Foreword
"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’s 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 sharing these for so long now, that even I’ve forgotten some of the great artists I shared at the beginning.
So because so many of these have been lost to time, I thought ‘why don't I try and collate them all into one place for not only myself, but for you as well’.
This is the eighth compilation, so if you missed the previous ones and are interested in an inspiration overload, here’s the links to them;
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 001
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 002
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 003
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 004
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 005
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 006
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 007
Stay Inspired - Inspirational work from 10 Photographers and Artists 008
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 009
Davis Ayer
It's that time again, the gear heads and pixel peepers may want to keep on walking because we are about to get creative. You have been warned.
Photography has undergone many dramatic shifts in recent years, from the vast surge of its accessibility to the sheer numbers of people that now actually consume it. If photography is still considered art, then it may well be be the most consumed form of art we embrace day to day.
So in that daily visual noise, how do we as photographers who want to record more than our Friday nights, actually stand out from the tidal waves of baby photos and meal updates?
This of course is the million dollar question, but in short you have to get people to look, stop and actually engage the brain, and that is getting harder and harder to do.
I personally think that one way to borrow your viewers time is to actually get more creative with photography, whether it’s with location, styling, props or lighting, all of these things will help to make a photograph look different and stand out.
One guy who manages to keep every single one of his images looking different in absolute spades, is L.A. based Davis Ayer.
I personally love Ayer's work for many reasons and although we live in a hipsta age, I don't think Ayer is trying to chase the rosy nostalgia of his childhood family holidays from the backlit palm display of Instagram, I think he is truly playing with the photographic art form the way we all should once in a while.
I guarantee he will have hundreds if not thousands of crazy 'almost but not quite what I was after' shots as he pounds his Mamiya RZ with countless double exposures, light leaks and distressed films.
His timeless and playful style is what I love and it is within these miniature 6x7cm pieces of artwork that you find yourself stopping and actually engaging your brain.
Kesler Tran
Don't hate me, but if this work doesn't make you want to cry yourself to sleep, then you're doing it wrong.
This week we head off once again to the (seemingly perpetually) sunnier climes of L.A. and look at the gorgeous work of Kesler Tran.
I've featured Kesler's work some time ago, but its certainly worth a revisit as his style has gone from strength to strength and I love it now more than ever. For some reason though I can't really put my finger on what it is that I love so much about this look. A lot of his work is clearly taken on location in the infamous L.A. sun, but although his work has a very dark look and feel to it, you always still have the impression that the image is taken in blindingly bright light. This contrast is very difficult to achieve effectively and yes there is some gorgeous post pro involved here, but perhaps only that L.A. light has that quality because you will see a similar style from many other L.A. shooters.
I know I have mentioned this before, but I really need to look at playing with this level of contrast as I believe it’s harder than it looks. The highlights are always so glossy and the shadows are always so deep, you need to have a very keen eye for composition and lighting to pull this off as effectively as Kesler.
For those that are interested it seems Kesler Tran is a Sony guy through and through and he's come from the Sony Nex7 to the Rx1, the A7 and now on the full frame beast of the A7II.
I only mention these cameras as I very rarely come across Sony shooters and even rarer are Sony only shooters too so I must say I am blown away by these images from a camera that you can nearly fit in your pocket. (Edit: Please remember that this was originally written in 2015 - Sony shooters are everywhere now, but they were far rarer back then)
Let me know what you think and if you're a Sony shooter let me know what you think compared to some of the other brands.
Camilla Akrans
I've just finished reading an interview with Camilla Akrans on the Fashionography site before I decided to revisit her work with a new insight into an outstanding fashion photographers visual process.
I would strongly recommend you do the same as Akrans explains her design background her obsession with flowers and her thoughts on casting models.
Looking at her work again I was definitely moved by her graphic eye and her ability to somehow see colours in monochrome (remember monochrome means one tone not specifically just black and white) and the power that single colour can have across a story.
