Large Format Portraits

Metaphor for Reality

Reality is a crack in the pavement. A crack is permanent just like our existence on earth. When a crack is formed, it will only grow just like a human after they are born. We can only grow and develop after we are born. A crack in the same way develops deeper and can never close up. The area around the crack is the experiences that happen to us in life. What we surround us with defines who we are. The interactions with each other are symbolized through the connecting of cracks. Some of our relationships are permanent which is seen through a connecting of cracks. Other relationships with people are temporary, which is seen through small connecting cracks.

Atmospheric Portrait Research

Atmospheric Portraits are created when a portrait of a person evokes an emotional response, while also telling a story.

An example of some atmospheric portraits are photographs shot by Annie Leibovitz. Annie Lebovitz is a famous American portrait photographer who in every one of her images conveys a story of the subject that is being photographed. For example, she took a photograph of Meryl Streep who is very hard to capture in one photograph but she summarized her in one photo. She had her wear make up which shows that she is an actress but the fact she is pulling at her skin shows that she's more then just an actress.

Another example of a atmospheric portrait photographer is Sabastiao Salgado.

Salgado captures these workers in their environment. This photograph tells the viewer a lot about these men. They work on an oil rig but at times struggle. There are many things that can be interpreted from this photograph and that is why it is a perfect example of atmospheric photography.

Large Format

HDR Still Life - Up Close and Wide Open

The Sun Rise

Uta Barth Homage

Uta Barth is an artist whose photographs explore the nature of vision. She tries to show the difference between how a human sees reality and how a camera records it. She also examines visual perception and how the incidental and atmospheric can become subject matter in and of themselves. In many of her photographs, Barth tries to focus the viewer's attention on the process of perception through the depiction of incidental objects that are in nondescript surroundings. Throughout some of Barth's series, she investigates both literal and metaphorical aspects of perception by trying to capture the image one keeps after turning away from an object.

Uta Barth is known to not care at what her camera is pointed at but more interested in what is seen through the lens. Barth is most known for her series Ground and Field, which is a series of photographic blurs which were caused by focusing the camera on an unoccupied foreground. These photographs test the connection between the descriptive clarity of photography and the haze of one's memories. One of Barth's newest series is focused around the moment when light begins to transition and fade. This series, Sundial, are a collection of photographs that operate between negative and positive, shadow and light, and visibility and invisibility.