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Can we be inspired by art?
116 (179)In my last couple of blogs I discussed some of the photographers that inspire me at this moment in time. Why this moment, well my tastes change over time. Does anyone else find the same?
I thought I would look at a couple of photographers that drew inspiration from the art world.
The first is:
Kevin Best
There are some amazing still life images that bare more than a passing resemblance to some of the great Dutch still life artists such as Pieter Claesz
The use of light and shade, composition, and harmony and discord in the images are superb .. did you know the extinguished candle in many of the images signifies mortality?
Another photographer, that has really got my imagination going recently is Gregory Crewsden now his work draws more than a passing resemblance to that of Edward Hopper .. There are some better examples of his work using a Google image search.
Even the ever popular Strobist movement uses the principals devised by many of the great old masters. Using light and shade to draw the eye. There was an article on the strobist site about this exact point.
I was about to sign off when I forgot about one of the best digital exponents Ben Goossens who drew inspiration from Rene Magritte .. again Google images gives a better impression of his work. Goossens also uses Dali as a source of his imagery.
I hope this has given a bit of food for thought.
Tags: Claesz, Crewsden, Dali, Goossens, Kevin Best
Comments
Really interesting Nick - good blog! Increasingly I think photography is moving more towards creative art and is drawing from a range of sources and styles. I guess this is in response to the increasing accessibility of photography. What was once unusual or new is now common place. This is particularly true for landscape photography IMO and probably true of other genres as well. Steve.
Yes Steve I think your right. As more and more of us get competent in our work, there will always be some that want to strive and improve and differentiate their style. Like many at first I thought that compositing images etc was cheating, however I now realise its the final image that counts - so long as you don't try to pass the image off as a record shot. In my work I've tried to bring in different elements - strobes in landscapes, long lenses instead of wide angles, narrow dof instead of maximum dof.
One thing that I've concluded is that no matter how original we consider our work, someone has already got the T-shirt. As you may be able to tell from the post I'm giving a lot of thought as to where I want to take my photography.
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