including International Photography Awards, Prix De La Photographie Paris and Sony World Photography Awards. In 2012 Tommy won the Lumen Prize with his picture “Torn”.

Alessandro Passerini has been a photographer for 20 years. Painter, sculptor and graphic designer. He was also a photographer for Art+Commerce/Vogue and Art Director of ‘Basilio Cascella’ Italian Prize and ‘Paola Occhi’ Italian prize. Founder of ‘Collettivo TM15’ and member of ‘Polis_Artika’. He loves and has a passion for; mountains, nature, art and arts. He’s known for “thinking”  like a Mountain.

Different uses for Photography in Society.

• Artistic Expression: Art photography, experimental, still life.

• Communication: Advertising, marketing, news photography, entertainment.

• Documentation: Photojournalism (documenting the “human condition); identification (for ID cards, prison mug shots, etc.); forensic photography.

• Hobby/ Job: Fashion, sport, scenic, artistic, everyday (in the life photography).

Photography Project Intro.

Photography involves capturing images in a studio or on location, to then be able to produce prints or screen-based images using film-based or digital technology. Making a good photograph is essentially about learning to capture exciting visual qualities through a viewfinder. All Photographers use different techniques to make their images unique. There are several purposes to take an image, weddings, advertisement, fashion and portraits. They research widely from different sources to gain inspiration to help them develop ideas. Professional photographers continuously review the progress of their work to ensure it meets their creative intentions.

In this unit I will study the work of contemporary and historical photographers and experiment with and learn how to use photography materials and techniques relevant to a brief. I will develop my photography skills and understanding by exploring traditional film-based processes and digital photography in response to a brief.

I like the idea of this Project because I actually take a Photography course also and I feel that my experience with cameras will help my progress in this brief. Using my experience and knowledge I can come up with creative ideas for my own images, also my love of movies can help me recreate and mimic a scene from a well-known theatre clip.