Photographer Research - Rosie Hardy

Rosie Hardy is a world-wide photographer based in Manchester, UK.  She uses light to effectively capture colour and form as well as to create and implement shadows within her work.  Her work envelopes a few different themes and includes a lot of self portraiture as well as photos of other people both famous and less well known.

This photograph shows both colour, through the vibrant flowers as well as her shirt, and form to a certain extent although this would be clearer in black and white as the shadows are not that well emphasised as the bright colours distract from them.

This photo uses some interesting lighting effect which is hard to determine wether this is a editing effect or the actual lighting of the photo although I would be more inclined to say an editing effect.  This photo also shows form quite clearly with the highlights and shadows on the subject as well as the shadow cast behind her.

This photo clearly shows form partially due to its black and white nature but also for the fact that the light appears to be coming from a single direction, the top left, which emphasises any shadows created. It is a fairly different and interesting composition that I haven't seen much as the subject is filling the entire frame there is no background visible.

I like the way that within this photograph there are shadows of hands and arms that appear to be interacting with the subject that has been minimised into one corner of the frame.  obviously a bright light has been used to cast the shadows of the arms and then the model is pretending to be scared.  form is shown through the use of the model and the way that one side of her is lit while the other is in shadow.

Rosie Hardy has influenced me and the way I work as she does't seem to be afraid of trying really different compositions and ideas to create a unique style that is hers alone.  I also like the way that she occasionally uses things like shadows cast by things out of frame to change the feel of a photo or add another layer of meaning to it.

In summary Hardy is a skilled photographer who applies her talent in a variety of different ways to produce both self portraits and portraiture of others, creating some mysterious and dark photographs with several layers of meaning as well as some really bright, colourful and cheery photographs.

Photographer Research - Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor is a Irish photographer who mostly uses EL (electro luminescent) Wire or fairy lights as his source of light and wraps them around the bodies of his models or incorporates them into their clothing this way when they move it leaves a trail of light behind them.  I like the look of his 'Luminesence' project within which he investigates light using electroluminescent (EL) wire in various ways, I also like the look of his 'Light Trace' project where he takes a double exposure image one being completely static and the second being a 'light movement' which shrouds the model within traces of light.

This photo shows movement through the use of an angel like figure with several light trails coming from them and wrapped around them, this gives the picture a ghostly feel to it.  I think the way that this shot is implemented is really good with everything being pitch black apart from the lights which are focus down the centre of the photo.

This photo shows movement through the trails of light going down (or up) the picture creating an elongated stick figure like image extending out from the main figure.  I really like this photo as it's like the figure is flying or rising into the afterlife after death.

This photo shows movement really effectively with the couple of figures in the photo taken with a double exposure the second of which is a long exposure.  This photo has a ghostly quality with all of the semi visible figures in between the static completely visible figures.

This photo shows a singular reflection of this light wrapped figurine, I think that this photograph is pretty cool although I think that the reflection is most likely created while editing as the perspectives of the reflections are identical which would be very difficult to do using a mirror.


I find the way that Michael Taylor combines double exposure photography with long exposure light drawing photography to create some really interesting blurred motion photos with crisp clear static figures within them quite inspirational, I also like the way that rather than have a model holding a light he effectively turns them into the light which he then uses for his photography.

To summarise Taylor is a pretty skilled photographer who combines several different techniques and styles to create his own unique look and feel which is distinctly his and I have seen very few photographers who have even a slightly similar style.

Photographer Research - Ian Brumpton

Ian Brumpton is a photographer who is well know for his work involving light, looking through his work it is clear that his main focus is shadows.  The majority of his work is in black and white as this tends to emphasise the shadows and makes them clearer where as colour can detract from other elements of a photo especially any shadow within them.

This photo is a high angle of a group of people, I like the way that the shadows of everything are really elongated and that a lot of the shadows are layered on-top of each other creating different shapes or solid blocks.

This photo clearly shows shadows with all of the birds crowded around the two people which creates some interesting shapes where the shadows overlap and merge together,  the bright surface of the lake also provides some stark contrast with the rest of the image.

