Machines
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Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto experiments mostly with light in his images of machines with a dark background. He uses artificial light to make form shadows and give good depth to the image. He captures images of different mechanisms such as cogs, wheels and other dedicated systems. The vast majority of his pictures are in black and white and lots of greys where the metals reflect the light that he has put on the subject of choice. He uses a black backdrop when he takes the photo on a film camera then develops them in a dark room. I personally like his style as he uses different pieces of vintage machinery that you would probably not see today and I find the mechanisms to be very intriguing. The photo has lots of depth so you can see where all the outlines of the machine where there is light and dark sections to the photograph. He uses a small range of tones as most of his photo's have been developed in black and white. I chose him to research as there are not so many artists that experiment with machines and I found his work to be the most unique and eye catching while also being very related to the topic out of the minority that does machine photography.
Richard Kagan
Richard Kagan's work is very similar to Hiroshi Sugimoto's in the way he has a black background and has only one main subject in the foreground which is lit up by a artificial light to show depth of field and outlines the shadows well. I chose him because he is similar to Hiroshi Sugimoto and I like the style of work these 2 artists use so I thought it would be useful. He also develops them using Gelatin silver prints according to his website and he also uses a film camera. He uses techniques that I can respond to in my own work as I like his style and would like to experiment with it myself.
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Kawazu
Kawazu is a photographer from Germany who experiments with colours and they are very enhanced and edited which makes the image almost blurry and hard to distinguish one object from another. He captures images of industrial automation such as engines, cranes and more. His images are very different to every other photographer that experiment with machines as the vast majority of machinery photographers do black and white photograms of tools and machines. This inspires me to do something more unique and experiment more with colour and more modern cameras instead of all the old-school photographers around the machinery genre.
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Experimentation
These are photo's I took in my room for further experimentation and were all taken in my bedroom. I don't have many 'machines' in my room so I mostly took pictures of my computer. Hopefully when I take more pictures outside I'll find some more better examples of machines to capture images of. I took the images very close up and paid attention to the detail. The pictures were taken with the flash on as there was very low light in my room. None of these photo's have been edited or enhanced but I may plan on doing so with later experimentation if I find something interesting to try out related to machines. The mainly got the focus of small details in the chipboards and other mechanical components.
This photo was my most affective photo out of the ones I took in my opinion. Colour's of the cable are very vibrant and contrast with the background which is generally more black and white. The framing is slightly tilted making the image more unique and more techniques were used compared to the rest which are just basic, straight shots of the subject. I have not edited these images at all although I may plan on doing so in later experimentation. Although, next time I take images I intend to make the images more intriguing as the 'machines' I had weren't that good to take pictures of that are pleasing to the eye.
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Martin Dürr
Martin Dürr is a German photographer who takes pictures of mechanical . I will be taking inspiration from his work in my own piece. All of his images have been made black and white which I think he took his photo's a while ago so he didn't have the option to take colour photographs. I think he also may have done this because if the machines are have different colours on them it will move the focus off the machine and onto the colours. All of his images are of engines and other things you would find in a mechanic which is a type of machine. They are all different engines from different vehicles such as cars and planes. None of the photos have the full engine in them, they are all a specific part of the engine, this is probably because in a full engine there are so many parts that it would focus your attention to the part of the machine that Martin wants you to see an nothing else. He probably put a lot of thought into what he wanted to be in frame as those are the most interesting parts to him.
Artist Research: Tony Lewis
Tony Lewis is a photographer from London who has a large portfolio on his website of all the different types of photo's he takes. Machinery is one of the subjects that he has covered. I found these images on his page and thought they were effective. He takes images of vintage machines that no longer work. These machines are mostly related to farming which could suggest that he works/lives in a rural area where this type of machinery is often used. He sometimes works with framing and different shot types as some of his images are close up to capture the minor details and some are taken from a far to show the vast sizes of some of these machines. He takes his photo's on a digital camera and do not look like they have been edited at all or enhanced in any way.
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These photo's I took in school as experimentation. I focused mainly on lighting, therefore I used a studio light in order to get the lighting that I desired. The 'machines' that I photographed consisted of mainly bike parts and chip boards. I did many closeups of the machines in order to capture the minor details. I think these photo's were relatively successful because the minor details in the subjects that I used are shown without the use of a macro lens which I am planning on using in future experimentation.
Photoshop experimentation
This is an image of a bike chain I took on a DSLR, I then took the photo into photoshop and I changed the colours main lines of the image into bright vibrant colours such as white's, purples and some oranges. The background of the image and the lines that don't make up the shape of the object are all coloured in black. This makes the bright colours that the lines produce shine out and look more visually pleasing. The lines also make the bike chain look like it is animated and is currently moving as the lines are not exactly straight but they are more blurred which shows movement similar to a image with a higher exposure. The shadows that the chain gives off on the table has also been highlighted by the lines to give the image depth as you can't really see any depth as everything apart from the highlights are black and too dark to see any background.