Ideas and 6 Photographers
Artist Statement
For this project I continued with the process of layering photos in Photoshop using different blending modes and color adjustments. However with this project I was able to use the subject matter and photo editing technique to convey some underlying themes. This body of work references the anonymity and energy of a music concert atmosphere.
Much of my previous work has incorporated live music shows as the subject matter. I really enjoy shooting in this atmosphere because the environment allows for rare moments when people relinquish their inhibitions and exude spontaneous and energetic movement. Peoples motions are to longer constrained to rational regularity, but instead encouraged to move in random and wild ways. I’m also very interested in the anonymous atmosphere of the crowd as a whole. A crowd will appear to move as one unified entity shifting their form in relation to the changes in music.
In my work I’ve attempted to capture some of the elements of the concert crowd by isolating a single person, but retaining this notion of anonymity. Most of the subjects are suspended in air or somehow in motion. Their faces have been covered with colorful towels and cloth. The layering technique effectively alludes to the idea of progressive time and emphasizes the message of movement and energy. By isolating the individual these photos explore the energy mixed with the abstract and anonymous nature of the concert crowd.
I love the soft overlay of color in Christopher Schreck’s photography. The color gradient and the hazy lightness creates a beautiful dreamlike quality. The juxtaposition between warm and cool colors that creates an interesting balance within the photo. I was able to manipulate the colors in my photos in a way to highlight a similar relationship of warm and cool tones.
I found the physical form of this Ryan Johnson sculpture very interesting. I like his play with the idea of suspension and layering of material. Johnson’s sculptures gave me the idea to layer the clothing of the subjects in my work and inspired an interest in the illusion of spacial suspension.
I really like the ambiguous nature of Liam Henry portrait photographs. His photos focus mainly on the environment of his subjects rather than the subjects themselves. The lighting is really interesting as the foreground as most appears to be artificially backlit, where the background appears to be completely naturally lit by sunlight. This contradiction creates an interesting tension within the photo.
Oliver Barton captures a sense of raw fleeting emotion and individualized personality with in his portraits. Although I didn’t shoot my project in a style that captured individual personalities, I was very interested in expressing an instantaneous and fleeting emotion in my portraits.
This Tierney Gearon photo uses the double exposure technique to highlight the underlying theme of change and coming of age. We see two young girls with their backs turns wearing white dresses and holding a large bundle of balloons. The white of the dresses and these colorful balloons could symbolize the innocence and purity of childhood. The photo of the young girls is layered with a photo of two older teenage girls, which could very well the future selves of the younger girls. This might explain why the young girls backs are turned; they are seeing through time to what they will become. It is interesting that the older girls are not looking back at their younger selves, but instead seem either distracted or uninterested. Their positioning along with the bright red dressed, the color of passion, may be relating to a theme of loss of childhood innocence. I think this use of double exposure is very well to develop meaning with in Gearon’s work
Mark Gerwing layers two similar images through a double exposure technique. I like that he uses the recognizable image of a house, but through this layering process creates a completely new and interesting form. Similarly in my work I am interested in layering similar images over one another to create something new and more abstract.