I like this photo as the light source is behind the women who is walking away from the camera so there isn't any visible detail she is just a silhouette.  I like the way that the light is visible through the reflection on the wet floor and the fact that the light still shines through the spots on her umbrella.

This final photo shows a shadow from a building or something large with a silhouette and shadow of a child running in the distance.  I like the way that there is the thin bars of shadow, from some stairs or possibly blinds on a window, going across the sections of light getting less and less defined the closer to the camera they get.

I find the way that Brumpton uses shadows and silhouettes to create some really nice photographs some with several layers of meaning behind them.  I also think that the fact that his work is almost entirely in black and white which emphasises the light and dark parts of each photo.

To summarise I think Brumpton is a black and white photographer who focuses on photographs of shadows and silhouettes creating some stunning and fairly creative pieces of work.

Photographer Research - Darren Pearson

Darren Pearson is another Light photographer who has been light painting since 2008, he got inspiration from a photo he saw of Pablo Picasso creating a light daring called 'Picasso Draws A Centar'.  His work is quite varied in designed and composition although it is fairly consistent in style and technique which is a kind of rough line drawing format,  Pearson does use other colours of light but seemingly only to colour the surrounding area generally only using white for the drawings themselves.

This image is quite colourful and vibrant depicting a drummer and a guitarist playing together.  The bright lights used to colour the back and fore grounds make it seem like the two figures are on a stage or something, like they are performing to the viewers of the photograph.  I feel that in some places the red light is a bit too intense and drowns out the white light of the drawing in places like the speaker bottom right and the drum set.

This photograph makes it look like this city has some kind of predatory night stalker made of pure light, I really like the placement of this one as it somehow makes it seem more realistic.  The composition with the larger space in front of the creature makes it seem like it is looking at something or someone that is out of frame and therefore not seen by viewers.

This one looks quite good even though it goes back to the more basic side of light drawing taking a picture in a really dark place without a flash,  I like the way that the patch of floor underneath the drawing is visible and gives the dinosaur figure the appearance of floating due to the reflection.

I like the look of this photograph and I think the composition is really good especially the choice of background, the lit up city spread out behind the figure gives the sky a gradient lighting effect and whether this was planned or not I feel it adds to the photo and almost makes it look like the angel figure is reaching for the sky.

I found inspiration within persons work with the way that he uses a variety of different and creative backgrounds that I have not seen used within other peoples work, it is visible that some of the backgrounds are more experimental then others s they don't all effectively work.

In summary I like the way that Pearson uses large landscapes with lots of lights as some of his backgrounds and the way that he only uses white for the drawings but colours the backgrounds in some of his work rather than leaving them plain.

Photographer Research - Michael Bosanko

I have chosen to write about Michael Bosanko, he is a British photographer who discovered 'light graffiti' accidentally while taking a picture of the moon and since has expanded his style to involve different coloured lights to form different coloured figures.  His most famous work is his recreations of famous art works like The Scream by Edvard Munch and The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci but is also fairly famous for his work that takes inspiration from retro games and well know films like Pac-Man and The Matrix.  I feel Bosanko's work would be useful to me as I want to try doing 'light graffiti in different styles like using different colours or alternate light sources like sparklers, looking at Bosanko's work would mean I'm not flying blind so to speak.

 I really like this photograph as it takes a well know and iconic game that everybody loves and places the characters into reality, I think the use of colour in this piece really helps draw the eye through the photo focusing on the four main points (the three ghosts and Pac-Man).  I also feel that the lack of a plain/simple background really adds to piece and provides some sort of scale to it so viewers can roughly judge just how big the piece is.

I really like this photo as it has a kind of sic-fi look to it and looks quite surreal, the ghostly image of the person standing within the light makes it look really cool because it's almost like the light is emanating from him.

I like this photo as it takes a character from an iconic film and shows him from a different perspective as all of the unnecessary detail has been removed for the sake of the photograph.  The fact that it is has a relatively plain background makes it seem like it is a fairly small piece although I don't think that it is all that small it's just that there is nothing to compare it to.

