Connecting Essays

Example 1: Alec Soth

The picture above shows one of my pictures from location portraiture. I think it resembles the work of Alec Soth because it shows someone who looks relevant and belonging to the background they are in. Showing a naturally placed picture rather than a set up in a studio. And similarly to a lot of Soth's pictures, the person in my picture is not showing much facial expression but is still looking towards the camera. So it isn't in a candid style but it does't show much emotional attachment. The picture below shows one by Alec Soth that I felt related the closest to mine.

Example 2: Heather Edwards

The picture I took above, is one from my colour shoot. I found the photographer Heather Edwards when researching natural and plant photographers. I think my picture resembles her work in terms of colour, idea and depth. This being that there is a clear fore ground and back ground that have been differentiated with a shallow depth of field to emphasis the definition of the fore ground. In terms of colour, they are both edited to be very vibrant and saturated in colour. I also think the angle and zoom of the picture resembles her work. Especially in the example below. To make my work even more similar to hers, I could make the green of the grass less vibrant and make the colours of the leaves even more saturated. In her work below, it shows the grass being quite dull in colour but this makes the pink stand out even more making it look even more bright.

Example 3: Rut Blees Luxemburg

The picture above shows one that I took in London on a trip for my landscape pictures. I think the main ways it resembles Rut Blee's work is in terms of colour, editing, lighting, connotation and the actual landscape. A lot of her work is focused on urban city scapes. The example below has connotations of mystery and the city night life and how it can seem like quite a scary place to be. I think my picture also shows this because of the way I have edited it to show emphasis on the dark shadows, this shows a tonal contrast. I also edited the colour levels and saturation of my picture to make the yellow and orange undertones more strong. She does this in the majority of her pictures.

Example 4: Irving Penn

Irving Penn is best known for his low exposure, low key lighting, studio portraits. The picture above that I took is my favourite picture from my low key lighting studio shoot. The resemblance is with the tone and lighting. This is because of the shadows that cut out some of the face, this has been done with Penn's picture below. This makes the portrait seem quite abstract and also have a mysterious connotation as areas of the face have been taken over by negative space. To make my picture resemble his work even more I could zoom into the face further like he has done in the example below.

To further the connection between the two, I edited the picture in photoshop. I focused on making the picture black and white, and creating that low exposure and really high tonal contrast.

Example 5: