On the first day of the photography class, we were given a run through of the brief for our project which required us to create a photobook following the theme of “beauty in the ordinary and overlooked”. We paired our images together in order to create visual metaphors or similes. We also were asked to do some research on some photographers/artists that we found interesting and write a short paragraph on at least 3 of them.
Below is my photobook and my short paragraphs on some photographers:
Photobook:
Short paragraphs:
One of the first photographers that caught my eye during the presentation we were talked through was Rinko Kawauchi. She’s a Japanese photographer who lives and is based in Tokyo. She’s a contemporary photographer who gives ordinary moments we experience in life a more poetic, lyrical feeling. I personally really like her work as I love the simplicity of the photos she takes as well as the usually soft colours within her photos.
Another photographer that I liked from the presentation was Todd Hido. He’s an American photographer based in San Francisco in the Bay Area. He’s a contemporary photographer who’s main focuses for his work are portraits of women, buildings and landscapes. After looking through his portfolios and monographs, my favourite portfolio of his work is “landscapes”. The reason it’s my favourite is because I like the realness of how some of the photos look a little blurry, as if the lens is wet from rain or as if it was taken through a wet windshield of a car.
The third artist that I found interesting is John Baldessari. He was an American artist that unfortunately passed away at the start of the year. He was a conceptual artist who used appropriated imagery by blending painting, photography and text. I liked his work as I thought it was interesting seeing someone take a pre-existing photo and paint over them. He would add spots of colour to a photo or add blocks of colour to a black and white photo. I had never seen that kind of art before but I find it fascinating.