Research Log

Thomas Barbey 

Thomas Barbey grew up in Geneva, Switzerland and was brought around a very artistic background. He specialises in photomontage which is a form of editing the reality of the image. His work is very visually striking and can appear other worldly at times. I believe I could take a lot of inspiration from Thomas Barbie's work as I am looking at hyperreality. I can use photomontage to make the ordinary seem extraordinary, and at the same time more visually appealing.

Staudinger Franke

Staudinger Franke is famous for his focus on visually striking presentation. He has won awards for his complex pieces and is regarded as a leading figure in his methods of photomontage. He takes everyday photography and flips it on its head by changing details within it. I am a fan of his somewhat dark visual comedy at times, for example taking a soft teddy bear and turning it into a cactus or replacing a children's slide with a food grater. This idea of changing certainties within our day to day lives for a comedic or eye opening undertones could be something worth exploring for my hyperreality subject.

Ari Mahardhika:

                                

                       

                     

                                           

Ari Mahardhika is a photographer who uses photo montages in such an interesting way that I would like to explore in my own work. He experiments with scale in his photographs by either making someone big surrounded by a small environment or by making someone small in a big environment. While he uses this technique to explore social aspects within his photography, I am looking to I pimento the techniques in order to create an extraordinary effect. This will help me to create a heightened reality where the ordinary is made exciting by changing the way people perceive the environments.

Jerry Uelsmann:

Jerry Uelsmann is a surrealist photographer who was born in Detroit. He creates an interesting depiction of life in his photographs, twisting our ideas of normality. He specialises in dark and skewed versions of reality which I could definitely utilise within my own work. I could create a hyperreality by blending this brand of surrealism with the real world and contrast them after in order to highlight the way in which the real world can be distorted by the media.

Frank Uyttenhove:

Frank Uyttenhove is a well known photographer and film director. His work appears like a painting, or something from a drawing. The most remarkable thing about his work is the way that he can achieve this enhanced reality through the use of everyday objects and activities. This is something that I would definitely like to explore within my work as I can make the ordinary and mundane appear extraordinary. I would like to implement this idea by taking objects that I see everyday and show it from a new perspective.

Stephen Criscolo:

Stephen Criscolo is a 19 year old photographer who favours a warped and odd style of photography. He utilises great effects in order to create extremely visually interesting results. These techniques allow him to play with reality or make the image other worldly. I could utilise these techniques in my work in order to tweak people's ideas about reality through some solid visual effects.

Kyle Thompson:

Kyle Thompson is a 22 year old photographer who specialises in spectacle in order to make his images more visually interesting. He uses a lot of practical effects in his shooting in order to make themes seem grounded and more astounding. He sometimes manages to find a blend between practical and photoshop effects in order to enhance the image. I believe that this practical approach can cause my hyperreality to become more believable and hard hitting.

Annie Leibovitz:

Annie Leibovitz is one of America's most influential portrait photographers, using bold colours and tones to create her iconic imagery. I have noticed that she uses soft tones in her portraiture in a way that causes the face to become more flawless. This is achieved through a mix of lighting and editing, which I think could be an interesting aspect of hyperreality to explore by comparing an unedited image with the edited one. She has also had a partnership with Disney that allowed her to create these vastly different and visually interesting portraits. Her images tell a visual story of location and character, which I believe could be a good way to communicate my hyperreality message across.

Chema Madoz

Chema Madoz is a Spanish photographer who is best known for his black and white surrealist work. He takes everyday scenery and objects and then alters something in the photo to make them appear different and more interesting than we are used to. I would like to use this idea of skewing peoples ideas about everyday life through minor changes in order to make them more exciting like a hyperreality of a film.

Erik Johansson:

Erik Johanson is a photographer/ artist from Sweden. He specialise in surrealism as he takes scenery and messes around with it by making everything out of place and odd. He does this by taking objects and reshaping and resizing them.

Banksy

Although Banksy is not a photographer, his varied art style is one that is often admired and imitated by many. The thing that stands out the most with his work is his strong themes and imagery. I would like to implement this into my project as it would grant me the ability to tell a visual story through implied meaning. This would allow for more creative experimentation over the different ways in which to implement a story.

Andre de Frietas

Andre de Frietas' work largely consists of multiple exposure. This is a visually striking technique and can often be used to evoke what the person is thinking. This creates layers of information within the image in which the audience can pick apart. This style of portrature is so distinctive that it could prove to be a useful tool for me to use in my work. I could communicate a range of messages through this method in a way that can be very visually striking.

David Lazar

I am a fan of David Lazar's work within portraiture for the simple fact that he manages to take a common part of photography and make it completely interesting. He achieves this by filling as much of his image as possible with detail and story. As a result we can see the people's background, culture and their environment. Some of this imagery can be strong as he incorporates different elements such as colour and contrast. This has given me a lot to consider when approaching portraiture. I know that I should consider filling the frame with relevant information to the message that I am trying to get across in order to create a visual story.

Albert Watson

Albert Watson is another portrait photographer who manages to take the simple format and make something original and interesting. He utilises formal elements such as pattern and contrast. The result is a number of images that incorporate many themes of surrealism. The interesting thing about these effects is that they are all in camera and practical, with no editing done. This has given me some ideas to use practical means in order to achieve some strong imagery.

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry is a widely known photographer whose work creates a powerful sense of journey and story. He achieves this by cutting anything useless in the image and replacing it with story telling points. These little factors within the portraits cause the audience to look deeper within the image. We can gather information about the people's cultural backgrounds and things that may have happened to them up until this point.

Maurice Tabard

Maurice Tabard is a photographer that specialises in surrealism. The interesting thing that Maurice lends to surrealism is his practical approach. He manages to merge images together in a way that distorts reality or provides another way of looking at things. His images appear more shocking and real as a result. I could incorporate this into my work by blending two different images together. Hopefully the practicality of the image will cause there to be a stronger message as a result.

Don McCullin:

Don McCullin is one of the most recognised photographers, known mainly for his work in the Vietnam war as a photographer, he manages to capture a brutally honest side to the war through a means of visual story telling. He uses powerful imagery and bold elements such as contrast in order to make simple, yet effective images. His messages can be as subtle as a facial expression or as obvious as a gun. I would like to replicate this bold story telling in a way that can convey an image in a single action or pose.

Robert Capa:

Robert Capa is a well known photographer who's war photography stood out to me. He used contrasting tones of black and white in a way that caused strong images to be shown. These simple tones create some amazing effects, causing them to feel more like a heightened reality. The audience are able to get a clear sense of what the photographer is wanting them to see through a simple method. I would like to incorporate this method as a clear indicator to my audience of where I want their eyes to be in order to communicate a larger idea.

Phillipe Halsmann:

Halsmann's photography focuses largely on surrealism. Since Halsmann's photography is set before the uses of photoshop, he had to come up with some interesting ways of creating a warped hyperreality. He uses people and other practical effects in order to make the world that he is laying out for his audience seem skewed, by altering perspective or the natural order of things. The practicality of these effects make the hyperreality seem more believable as a result which is something which I would like to think about when creating my own hyperreality.

Tommy Inberg:

Tommy Inberg's work shows us what hyperreality can look like when we incorporate tools such as photoshop and blend them with practical aspects. Inberg manages to create an interesting yet somewhat believable hyperreality. The use of photoshop creates an other worldly feel to the images which I would like to explore. I would like to take this idea and make the boring and mundane seem other worldly and impossible.