I think Photoshop gets a bad rap. Yes, it can make models thinner and teeth whiter, but it’s not Adobe’s fault. I wonder whether it being associated with cheating and fakery may be behind the current trend for real. Take #NoFilter, fine if you’re taking pictures of a crime scene or for medical records, but being so pure can lead to some very bland images, and for what gain? Surely the goal should be to create the best image possible?Read more
Posts tagged: #Bill Brandt
Hands Up Who’s Heard Of ‘Environmental Portraits’?
Not me. Well, not until last week. Don’t get me wrong, I knew portraits had been taken in environments, I’m no fool, but I didn’t realise it was a genre with its own name. Environmental Portraits are portraits that have been “executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings”. It turns out that one of my favourite portrait photographers, Arnold Newman, was it’s father of Environmental Photography. (Although he hatedRead more
IN-CAMERA 8: Geof Kern. (Part 1.)
Like most people I’m a fan of the likes of Cartier-Bresson, Don McCullin and Martin Parr, photographers who go out into the world and record it in a ways we may not have seen or imagined. But I LOVE photographers who go out and create their own world using their own unique, idiosyncratic set of aesthetics. I recently posted lots of my old green scrap books and one name that kept coming up again and again; Geof Kern, one ofRead more
IN-CAMERA 5: Graham Ford.
Where did you grow up? South East London When did you take your first picture? When I was eleven. Then I asked for a camera for my fifteenth birthday. One of my brothers showed me how develop a film and to make a contact print. I was completely absorbed by photography for the next 40 years. What was your first job? Aged 18, I spent two weeks in an ice cream warehouse, at minus 20 degrees. It paid for my newRead more
IN-CAMERA 4: Max Forsythe.
Where did you grow up? I grew up in Newry in Northern Ireland, a great place to live before religion destroyed it. When did you take your first picture? Probably in my teens, my uncle was a wedding photographer, so I used his half plate camera. I took a lot more serious pictures on a trip to the US when I was 18. What was your first job? I was an Assistant Art director at what was then Hobson Grey.Read more
IN-CAMERA 3: John Claridge.
I did this ad for free. My theory was; get freelance work, do it free in exchange for a free hand. I thought it would allow me to get together better work than I could in my day job. At the time asking John Claridge to shoot your layout was like asking Jay Z to write your jingle. The chances are he’s going to say no, but if he said yes, you’d almost certainly have a good ad. He said yes. The result wasRead more
GREEN BOOKS: Photography 2.
Tim Berners Lee; what an absolute rascal. Not only did he shaft the chaps at Yellow Pages, the manufacturers of Fax machines and the purveyors of XXX filth in the Soho district of London, he’s made scrapbooks virtually extinct. Their numbers are dwindling, reportedly below those of the Snow Leopard. Before you could simply call up a hundreds images for any photographer or illustrator you care to mention, you could only reference those images if you owned them. Which meant; a) BuyingRead more