Motivation Monday - Kirsty Mitchell

I haven't done one of these for a while now and that is partly because I haven't had the time to sit down and write about someone (and their work), but also because I haven't been looking at too many other photographers' work lately. That being said, there is one UK-based photographer I have been following for quite some time now and I find her work to be absolutely amazing. I show Kirsty Mitchell's Flickr site and now her website to people in the office whenever she releases a new photo and I honestly can't get enough of her work. It is so original, creative and breathtakingly beautiful. Her work has gotten many new ideas flowing through my head like no one else recently. Warholian.com just finished a fantastic interview with her and I feel that is pretty much sums up everything I would want to say here so I strongly suggest you check it out and then give her work a look too. So amazing!!

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Motivation Monday - Ray Pilon

Ray Pilon is not only a great photographer, but also a magnificent instructor. I have been lucky enough to have taken a course given by him at Algonquin and will hopefully be able to take more with him in the future. He also happens to be the organizer for the night (photography) program at Algonquin. If you ever get the chance to take a course with him, don't pass it up.He started out with traditional film and has worked for years as a professional photographer. He spent many years with Lee Valley Tools shooting their beautiful magazine covers. His photos are breathtakingly beautiful and yet usually very simple. He is able to do all sorts of photography as well as if he specialized solely in that area, from wedding photography to commercial and real estate. I believe it is the basic understanding of photography he has that makes his photos so great and it is his ability to take these wonderful photos with such ease that makes his work so inspirational to me.
(all photos found on Ray's site (link above) and are his property and under his copyrights)

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Motivation Monday - Peter Lindbergh

"My feeling is that for years now it has taken a much too big part in how women are being visually defined. Heartless retouching should not be the chosen tool to represent women in the beginning of this century." Peter Lindbergh on the overuse of retouching in fashion photography.

Peter Lindbergh (born Peter Brodbeck in 1944) has been called "the worlds greatest fashion photographer" (Ian Phillips, 1997). He has been taking fashion photographs since 1978 and has created some absolutely amazing photographs since. He has shot several television commercials and ad campaigns for some of the biggest companies and with some of the biggest stars (e.g. Tina Turner for Hanes). He has even directed a short documentary, which received great reviews and awards. He has shot some of the most famous fashion models such as Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford (photographed together in 1990, below). One would think, as a fashion model, being photographed by Peter Lindbergh would be not only an honour, but also something you would definitely include in your portfolio.

His photographs have been published in almost every fashion magazine in existence including Stern, Harper's Bazaar (Fashion Olympics article, below, featuring Lucy Liu) and Vogue.

His first book, Ten Women, was published in 1996 and has sold over 100,000 copies. It is a collection of black and white photographs of ten top models of the moment. He has been given award after award and many photographic honours throughout his career.

One of the things that I find most inspirational about him are his views on Photoshop and digital retouching (see quote at beginning of post). From what I understand of his views, mine are similar in that, retouching should not be a photographic tool as it is. It should take less of a role and the photographer should be more aware of their subject and have the abilities to create a flattering, and yet still honest, image without relying on digital assistance. Lindbergh definitely has the skills needed to create not only flattering images of his subject, but incredibly interesting and unique ones.

(images found through Google)

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Motivation Monday - John Sexton

"And then as I frequently do, some times I'll peek out from underneath the focusing cloth and just look around the edges of the frame that I am not seeing, see if there's something that should be adjusted in terms of changing the camera position" - John Sexton.

John Sexton (born 1953) has had quite an impressive career thus far. He has many honours and awards to his name and of course, a fantastic portfolio. He is quite possibly one of the most widely known contemporary black and white landscape photographers and educators. He had the honour and privilege of working with Ansel Adams from 1979 to 1984 (when Adams died) and this clearly shows in his magnificent works. He teaches several workshops and has taught many museums and universities in the past on photography techniques both in and out of the darkroom (including print making).

I love how his images are so incredibly classic and yet completely distinguishable. More classic examples of how one can take an every day scene, similar to the above photograph, and make it simply breathtaking. Also the complete control of his equipment - which is evident in the second image in this post, of the forest stream.

