photography

Top Photography Tips

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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

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McDonalds and Photography

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Okay, I know PforPHOTO is about the Art of Photography. So a post about McDonalds doesn’t seem to fit in the premise of this website. But really understanding product photography and using it in such a way that people really are getting hungry when looking at them, is an art in its self. So above a video about the way McDonalds photographs their hamburgers. This goes to show what a good photo can do for any product.

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Breaking Bad

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Next month the amazing TV-series “Breaking Bad” starts its 5th season. I know this has nothing to do with photography. Well, not entirely. “Breaking Bad” is shot on 35mm by Michael Slovis, an Emmy Award-winning director of photography. The way he approaches the telling of a story through a lens is just amazing. The many wide-angle slow-moving scenes are so wonderfully lit that they remind me of the works of photographer Gregory Grewdson and painter Edward Hopper. As a photographer I truly draw great inspiration from Slovis’ way  of filming “Breaking Bad”. His usage if light, shadows and color. It goes to show that being able to match the story with a specific, and daring I must say, style of photography really can do a series great justice. Whether it are moving or still images. Now a new season is on the horizon, I can’t wait to see Michael Slovis’ work once again.

Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), with the aim of securing his family’s financial future before he dies. (source: Wikipedia.org)

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Constructed Landscapes

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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

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Behind the News

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The west and the middle east are driven apart ever since the horrible events that took place at 9/11. What we learn about ‘them’, speaking now from the western point of view, is coming to us through the media. Western media. The news covers every suicide bomber and every attack on a western military base. What we never truly get to see is the people who try to live their normal lives.

Together with journalist Pauline Bakker, photographer Marieke van der Velden traveled to Baghdad Aug/Sept 2011 with a simple question: How are you?  The photographs see took shows us the people behind the news stories. Or behind the cover stories, the truth we never get to really know since a propaganda machine is keeping the humanity out of these conflict zones. A very interesting series called Baghdad Today.

Marieke van der Velden’s website: www.mariekevandervelden.com

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Man’s Best Friend?

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Pieter Hugo photographed hyenas and their owners. Yes, their owners. In Lagos, Nigeria, men seem to keep an hyena as a pet. Using a chain as a leash, they walk around with their pets like you normally would with your dog. I wonder if this animal is a good and smart substitute for what we normally would call men’s best friend. Does a hyena really looks out for the owners best interests. The muzzles indicates otherwise.

Pieter Hugo found out the true relationship between these men and hyenas. He spent eight days with them. The men are called ‘Gadawan Kura’, roughly translated ‘Hyena handlers/guides’. They are a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. For the complete story please visit Hugo’s website or click here.

Pieter Hugo’s website: www.pieterhugo.com

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Portraits of Nature

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Portrait photography has been a big hit ever since the invention of photography. The subjects photographed evolved along with the evolution of the camera. From dead people, stationary living people, to spontaneous portraits. Exposure times were just a little longer back then, than we are now accustomed to. Often the eyes of the people photographed in the middle of the 1800s looked weird. Due to the long exposure, people were able to stand still, but blinking and moving your eyes seemed a challenge.

Today we are able to portray anything we like. Some photographers seem to take it on them selves to photograph subjects that are not easily controlled. So long live the short exposure times and the ability to control light. Andrew Zuckerman photographed different animals in his series “Creature”. With his studio approach he photographed elephants, giraffes lions, and many other creatures. And he did this on a white background. Just like Richard Avedon did with people in his series “In the American West” (1985). Zuckerman takes the animal out of its natural habitat to show us just the animal and all its beauty.

Website Andrew Zuckerman: www.andrewzuckerman.com

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