I also hadn't noticed her obsession with flowers, but upon revisiting the site it seems nearly every campaign has a subtle balance of nature throughout, again something that is very tricky to pull off at this level especially when you are faced with complementing the beauty of a model over drowning her out.
Is this a delicate quality of female photographers or have you seen this achieved by male photographers too?
Definitely try to read Camilla Akrans interview first and then check out her amazing work.
http://www.lundlund.com/camilla-akrans/
The interview on Fashionography: http://thefashionography.com/camilla-akrans-interview/
Bastian Traunfellner
For those of us that remember the original ground breaking tablet, 'Speak and Spell', you will also remember iconic British fashion and culture magazine 'The Face'. For those poor souls that missed the whole New Romance and Heroin Chic era's then you will have missed out a whole host of outstanding photographers like Glen Luchford, Craig McDean and Elaine Constantine. They were at the forefront of creating flawless imperfections in photography, a raw and vivid style that the likes of Terry Richardson has now assimilated along with an instagram generation.
If we take a look at Bastian Traunfellner's portfolio here you can see how a new generation has taken that more relaxed attitude to the science of photography and really concentrated on the art of the look.
Traunfellner isn't so worried about pin-sharp focus, generic composition or balanced histograms, he's more concerned with creating a mood and a feeling behind a shoot, something science finds very hard to visualise.
Head on over and take a look at his work and for those fortunate enough to remember flicking through a copy of The Face, spare a thought as to where Bastian Traunfellner may have found those early seeds of inspiration.
Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton
'Hey Jake what you doin' with that big ol' bar there?'
'Oh this? I'm just trying to raise it all the way up here, but for some reason I don't think it will EVER go any higher!'
Yup I'm warning you, this work is phenomenal in my opinion and so yet again the bar for blending art and photography has been seriously raised.
Artists Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton have been called modern day painters as their work is so departed from what the mainstream calls photography, in fact
in an interview with the Vinyl Factory last year they positioned themselves as active artists in their own right rather than simply a commercial lens-for-hire.
This is an interesting distinction, but it only makes sense when you see their work, they just don't want to be confined by the preconceived ideas and limitations associated with photography.
The pair started out nearly a decade and a half ago working with clients like YSL, Levis, Nike and BMW but further down the road their artistry is used by other artists to represent their own work. Artists like Bjork Alexander McQueen and Massive Attack have all worked closely with Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton to ensure their own work is seen in the best possible light.
What bigger compliment is there than to be asked by an infamous artist to create art to represent them and their work?
Check them out for yourselves but be wary as this site is very image and video heavy so I would recommend a desktop visit.
http://www.warrendupreeznickthorntonjones.com/category/fashion-beauty/
Mecuro B Cotto
I'm not a huge fan of nude 'photography' because I rarely see the photographer inputting enough to complement the beauty of the model. Sometimes it just feels like the model is actually doing all the work to make a beautiful shot.
Mecuro B Cotto certainly isn't leaving it to his models to carry the image as his mastery of light play and composition is outstanding and always manages to compliment and showcase the human form perfectly.
Certainly check out his nudes but definitely stop by his portraits section too as he has some fantastic shots in there too.
Edit in 2020: In appears that Mecuro may have suffered at the hands of copyright theft in recent years as his site now only shows tiny images of his work compared to the huge and beautiful displays of years ago. A sad but very real consequence of likely theft I’m afraid.
Ana Dias
I've never shared a glamour photographers work on here before…. and today is no different. Ana Dias is certainly no 'glamour' photographer, she has worked for Playboy all over the world and photographed some of the most beautiful women around, but she does not rely on her models to carry the picture, she brings her own outstanding skills to bear on every shoot.
This genre of photography is marred in my opinion by some cheesy work by shooters that rely on the 'pretty girl' but Playboy shooters aren't allowed to be so lazy and are renowned for some exquisite lighting.
It is certainly not uncommon for Playboy centrefolds to be photographed with anything from 15 to 50 lights and this level of lighting and beautifying refinement is outstanding and certainly a dying art.
