All Different Shades of Mankind

July 16, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

The color of the skin has been, and unfortunately still is, a reason to discriminate. Somehow we human beings have to label people for our own comfort. And the first impression of someone is one of the mayor influences in this labeling process. But how many colors are there? If you say a person is black, brown, white, yellow, red or something in between, what do you really mean? We only have a few words to define so many colors.

Brazilian artist Angelica Dass started a project called Humanæ. She strives to record and catalog all possible skin tones. By using the PANTONE® color scheme. Visit her website and look if your skin can find a matching PANTONE® code. A wonderful project showing us that there isn’t just one black, white, or whatever.

Angelica Dass’ website: humanae.tumblr.com

Raw Emotions Captured

July 9, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts 4 Comments

Babies are born every day. According to Wiki; a staggering 255 babies every minute. As a photographer babies and small children can help in generating a steady income. Since there’s an endless flow of the little ones. Anne Geddes became famous with her baby photos. She shows us the sweet and cute side of those tiny human beings.

Jill Greenberg on the other hand is showing us a the opposite side. She shows us a side that has nothing to do with cute or with sweet. But a side of us human beings, that we all know too well. When children are not getting what they want, don’t want to go to bed or travel along on an airplane. Jill Greenberg gave the kids in these photos some candy. And just before she released the shutter she took the candy away. Resulting in a wonderful yet little unsettling portrait series. That side of us we don’t really like to see photographed. That side that we as adults have learned to suppress.

Distorted Self-image

June 29, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

Every artist will create a self-portrait once in a while. Whether it’s a study to try out some new ideas or a piece of remembrance for history’s sake. Rembrandt did it. Picasso did it. Cindy Sherman became famous with it. And today it seems that Photoshop gives photographers the same freedom every painter enjoys when creating something. Yet there are still artists out there who create everything without that useful digital tool.

And that makes the work of Laurence Demaison, French artist, even more wonderful and special. She’s an artist who shoots on film. The photographs are not manipulated afterwards. Sometimes she does play around with the chemicals a bit, but that’s it. Her work consists out of self-portraits that give me a sense of deepness and seriousness. The distortion of herself seem to resonate a deeper meaning. A meaning that go further than only her self-image. Often the finished images shows us a figure, not immediately recognizable to be Laurence herself. Her work brings me in a melancholic state of mind. What it does with you? I don’t know. Visit her website and see for yourself.

Laurence Demaison’s website: www.laurencedemaison.com

Flower Power

June 25, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

Karl Blossfeldt photographed flowers and plants early in the 1900s. Documenting them as study subjects for his textbooks and later photo books. The study of things is a thankful and very important subject in photography and art. How better to describe something then by showing it in full detail. And thus creating a typology like the famous works of Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Brendan Fitzpatrick has taken the works of Blossfeldt to a whole new level. He photographs the same study subject Blossfeldt did, only he did it with an x-ray camera. Showing things Blossfeldt could only dream about. The beauty of nature captured in electromagnetic radiation.

Brendan Fitzpatrick’s website: www.brendanfitzpatrick.com

Top Photography Tips

June 22, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

Many websites about photography take it upon themselves to teach the amateur. Giving handy and useful tips to improve their photography skills. PforPHOTO is a blog about the art of photography. We like to inspire and share the works of great and upcoming photographers. So you can be inspired and create something wonderful yourself.

But because PforPHOTO is a blog. And because giving tips on photography is as expected on a blog as a photography student is to take the “See, Hear and Speak no Evil-photograph”, or the “Last supper-group photo” we like to present you 77 photography tips by Ivars Gravlejs. Tips that are as useful as they are funny for any photographer out there. So before you go out with your camera this weekend, click on the link below and get ready to be inspired!

The 77 tips by Ivars Graveljs

Ivars Gravlejs’ website: www.ivarsgravlejs.com

Cloudy

June 14, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts 4 Comments

Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde puts clouds indoor. I came across his work and was fascinated by the photos of this surreal images of clouds. A wonderful mix of the ordinary, clouds and a room, put together in a situation that could never exist.

Berndnaut Smilde’s website: www.berndnaut.nl

Constructed Landscapes

June 4, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts 2 Comments

Photography has long surpassed the field of merely capturing reality. Ever since Man Ray, artist have used the camera like a painter uses his brush. What we see is never truly what is really going on. Take the work of Edwin Zwakman. This Dutch visual artist creates scenes, inspired by real life, and reconstructs them by memory in his studio. Landscape photography with the control of studio photography. The result is amazing. Life like scenes of what seems to be ordinary Dutch places. Perhaps a take on Dutch constructed landscapes. Every inch of it designed and thought of in an office. Controlled like Edwin does in his studio. Manipulation on a wide scale.

Edwin Zwakman’s website: www.edwinzwakman.nl

Form Integration

May 25, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts Leave a comment

In the series “Habitat” Belgium photographer/artist Xavier Delory looks at prefab houses. House that can be found on the countryside of Belgium. And perhaps even in other western countries. One specific type of houses can be found here, called ‘Clé sur porte’. Or “Turnkey”. From which the definition is” Urban prefab cluster of similar forms implanted in the landscape without any effort of integration.

I look at the photographs and see visually interesting landscapes. Xavier depicts these houses almost as a representation of a social mega-trend. With little adjustments to the houses we see a closed up habitat were we, the individual, live our lives. Perhaps the words “without any effort of integration” says it all. We are all living in a society that builds on individuality by presenting us choices. And in the end the choices made per individual are not so different at all, yet we all feel unique. And all life our close-up lives without really trying to integrate.

Xavier Delory’s website: www.xavierdelory.be

Cozy Commuters

May 19, 2012February 4, 2013 marceleverts 1 Comment

Earlier on PforPHOTO I posted about a series by Michael Wolf in which he photographed windows and the small cities that exist behind them. A voyeuristic series called Transparent City. His new series, again photographs taken through windows, shows us the commuters of the Tokyo subway system. The many people (2.8 million a day) who rely on this rapid transit system are all packed neatly into small compartments.They all commute cozy together.

The photographs that Michael Wolf has taken gives us a look into the day-to-day lives of Japanese commuters. Damp windows. Emotionless faces. Portraits of people who are compressed together. Portraits of people who pause their lives from the moment they set foot on world’s busiest subway system. All on their way to do what they do. Everyday the same. Everyday together. The series is called Tokyo Compression.

Michael’s website: www.photomichaelwolf.com