(images found through Google)

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Motivation Monday - Schedule Change

I have decided that Motivation Monday should not be a weekly feature. Not only is it hard to write a good post about motivational photographers every week, but I am finding little to no joy in writing them. I am hoping that changing it to a bi-weekly feature will allow me to get some inspiration from it as was initially intended.

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Motivation Monday - Erich Salomon

Also known as the Houdini of Photography and the Invisible Cameraman, Erich Salomon (1886-1944) was a master as candid photography. He was known for his candid photographs of diplomatic and legal professions as well as the innovative methods he used to capture them. You know how in older movies, and cartoons, people place a camera in a bowler hat with a hole in it and take pictures of 'off-limits' places - that was Salomon's idea. In 1927, he placed a camera capable of working in dim lighting in his bowler hat and photographed a police killer on trial in a Berlin court.

Salomon's reputation soared throughout Europe and he was able to photograph many situations normally unseen as diplomats were convinced that photojournalism was part of historical record. Salomon was one of only two people who have photographed a session in the US Supreme Court. He also captured the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact by taking the vacant seat of the Polish delegate and snapping away.

When Adolf Hitler came into power and the second world war began, Salomon fled to the Netherlands with his wife. When Hitler invaded the lower countries in 1940, Salomon and his family were captured. He spent the next four years in concentration camps and died in July 1944 in Auschwitz.

A prestigious photojournalism award is named in his honour given as a lifetime achievement award by the German Society of Photographers. He was a great inspiration to photojournalism and sparked the photo opportunity.

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Motivation Monday - Henri Cartier-Bresson

"The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality." - Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was one of the main contributors to the creation of street photography, which is my preferred method of (candid) portraiture. He switched from painting to photography around 1930 after being inspired by a random photograph captured by a Hungarian photojournalist in Africa.
In 1952, Cartier-Bresson published his book "The Decisive Moment". Within the book he stated, "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment", and applied it to his photography. The Decisive Moment is now a term for images like the ones included in this post that capture a brief moment in time in which you feel as if you can picture what is next to come. According to Cartier-Bresson, "the decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recoginition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression"

I am always trying to get photos that would fit into the category of the decisive moment. It takes a great deal of skill to do this as you need to have your camera ready to go at a moments notice. You have to be able to adjust the shutter, aperture and focus as required very quickly. Sometimes I can get lucky though.

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Motivation Monday - Eliot Porter

“You learn to see by practice. It's just like playing tennis, you get better the more you play. The more you look around at things, the more you see. The more you photograph, the more you realize what can be photographed and what can't be photographed. You just have to keep doing it.”Eliot Porter (1901-1990) was most known for his colour photographs of nature. If you have ever taken a nature photograph you owe a gigantic thank you to this man.He started in black and white, teaching himself the everything that made him great. By 1930 he had mastered black and white development and though he never gave it up completely, it was in 1939 that he began focusing his energies towards colour photography.One of the many aspects which makes this artist so motivational to me is his background. He had degrees in both chemical engineering and medicine, and worked as a biochemical researcher at Harvard. He was a magnificent photographer who was able to use both sides of his brain equally as well. Some of his published books even combined his photographs with scientific information relevant to them.Some of Porter's images seem bland and dull in terms of the colour when compared to the rich saturation possible with today's technology. But he was there first, arguable, he is the original nature photographer.

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Motivation Monday - Edward Weston

"Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual." - Edward Weston.

Edward Weston (1886-1958) used lighting and angles to make everyday objects look different and interesting. He also did a great deal of work with nudes in the later years of his career. Most of Weston's work was done using an 8x10 inch view camera. He was given his first camera when he was 16 and started taking photographs. His favourite hangouts when he was young were Chicago parks and his aunt's farm and he was first exhibited in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1903. His comprehensive legacy includes the incredibly detailed Daybooks he kept regularly from the mid 1920s to 1934. These books allowed for a very intimate glimpse of his personal life, his views on photography and his methods and techniques for his work. Edward Weston is generally accepted and recognized as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century. One of the most inspirational aspects of Weston, to me personally, is his ability to take an every day object, like the shell in the middle of this post, and make them look so incredibly interesting and unique. Some of his 'everyday' photos take a little while to decipher and for the viewer to determine what the image actually is. I also enjoy his quote, "Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk." I primarily like this quote because I feel the same about the rules of composition, they can create a well-liked photograph, but should be second nature and not something that you need to consciously think about before taking a shot.