Ana is no different in her approach and her attention to incredibly crisp, clean and contrasty lighting is phenomenal in my opinion and something that baffles me. Even her simple white background images have a contrast and definition that eludes me.
There are those of you that will rightly argue that this look is too synthetic and devoid of artistic merit, but I urge you to appreciate the skill it takes to light a model this perfectly.
Head on over and check out Ana Dias's site and let me know what you think or even better, feel free to let me know how you think she's lighting some of these shots or what modifiers you think gives her that vibrant look
Thomaas
Hahah so I was literally in the middle of posting this weeks Stay Inspired when I came across this guys work. I had already started writing about somebody else and getting all 'Radio 4' and arty-farty about their work when I stumbled across the visually viscous work of Hamburg born and Paris based artist Tomaas.
I immediately fell in love with Thomaas's work and I had to share it and so it jumped the queue.
At first I thought this was the work of an agency, a group or at the very least a production team but no, this is actually the work of an individual.
Thomaas's work seems more self indulgent than most, he seems drawn by the project as it evolves and the results seem raw for it. I mean raw in its base form, the images are processed but in a way that is not meticulous, they are played with in way an artist would play with paint on a canvas and I love this approach and result.
I for one am far too guilty of over thinking some of my work and as a result sometimes I feel the end product is just that, 'a product' and too contrived and soulless. Thomaas doesn't seem to suffer the same hesitations and his work certainly speaks for itself.
Sometimes we should force ourselves to just let the chips lie where they fall and just let the art happen.
Victoria Will
As the title of this weekly feature suggests, these posts are supposed to give a little inspiration to those of us that want to push our work further or even explore a different direction entirely. This weeks Stay Inspired takes that core idea and looks at celebrity portrait shooter Victoria Will and how she re-imagined her role of celebrity portrait shooter at the Sundance Film festival earlier this year (2015).
These shots have been circulating the web for the last couple of weeks and rightly so as they are outstanding results of what is a very complex process taken of people who aren't to keen on sitting around for too long. Her portraits were taken using a technique called 'tintypes' or 'wet plates', these are essentially large format plates with active and wet chemicals on them with an ISO rating of around zero! These portraits need a LOT of light to be correctly exposed and when originally used the exposure could have been up to fifteen minutes, but with Victoria's modern twist she was able to use flash to capture the shot instantly, this, unfortunately for Victoria's subjects, did mean a 9600w flash!
Take the time to check out Victoria Will's site and the section that I'm referring to is the 'Tintypes' one.
https://www.victoriawill.com/project/borne-back
What is definitely also worth checking out is Will's explanation of the process and a video of her in action.
It's pretty funny to see her subjects reaction after being nuked by nearly 10,000ws of flash haha.
Simona Smrčková
Todays spotlight of inspiration is for those of you that like colour, people, weddings, models, babies, portraits, make up …………pretty much anything you can photograph really because Simona Smrčková seems to have mastered them all.
They say 'you can't specialise in everything' but Smrčková comes very close, but what caught my eye in particular was their mastery of colour. I don't mean colour theory, although that is very strong here, I mean his ability to capture colour and present it so amazingly well. The colour in his images are amazing, so vibrant and saturated without the telltale banding or clumping of colours I normally see in work this bright. The images almost look like they've been printed on that metallic paper as they seem to already have that sheen to them, an effect that I'd love to achieve one day too.
I am certainly open to suggestions as to how you think he's achieving this look but it may well be post pro alone or a combination of a very high bit depth capture camera like a medium format back or similar.
Either way make sure you check out his site and if you're interested in the weddings and portraits side of things check that out too as he's got plenty of cool ideas on how to approach that too.
Let me know what you think, especially if you know how he's getting those colours
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 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 in our own images.
Thank You
Thanks for checking out this article and spending a little bit of your day with me here. I hope you found it useful and that you left here a little more inspired than when you arrived. If you did, then this was worth it. As always, if you have any questions, then by all means fire-away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer what I can. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next one.
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