This is my first post in a while because I’ve been enjoying the Christmas break. Before leaving for the holidays I completed my high key lighting exercise where I took portraits using the high key lighting and Hassleblad medium format camera, then processed and printed to get this finished portrait. To be honest I did very little research on the current and past use of high key lighting techniques but could tell by just generally viewing everyday commercial uses of photography to see that it is a popular aesthetic in advertising.
I then started looking at some of my favourite photographers and how they have used high key lighting in their own portraiture work. I started by looking at Richard Avedon’s fashion photography, of which he is best known and found I was pleasantly surprised by his portraits.
I really like this portrait of Truman Capote, a writer based in New York as I think that the simple aesthetic is cleverly paired with the pose/expression of Capote which could be read in many ways by different viewers which I think is important when photographing a creative person. I also find it very visually appealing and have noticed that, without realising it, I really enjoy black and white photographs.
I also looked at the work of David Bailey who has long been one of the most famous commercial photographers in the world. He has worked for magazines and newspapers from Vogue to the Daily Telegraph, photographing most of the key cultural figures from the worlds of pop music, literature and theatre with a simple and dramatic style.
I particularly like this portrait of Jean Shrimpton (a model/actress in the 60’s) and after really looking at it I realised it was because of the contrast in the image. This photograph makes me want to experiment with using dark haired models with high key lighting as I really like the contrast between the bright whites in the photograph compared to her dark eyes and hair.
No comments:
Post a Comment