Archive for the ‘series’ Category
Find the d.
Friday, August 28th, 2009This is a painting by Linnea Strid she uploaded to Flickr in May 2009:
This is my photo from the series “Not with a bang, but with a whimper“, made in February 2009 (Flickr page):
Now I’m really curious.
Tags: art, similarityRelated posts
Photosynthesis is cool
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Last Friday I read a micro-lecture on photography at Moscow-based “Kapusta” (”Cabbage”) club (here’s the Facebook page in Russian). My theme was “Synthesis in photography”, because I think that this is what’s happening now and this is cool.
In 2009, there are as many photographers as cameras. One can’t often tell an amateur from a pro. And from this pool of people, equipment and ideas, something new is being brewed.
New Camera Standards: Micro 4/3
It’s official, as camera producers support this trend by merging products from different niches, creating new species. Like Micro 4/3, currently represented by Panasonic and Olympus:
At one hand, consumers who want to get pro’er, but are somehow scared by DSLR’s large size and the whole mess with professional gear, get an advanced camera allowing them to use interchangeable lenses to get better picture and learn more, still looking nice and shiny. At the other, professionals, tired of DSLR’s that don’t fit into their pockets or purses for everyday careless shooting, finally get a, well, point-and-shoot, or rather, “put on your favourite lens-point-and-shoot” camera.
“Everyday” Medium Format DSLR
Same thing happens in heavier weights with the upcoming arrival of Leica S2, a medium-format DSLR. Now we can have all those megapixels, too heavy to carry out from studio into everyday life before, to shoot our kitty on the sofa or our boy/girlfriend in front of Eiffel tower.
Photo+Video
One more thing I find significant: the photography and video synthesis.
If this photo by Greg Williams (click here for the hi-res version) were published on a glossy magazine spread, you’d never say that it was taken with a video camera. Yet, it is:
Red One, the first available on the range of Red cameras, is designed to shoot films, but more and more photographers use stills from Red footage as “normal” photographs. Another example is Bruce and Emma Willis photoshoot for W Magazine.
From the opposite side, DLSR’s with HD video feature have arrived, starting with Canon 5D Mark II.
Now tru photographers have a possibility to play with video, using their favourite L-lenses and therefore getting a better picture than on a regular HD video camera. A huge contribution to the rather new “long photo” genre. Well, not so brand new, as Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests have explored this territory already back in the 1960’s, but still without strict definition, what causes discussions like those on Flickr after they introduced the video feature.
Long Photo
Here’s a good example what I think a real long photo is:
Long Water from endico on Vimeo.
Genre Synthesis
As for the genre synthesis, I showed an example from my own work: a project called “Lomostudio“.
Lomographic cameras are never allowed into studio. They’re too playful, too uncontrollable, too trashy. I took a Lomo Action Sampler straight into my studio, under the lights. In a party format, to keep the lomographic flavour, I shot portraits of people, synthesizing the picture from rough spontaneity mixed with hardcoded studio light set up.
Related posts
I need you to keep this information to yourself
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
My “Simple Girl” series featured on color-noise.com. Thank you for placing me among Steven Meisel and Serguey Prokudin-Gorsky, guys. Vanity mode on.
Tags: canon, featuredRelated posts
Coming. Soon.
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
Afisha’s Picnic
Monday, July 21st, 2008For 3 years, Afisha, the famous Moscow lifestyle bi-weekly magazine, has been making its own summer picnic – with some rain and bad weather as an occasional tradition. Some 40 000 people came to Kolomenskoye park in Moscow last Saturday, and some 90 percent of them, I gusee, were carrying all types of cameras, including digital Hasselblads, film Mamiya TLRs, Holgas and other Canons.
Last year I was so embarrassed by this fact, I couldn’t take a single picture. This year, encouraged by a strong intention to shoot a series, I grabbed my 16-35/2.8L and focused on jumping people.
There was little sun, so after taking a look at the shot material, I decided to make it a high-contrast black and white – unlike the usual colorful photos from the Picnic. The result is a series of 7 photos I like a lot:
