Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman was a contemporary yet timeless photographer whose work focused on angelic beings that seem almost ghost like. A common motif in her work is other worldly beings existing in this dimension. A lot of them are captured in a moment of disappearance as they fade into the abyss, mimicking a fleeting existence.

I really admire her use of techniques to carry out this form of photography immaculately. Her body of work is loosely based on identity, fragility of femininity as well as beauty and purity as encapsulated by the angels and ghost caught in their moments of disappearance. A lot of the time, especially in the Angel and Ghost series, Woodman uses a long shutter speed and she, as her photos are usually self portraits, moves, jumps, walks and runs to create noise and movements giving the impression of that the subject is is vanishing.  Her photos are usually in black and white. This is to make the long shutter speed stand out as white streaks and more prominent in her photos. Generally, the images of ghosts we think of are white and yet transparent, similarly we associate beauty and purity with virginal white with no imperfections, as seen in these supernatural movements in Woodman’s art.

 

Duane Michals

Duane Michals is a American photographer who seemingly captures the metaphysical. Themes within his work include Desire, In the Mind’s Eye, and Children’s Stories.  Within his sequences of images, he captures human dilemmas, constructing a narrative with the photographs. The majority of his provocative photography is captured in black and white.

What really intrigues me about Michals’ work is his acceptance of technical errors in the camera and the way he integrates them into his work to create a multi-layered photograph. He uses double exposures and motion blurs to further explore his narratives and delve deeper into the human psyche.  With Michals’ work there is so much variety. He bends and stretches the limits of conventional photography. A lot of his work features writings, drawings, some are pained over, he does this to further construct the narrative, further testing the limitations of what photography can be. He has previously expressed frustrations with how restrictive the medium can be. I personally admire how Michals has disregarded the idea of objectively capturing images, but he makes the photos raw and a personal experience through his expressionistic tendencies.

 

Bill Wadman

Bill Wadman is an American portrait artist. His photography is very extensive, capturing a variety and large range of people. His photography is very editorial, as expected from a portrait photographer, and has been featured in as selection of magazines. Although, the photographer experiments with his images, integrating distortion as well as using a long exposure.

Wadman completed a series entitled ‘Motion’. Within this series the photographer captured images of dancers using a long exposure. This resulted in an explosion of colour. The movements and gestures produced streaks of light that smear the dancers across the images capturing a dizzy and mesmerising series of images. Using long exposure and slow shutter speed allowed Wadman to capture the motion of the dancers in a dynamic and forceful way. This distortion created a saturated blur of bodies moving in a way that is unidentifiable to the human eye. However, at precise and beautiful moments, defined features emerge, and the blur can almost be distinguished. The images are captured in colour allowing for an overwhelming beautiful array of light fusing photography and painting within one image.