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Motivation Monday - Hellfirediva

Deviantart (DA) is a wonderful place full of absolutely amazing artists. I have been on the site for over two years now and pretty much since the beginning, have been watching one artist in particular, Hellfirediva. Her work is primarily animal and nature based, though she has several photos that do not fall in these categories. She has the most breathtaking images, like Bolero which I think is my favourite of her pieces (I apologize for not putting images here. I did not ask for permission and as she states on her DA page, she does not want anything reproduced without her written permission and I believe in adhering to these requests). Her actual name is Kristina Kotarski and she lives in Ohio, though is originally from Germany. I enjoy every aspect of her art from the image itself to the titles she gives them - the titles for my works are bland and uninspiring, while hers are poetic and match the image perfectly, which is something I really want to work on. I think the reason I find her work so motivational is because mine is along the same lines - or rather, the images I want to capture (those that are in my head) are the basic versions of her images. She has honed her skills and found her niche and has therefore found a very strong, and well deserved, following on DA.

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Motivation Monday - Ansel Adams

"Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment." - Ansel Adams Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is a very well known American photographer and environmentalist. He developed the zone system to determine the proper exposure and adjust for contrast in the final print. He also founded the Group f/64 (with other photographers) which created the Museum of Modern Art's department of Photography. He was most famous for his incredibly beautiful landscape photographs of Western America.
It is not only his skill that inspires me, but his unbelievable patience. Adams used large-format cameras which were difficult not only because of their size and weight but also because of the setup time required to operate them. I honestly don't know how many photographs I would be able to take with such equipment as I would get incredibly frustrated very quickly.
The above photograph is one of his more famous ones, or at least most publicized, but it also happens to be one of my favourites. The contrast and lines within the image, as well as the texture/pattern on the bottom dune is simply breathtaking. It draws you into the image and truly makes you feel like you have been to this place and would know what it was like there. Adams rarely had wildlife in his landscapes. Instead he relied not on technique or subject but vision - the vision of the photograph. He was a believer that to create a great photo, one had to visualize the scene as it would appear in the final print. This would be the only way you could portray not only the scene, but the feeling of that place accurately to the viewer.
The above photo, The Tetons and the Snake River, was one of 115 images recorded on the Voyager Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft, a collection of images selected to convey information about humans and the earth in general. You can view his gallery and web page here. There is also a Ansel Adams Gallery blog on that site that is quite interesting.

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Motivation Monday - Malak Karsh

Malak Karsh was born in March of 1915 in Mardin, Ottoman Empire. He emigrated to Canada in 1937 and began working with his brother Yousuf. As his brother became overwhelmingly famous, Malak left the Karsh from his signature to separate himself and his art. I personally don't feel like you can really compare the art of the two brothers as they photographed such different subjects and in such different ways, and feel that they are both absolutely amazing photographers from whom I could learn so much. I have also written about Malak before, but feel that he has inspired me so much, that I wanted to create another post about him.
Malak seemed to have fallen in love with Ottawa and the vast majority of his work centres around the City. In the words of Caroline Murray, "Malak Karsh's exquisite photos chronicled a city and a nation." He not only had a large collection of images from the Tulip Festival, which we all know I absolutely love, but he was also one of the founders of the festival and was the honourary president at the time of his death in November of 2001. According to Mayor Bob Chiarelli, "He helped put Ottawa on the map. Probably the biggest and best brand for Ottawa was his tulips." The City of Ottawa has an annual photography award in honour of Malak and his brother Yousuf which you can get more information about here.Malak's 1963 photograph entitled "Paper and Politics" was used on the 1969-1979 one dollar bill. The image is of floating logs on the Ottawa River with the Parliament Buildings in the background. It is one of those photographs that exemplifies that timing and being at the right place at the right time are crucial factors that go along with technique, skill and knowledge when it comes to capturing a great photo. Like his brother, Malak published several books of his collections. They are also a large part of the Tulip Festival publications. His work inspires me in a way that Yousuf and Steve McCurry's does not in that it is very similar to the style of photography I enjoy and am getting quite good at. They are of places and things that are around me on a daily basis. I am able to directly compare some of my works to his and see where I can improve and perhaps how.

