I’ve been looking at a lot of photography along with my recent film binges, just getting more in depth with a few famous photographers’ portfolios and styles.
One I’ve been looking at for a little bit now, Jay Maisel, is an American photographer who loves simplicity and ease more than fancy cameras and studio-like lighting and editing. He’s one of few major photographers these days that takes only a single lens on his shoots. Love it. He is captured in every day life by shape and color, and thusly loves to capture everything as-is. He loves the world in its every natural intricacy and finds himself simply snapping photos. Obviously there’s a lot more that goes through his mind during the setup of every shot, but it’s nice to see/hear a seasoned photographer talk about such a simplistic approach. I feel like too many artists these days create meaning out of thin air when trying to showcase their work to the world — Maisel keeps me grounded. Here are some of my favorite photos by him:
Here’s the link to his website so you can check out more of his work. — http://www.jaymaisel.com/
Very simplistic yet honestly moving work. His composition is exquisite and I love his focus.
Another photographer I’ve always been partial to is Jerry Uelsmann. He works solely with film photography and his work is the product of many hours spent working vigorously in the darkroom. He said that he would probably never step outside of film photography as he believes his ideas and processes are better carried out with enlargers — usually at least 3 or 4 to be exact. He has an amazing ability to take two completely different images and combine them to create a situation, a story, or simply a striking image. Here are a few of my favorite pieces from him:
Here’s his website so you can learn more/explore his collection. Some really fantastic stuff in here, I love his sense of humor as well. http://www.uelsmann.net/
Posted In: Journal Entries