I think this photo is really good it takes a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci 'The Virtruvian Man' and gives it a modern twist by using the 'light graffiti',  the different colours used make it look like the air is burning while leaving the main body of the drawing quite clear and easy to see.

One thing I have learnt from Bosanko's work is to not be afraid to try things out no matter how random they may seem as some of them could end up looking pretty good.  Another thing that I have learnt from looking at Bosanko's work is that the background is fairly important especially when doing something like light drawing as you can usually see through the subject.

To summarise Bosanko is a highly professional artist with a lot of artist freedom and without fear of trying new and different things and getting stuff wrong.  his work mostly features bold and contrasting colours within each piece and takes inspiration from previously create media pieces piece from art to films to games as well as doing some seemingly random things.

Computer experiments

Emboss

Extrude

Mosaic

Tiles

Wind

Zig Zag

Print Techniques

Black & White

Repetition

Duotone

Selective colour

Soft Focus

Photojoiner

Shoot 9 - Light Drawing Location 3 - Work Diary

This shoot develops upon the previous shoot 8 but also expands upon shoot 6 as it is in a similar location using a similar method.  This time round I didn't have any problems with over exposure as I knew where it was possible to do this from last time I tried, people walking through seemed to be a bigger problem this time but there was nothing I could really do to stop this so I had to work around it.  This shoot was quite fun and interesting and I managed to produce some good and interesting photos from it with some interest concept/imagery within them.

 I think this photo is pretty good although it is from the start of the shoot where I started off with fairly simple things just some I could make sure that my camera set up with the correct settings.

I really like this photo as there is the really ghostly image of my friend with an upside down pentagram (or Ram's Head as it's called) over the top of him.  The Ram's Head has symbolism within several religious section but is mostly associated with satanism although this is not the origin of the pentagram.

I not really sure how much more I could improve upon this other than to try drawing different things and using different people as well as trying different locations and light sources and possibly even different colours of light to create patterns or shapes.

Shoot 9 - Light Drawing Location 3 - Straight Images

Shoot 8 - Light Drawing Location 2 - Work diary

This shoot links back to shoot 6 in which I tried light drawing but on location, for this shoot I tried the same thing but at night time so it was darker and I used sparklers instead of torches.  It didn't work out overly well and did kinda turn out just looking like a mess as I did not get that much time to shoot because the sparklers were really old and only about half of them actually worked properly.

 This photo looks really good and is quite interesting as with the sparklers not only do you get the light trails but there is also trails from the sparks coming off of them.  Although this photo is slightly primitive when compared to those from my last shoot as none of the surrounding area is visible it is still quite effective and looks good.

I really like this as there are ghostly images of both me and my friends, which were helping me, throughout the frame with the light trails both in front and behind us with a light spot on the ground making the leaves visible.

To progress from this I could try using the flash of my camera using a first curtain flash so that the background and things are visible with the light trails overlapping similar to those from the previous shoot, I think that if I was to do this in a forest with the light trails weaving in and out of the trees that this would look really good.

Shoot 8 - Light Drawing Location 2 - Straight Images

Shoot 7 - Shadows/disembodiment - Work Diary

This shoot develops upon shoot 5 a little bit with the idea of taking two photos of an area one with a person the other without and editing them together so that only the shadow of the person is left.  It was not overly difficult to do but it was fairly time consuming and annoying as even the slightest movement of the camera between the two shots meant that they didn't match up properly when it came to editing and the sun kept being hidden by clouds which meant no shadows to take photos of.

This image is quite effective for the idea of disembodiment as there is a shadow without anything to actually cast it upon the ground it is just their by itself.

This photo I think is pretty good just by itself but the disembodied shadow just adds another layer to and kinda hints to something that is missing from the image.

The fact that this is extremely weather dependent makes me not really want to progress with it especially since there is usually not that much sun in or around England let alone Harlow, I also think that the amount of time and effort required for it is not worth it for the outcome at the end.