My Top Three - Photographers

Today, I researched a number of different fashion photographers for my upcoming project, which is putting words to images and annotating and looking deeper into them.  In this blog i'll be talking a little bit about my top three photographers in my research and why I like their work.

One of the photographers I looked at was Surge Lutens. The first thing I did was search images of her work on Pinterest, and at first glance I noticed her cultural references to Japan. I then researched a little into this and found out he worked as an art director for a Japanese cosmetics company called Shiseido in the 1980s and throughout time took photographs and commercial films for them. The makeup used in his photographs are traditional to Japanese culture with white face powder with bold eye makeup and a red lip. This interested me as he took the traditional element and mixed it with abstract art with the way he uses shape and lines. I had not seen images like this before, therefore, this is why I found his work unique to look at and look slightly further into. 

Another photographer I looked into was Gavin Watson. I felt a personal relationship and love with Watson's work because I feel its quintessential to British working class culture. 'Skins', which is Watsons most famous projects, gives people a real insight into the misunderstood culture of the 'Skinhead' and shows that the youth of the group were not about making trouble or being thugs, but instead were a group of people who liked others to see them differently. Although skinheads were known for their aggression and rebellion, I feel that this wasn't what they were about but the knowing of fear from others gave them excitement as individuals. The strong British cultural reference feels humble and real, as you feel like you're in the images he has taken and feel as if you could of been with him and his friends at the time. This is why I felt drawn to his images, as I feel I can relate to the emotion and realness behind them. 

The final photographer I looked into was Irving Penn. The reason I looked into Irving Penn was because I like the way his images have immense close up detail of which I lack emotion as the use of celebrity model feels unreal, the images however, feel real. The way I feel he has done this is by using a celebrity and making them do something like wiping their eyes feels more natural and realistic instead of being a still emotionless object. This concept fascinates me about Irving Penn and the this is why I love his work.