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Motivation Monday - Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry (born 1950) is another inspirational portrait photographer, and one I have posted about before. He is most famous for the below photo of the Afghan Girl taken in 1984, which was used by National Geographic on their June 1985 cover and was later named the most recognized photo in NG history. I saw this image in my high school library in grade 9 and my breath was taken away. I wanted so badly to be able to take a photograph like that. To this day, McCurry's images inspire me greatly to be better at what I love.
Steve McCurry is a master at creating a story with his photographs. Yes, they are well composed and taken with the best photographic technology available, and of course the man is truly amazing in his field, but it is something within the photo itself that makes you unable to take your eyes off of it. McCurry himself stated, “Some of the great pictures, you just look at them and you marvel at them, for the subject matter and somehow they struck a chord in you. But it’s rarely about the technique. It’s not about the lens, or the film, or the light necessarily. It’s really just some story in that picture. Some emotional element which you connect with.”McCurry has a blog over at wordpress that I think is worth a visit or two. He has some photos he has taken and tidbits of stories that occurred while taking them. It is pretty interesting to see what extremes he sometimes had to go to to capture that remarkable image.
He also offers workshops abroad in which you travel with him and take photos alongside him. He reviews your portfolio and I assume teaches along the way. I think it would be a once in a lifetime experience to go on one of these workshops, and who knows, maybe one day I will.

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Motivation Monday - Yousuf Karsh

I know I have mentioned it before on my daily blog, and here as well, but I am again going to post about Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002). In my mind and those of many other fans, he was an absolute genius. He was able to capture the true personality of each of his subjects so effortlessly (or at least it seems that way). Karsh himself said, "within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize". I believe he was able to become such a great photographer not only because he was truly talented, but because he loved what he did. "My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble." His portraits are truly inspirational to me as it is the main field I lack true skill in.He was a master of lighting, another area of photography of which I know little. He was able to get the lighting to match the personality of his subject. In the above photo of Grace Kelly, the lighting is soft and graceful (pun unintentional). It matches her skin, Hollywood starlet stature and, supposedly, her personality as well.Dave and I went to the Karsh exhibit at the Science and Tech museum here in Ottawa and were able to take a few Karsh-like photos which was fun. But what was even better, for me at least, was seeing his equipment and reading his own words about his works. Karsh published 15 books during his lifetime about his works and the sessions in which they were taken. I plan on trying to get my hands on as many of them as possible in an attempt to learn from someone I consider to be a true Photography Master.

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New Feature

I have decided to start a new feature here on Stephanie Beach Photography. This will be my first posting type feature and will be called Motivational Mondays. I will find a photo taken by someone other than myself and explain why I find it and/or the photographer so motivational when it comes to my photography. Today will be my first installment and will be posted later on. Hopefully it is well received.

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Inspiration

Inspiration for my photography comes from many places but I have always been incredibly inspired by Yousuf Karsh when it comes to portrait photography, as I am sure most portrait photographers are. His work captures the true character of the subject and it seems so effortless. He was truly a photographic genius.
Dave and I went to the Karsh Festival at the Science and Tech Museum this weekend and it was even better than I thought it was going to be. Not only were there some amazing photos displayed but also some of his tools for developing and retouching photos. There was also a portrait studio set up where you could take Karsh-like portraits. The camera present was a 'view camera' like Karsh might have used at some point (obviously it was incredibly basic and was really a digital camera in the framing of a view camera). And Dave and I tried it out.
If I had been thinking I would have used my camera with their lighting setup so that I could have gotten some higher quality photos, but it was fun nonetheless.

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