Under the Influence Formal Analysis

Stefanie Moshammer

The two landscape images and the photo of the corner on the top left are all from the body of work, Vegas and She, and the top right image is from a body of work called Land of Black Milk. These works all have set color schemes that make them pop. The reds and greens of the 2 images on the left, the blues and pinks of the two on the right. A lot of Moshammer's work is a collection of images featuring portraits, landscapes, and setting photos.

She also pays a lot of attention to framing and her composition. Her photos typically have a lot of structure in each one, with leading lines, strategic framing of people and attention to lighting and shadow to accentuate or conceal certain aspects of each image. Each image has a powerful story on its own, but collectively they're a documentation of specific cultures.

Under The Influence Inspiration

For this project I am choosing the work of Maria Svarbova, a photographer from Slovakia. This piece is from her Swimming Pool series, a collection of retro inspired photographs showcasing reflections and regimentation.

I am unsure if her work does heavily rely on Photoshop, or whether she achieves her compositions naturally - relying on real staging and models. But I can see how her photos could be recreated using editing software were her desired locations not available.

Each body of work Svarbova creates appear quite flat. I have identified this almost two dimensional aesthetic is something very appealing to me - as I'm also a big fan of the director Wes Anderson, who's films carry a similar appeal. I like how colour - especially red - is used to accent every piece Svarbova creates. Her subjects are rigid and uniform, making some viewers uncomfortable, while others - like myself - find the still symmetrical forms to be strangely calming.

Under the Influence Essay

Ashley Johnson

Under the Influence Essay: Nemanja Sekulic

The artist I chose to emulate is Nemanja Sekulic. I am attracted to the intense climax of action that he captures in his photography. He combines sharp figures with sharp shadows to help keep the feeling of a 'movie still' that helps the eye move around the composition. 

I want to emulate this point of action but on a small scale instead involving super closeups of nature. I will incorporate several small elements together to tell a story of what happens even when our eyes cannot see what is happening. 

Laura Hartford (Under the Influence Inspo)

The artist I chose is Laura Hartford. The series of hers that specifically drew my eye is a series where her son is the subject. Its a play on the concept of mother nature and her personal worries and fears about being a mother. Her son is always covered or engulfed by some sort of large element of nature. The way that he interacts with each thing seems to me to be characteristic of how a mother would interact with her child. I think that that work can also be a commentary on masculinity and how masculinity interacts with mother nature.

The photos of her that I think will be a big inspiration are those where the nature really seems to become a part of the boy. The roots, leaves and flowers become his clothing and hair, almost like he's giving life to the plants and vice versa. I would like to play with the idea of personifying Mother Nature. We refer to it as a being all the time, so with portraits of people and pictures of elegant beautiful plant life I will try to bring it to life in Photoshop.

Under the Influence Inspiration

Constance Thalken

Constance Thalken has photographed the same taxidermy shop for 5 years. Thalken says the work speaks to the lives of humans and animals and the commonalities between them in death. Because the taxidermy emulates the same animal in life, Thalken takes advantage of the taxidermy to capture the animals in an intimate setting that might not be possible in the wild. The photographer's goal is to convey our longing to connect with the natural world all the while consuming and immortalizing it.

Thalken's dramatic lighting and intentionally offset compositions create interesting, easily recognizable images. Her subject matter is shocking, bringing a viewer closer in to the details. Photographing natural matter, she chooses to maintain earthly tones, which I find extremely attractive. The muted coloration of Thalken's images create intensely documentarian photographs with subject matter that may seem constructed rather than documented.

I will use lighting techniques in Photoshop to achieve the same outcomes in photography as Thalken. She enhances her textures in the program, creating more dramatic pieces.

Fan Ho - Influence

Fan Ho work is based on street photography and light. He waits for the lighting and composition to fall into place when photographing or documenting his work. I too enjoy capturing light. I feel like the black and white photographs shows the light a bit more, but I am a fan of color prints. I like capturing raw moments and so does Fan Ho. 

I feel like the subject of my work might be an old town with a big/small population and capture their everyday living. Capturing the light and the shadows where it reflects to give the light to shine through the image. I believe the work I will present will share the thematic similarity with Fan Ho or at least I will give it a try to the visual light. 

Under the Influence: Matt Sartain - Marco Di'Santi

Matt Sartain

I'm specifically focusing on Matt Sartain's conceptual series rather than his Interior photography, child photography, or advertisement work. 

His work has a certain illustrative quality to it that he himself discusses in this tutorial:
http://shootthesundown.blogspot.com/2011/03/anatomy-of-shot.html

This specific photo called to me do to the subject, flight, which is a personal favorite and fascination of mine. Has been for a LONG time.

This photo, and Sartain's conceptual art series in general, has an illustrative evocation oh sensucht and nostalgia for a time that hasn't existed. It is a feeling captured in a bottle. The atmosphere isn't even always pleasant, but this emotion persists. A basis from which the rest is drawn.

Formally, I can't speak to much. There is an emphasis on over saturation of colors but low ranges of total colors. As in, there aren't a lot of colors in the frame, but the ones that are there are rich. The overall dynamic range also feels muted and hazy without being muddy.
There is always movement along arc in these pieces as well. which probably leads to a lack of balance or stability, without being jarring. This emphasizes the atmosphere of that sensucht emotion I mention earlier.

I think this formality adds to the filmic quality of the pieces. Which are almost always narrative. The subjects taking up a third or less of the frame in their staging, allowing for a scene, rather than a thing, to be the emphasis of the piece. Several of the pieces are also either in 16x9 (or 1.77:1) or Cinema wide (2.39:1) which are two common video resolution formats. This definitely helps the work speak to me specifically with my near complete emersion in the film industry at this point. 

So (to summarize in list), Illustrative, Filmic, Fantasy elements, Narrative, Emphasis on scene over subject, saturated colors, muted range, Whimsy, Nostalgia, and Sensucht. These are the elements I need to capture and emulate to mimic Matt Sartain.

Sartain's Website:
https://www.mattsartain.com/ADVERTISING-+-CONCEPTUAL/50