Pierre Choinière

Pierre Chionière is a world renowned advertisement and fashion photographer. He started his career out in Montreal, then moved to Paris in 1988, when he became known for his fashion advertising photography. He currently lives in Quebec and travels the world for his photojournalistic work. 

I like the lighting of the figures and the overall compositions of all his photographs; I feel that those are his strongest qualities to his work. He also brings out the true beauty of the model in his photographs. These are all things I would like to improve on in my own work.

Lots of Cake! is a series by Laura Curran about family structure and how celebrations can be used as a mode of escapism. I like this series because it is a narrative about a somewhat normal event, but it brings out the oddities that inevitably occur in a family. While it's about one collective experience, it is also about each individual's contribution and how that shapes the entire experience. Laura's work amplifies the way it feels to be there, at a party, with those people that you've known your entire life while focusing on the host--her mother.
In her statement she mentions Tzvetan Todorov's narrative theory in which he suggests that the inevitable cycle of the mundane is interrupted by snippets of beauty, lifting your gaze from the endeavor to the finale and the inherent splendor within. She states that these family parties are a reoccurring cycle, where the decorations and props are put away only to await the next event. Some people, like her mother, turn holidays into extravagant events in which she plays a role in creating memorable moments. This series started out as documentation but turned into a "revelation" about her mother's character and imagination.

Mona Breede

 http://www.monabreede.de/choreographien.html

Mona Breede is a German photographer that turns reality into something fictional.  Her photographs are reminiscent of film stills, and Breede actually constructs these weird scenes with people she photographed elsewhere.  The collection of series she presents on her website is titled, "Choreographien" or choreographies in English.   

This work relates to my own because of my new approach to my proposal.  I would like to steer my photography down a narrative path, not unlike Breede's style, but I would prefer to follow one or multiple characters in order to follow a loose storyline.  Breede's work also subtly approaches social issues, including: depression, anxiety, and isolation.

Lou Bopp

Lou Bopp's website says he is a "commercial location photographer." The website's "About" section describes him as a "big shot NYC photographer with Midwestern roots with a resume every kid (...) in America would die for."

I'd say that's probably accurate. He's worked for almost every big-name client you can think of off the top of your head. In his series "Blues Musicians," however, Bopp got personal and intimate with photography and music. He traveled the Blues Highway (Route 61 South from Memphis) to track down and document the last living blues musicians in Mississippi who shaped the genre in America.

According to an article about the series on Feature Shoot, Bopp also documented the remaining culture of the blues in Mississippi in addition to shooting portraits of the musicians. He photographed the roadhouses and bars that supported the music, using only natural light and no assistants.

I was interested in this series because music photography is what initially inspired me to learn photography years ago. I really enjoy Bopp's approach because he photographed a decent amount of musicians, and made use of some very interesting locations to add to the story each photo is trying to tell about those musicians. He seamlessly combines locations, various people, textures, and color palettes to effectively convey a certain mood in each image, which I think are all important parts of documentary portraiture.

Un Petit Monde: Kurt Moses

Un Petit Monde is the name of the series Kurt Moses has created where he arranges tiny people in a larger-than-life world. Moses does not use tilt-shit photography or Photoshop, rather, he sets up his everyday scenes in the real world using natural light. The photographer, loves telling stories through his works, which he wants others to help him actively create. “My goal is simple," he says, "initiate a storyline and capture an evocative photo that allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the scenes they are observing.”
http://www.kurtco.com/

Leo Caillard - Art Games

      Leo Caillard is a 30 year old French photographer. He graduated from Gobelins school of Visual Communication in 2008. After graduating he came to the U.S. and spent a year there before going back home and starting his series "Art Games".
     I choose this series because I like how he combined art with technology. The way that he combined the art work with technology make me think of this like a virtual tour through the Louvre. I also like how he shows the way that people interact with the art work now.
http://www.leocaillard.com/

Michael Kenna is one of the most popular and influential landscape photographers of the last 50 years. His unique minimalist imagery has inspired many, and earned him a huge and loyal following. Fans of Kenna's photography will be delighted to learn of his 1st major retrospective exhibition in London.
Michael Kenna looks for interesting compositions and arrangements within the natural landscape. He is drawn to certain times of day and night, preferring to photograph in the mist, rain and snow clear blue sky and sunshine do not inspire him. He only photographs his work in black and white, as he believes that,
 "Black and white is immediately more mysterious because we see in colour all the time. It is quieter than color."

I chose these photos because of the specific look that the artist has to the landscape and urban areas.  Some reduction and deletion has occurred in these photos. Deletion of color and all the elements of daily life. This can give a specific feature to these places to make them different and separate form normal every day seen places. The  artist made his own landscape and his own city. There is a mysterious feeling in these photos that can be the result of the deletion of color, and as  the artist said  by these reductions the photos become quiet.

 


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