"Stay Inspired" is a weekly post on my Facebook Page where I share the work of an inspirational photographer or artist every Thursday. I've been doing this every week since 2013, so there is now a vast number of outstanding creatives from all genres and disciplines that we've looked at over the years. In fact I’ve been doing it so long now that even I’ve forgotten some of these great artists so why not try and collate them all into one place for not only myself but for you as well.
This is the third compilation, so if you missed the previous ones and are interested in an inspiration overload, here’s the link to them
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 001
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 002
These new posts will look at a collection of 10 artists each and they should prove to be an excellent resource for not only inspiration but motivation as well. With each artist shared, I will include a short overview of their work including things to consider and look at whilst on their portfolio.
Please bear in mind that these opinions are mine and as such are clearly very subjective. I could just share a link but I believe a more personal point of view of another artists work may be of more value to you over simply stating their name and age for example. But this does mean you may not always agree with me and I would encourage that. Art is subjective and like music, the best art does not appeal to everybody.
Inspirational Work from 10 Photographers and Artists 003
There's little more to say about Amber Gray's work that would better describe it than her own bio; 'Amber’s sense of humour and penchant for glam-rock peek through the controlled chaos revealing unique, memorable, and bewitching personalities'.
Best go check it out for yourself
Belgian fashion photographer Serge Leblon describes his style as 'evanescent and colourful'. His style certainly is both those things, but more than that I feel his fashion photography is very playful and romantic as his work steers well clear of harsh unforgiving lighting and raw sexiness that populates the current mainstream. As well as this intriguing style one of the main things that attracted me to his work was his consistent ability to produce cohesive series of images. Looking at the fashion-editorial section of his site you will notice the unmistakable sets of images that leave you in no doubt that they belong together. Whether it be a dramatic vignette, overarching colour schemes or simply consistent camera techniques, his images tie together at a glance and without the simplistic cliche of relying on trying to tell a story with images. Head on over to see a refreshing take on some mainstream fashion.
Israeli born Yossi Michaeli is renowned for his bold, innovative, strong and graphic style of photography. This is prominent throughout his portfolio and he seems equally happy shooting fashion spreads for the likes of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in the studio as he does on location. The thing that strikes me the most is his bold use of colour. This could easily be seen as overpowering to the viewer, especially with head shots, but his beauty shots are far from the norm and this section of his website is definitely worth checking out as well to see how he leads the viewer through a potentially eclectic image.
Brace thyselves for another small cry in the corner, because this guy has set the bar so damn high, it’s embarrassing. Australian born and London based photographer David Standish is seriously good and he lists his greatest influences as beauty, mystery, magic, dreams, chance, co-incidence and change. His work certainly has a dreamlike quality and although his earlier work had a more subtle colour palette, his recent images are bold and incredibly visually arresting. This style is no more apparent than his recent album cover for Paloma Faiths, 'Fall to Grace' which is nothing short of phenomenal in my opinion. As well as his fantastic photography, pay close attention to his post production too as this is some the most refined colour work Ive seen in a long time.
This link will take you to his website but I seriously recommend have a further search online as I don't think he updates it all to often. Enjoy-Cry-Shoot-Repeat
I don't know why you guys do it to yourselves but here's 'just another industry shaping legend' for you. Born in Vietnam and raised in Iran, Paris and Southern California, Sebastian Kim has seen more success than most. He started out assisting the likes of photographic giants Richard Avedon and Steven Meisel but it wasn't until he was 32 that he struck out on his own. Last year 'The Ground' magazine interviewed him and asked what he felt the secret to his success was. Kim's answer was simply “It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. There is no shortcut, no secret path to success; you just need to focus on what you like and keep moving forward,” he advised. “Do not let discouragement eat up your dream.” Ground magazine continually reference Sebastian's laid back attitude and I felt that his parting words summed it up, "Don’t worry or be too anxious about your career. You just have to enjoy the process." So there you have it guys, just chill out and take it easy and your photographic career will take care of itself. You heard it here first
Robert John Kley photography appears to be one of the rare and fortunate togs, that seems to be pretty darn good at most genres. I love his expressive fashion work, along with some great post pro toning, awesome B/W portraits and also seems pretty adept at making cool vids. Check his 'flickering' section on his site for those, some of the latter ones showcase some some sweet music vids too. Enjoy
Tonight I wanted to share some work from the ex French model Laurence Laborie. Her work has been around for a while now and although she started out in France shooting location and natural light shots, she's probably more renowned for her recent and quite outstanding beauty work which is incredibly vibrant and meticulously lit. I mentioned ex-model as I always find it interesting to view model-turned-photographers work. I like to see how they draw out their subject, seeing as they were previously on the other side of the camera, it would make sense that they would naturally be good at guiding another model. Head on over and see for yourself.
You are bound to of seen at least one of Miles Aldridge shots by now, his style is certainly memorable. His is a post-modern world where his subjects are draped in vibrant couture and photographed in playgrounds, supermarkets, showers or fast cars and his models expressions always leaving questions to the images he takes. As Aldridge himself puts it "I am the very best person to take my pictures".
Head on over to his website, a site that gives an experience and best viewed on a desktop. If you'd like to know more about him though, check out his pretty cool biography page too.
I love this young ladies style, and although its not my personal overall penchant, Amanda Diaz's dreamy and romantic images cannot help but impress. It’s clear that she only surrounds herself with the best team, but her post production, toning and polish, really makes her images shine. But although Amanda herself confesses to not pride herself on her technical ability, her creativity is second to none. Enjoy
It’s been a very long time indeed since I've seen any really good 'nude' photography as I personally find the genre to be saturated with photographers that rely solely on the beauty of the model and the resulting images show little input from the photographer who is simply there to record the moment.
This all changed however when I saw Russian Photographer Dan Hecho's work, and although he is a great wedding and portrait shooter, his nude work blows the genre wide open in my opinion. Granted, the models are nothing short of stunning, but his mastery of natural light and composition is something to behold. Add to this a very strong sense of style throughout his entire post production process and you have an incredibly good nude photographer.
I am sharing the link to his site out of respect for the artist but if you like what you see here then definitely check out his other links on his websites 'info' section.
Oh, and whatever lens this guy is using, I NEED it ;)
Closing Comments
As with all of my posts, I welcome your comments and thoughts on the artists I've shared here today. But although all of the photographers and creatives I've mentioned above come from my own personal tastes and appreciations, I still feel they are all incredibly varied, which ultimately means there will be at least one persons work here that you'll love.
Granted we've really only looked at 'people' photographers here including, portraits, fashion and editorial shooters with none of the other photographic genres being covered, but it's still incredible to me as to how varied this single discipline can be.
I think one of the core things I want you to take away from this series is how another person interprets their subject into a photograph. Sure you can simply reverse engineer the lighting or copy a pose of an image, but I hope you take away a lot more than simply the mechanics of a photograph.
Look at their style and see how that is impacting their work for the better. Look for similarities in pose, expression, subject, lighting, theme and colour. All of these things play a role in any image and by appreciating that in others work we can be better equipped to express it into our own images.
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If you liked this article and would be interested in more posts like this in the future, please feel free to sign up to my monthly newsletter. I publish one of these articles every week and each month I collect them all up and send them directly to your inbox just in case you missed one. Signing up now also get's you my free 10 page pdf on Studio Lighting Tips and Techniques. Jake Hicks Photography - Newsletter
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