I have chosen an artist from the Guernsey Photography Festival, from 2014. This is the link to the website: http://guernseyphotographyfestival.com/

Sam Harris is a self-taught, London born photographer. Harris has a very precise style of working.  He photographs in a documentary style and captures every-day moments, sort of like a diary.

Here’s a link to his website: http://samharrisphoto.com

Before, Sam produced portraits and sleeve art for various companies in the music world. However, he soon came to realize that he wanted to start something different and new. His desire to photograph his family began on a family trip. Instead of photographing exterior subjects, Harris began to document his close family. With this, he learnt a lot about himself and found his calling.

The way that he forms the pictures is amazing. The images almost have an artistic quality to them. Here’s a very famous example:

It almost looks as if this picture was produced in a professional studio. The rule of thirds is aligned adequately as his daughters eyes and hand are positioned against the hot-spots of the grid. The orangery-red background gives the frame warmth and interest. There’s also a lot of depth here. The girl in foreground contrasts with the bright green bird in the middle-ground. In effect, the picture has a sort of three-dimensional essence to it. The focus is mostly placed on the right hand side, leaving the girls face a bit blurry. This is probably because Harris doesn’t believe in ‘over-exposing’ his children to the world.

Here’s some examples of four of his photograph’s from the collection ‘The Middle Of Somewhere’:

Harris said that this image was taken because of pure chance. He was cooking one night and the window steamed up. His daughter then began drawing on the glass and creating amazing shapes. Harris took the opportunity to capture this moment with a single shot. It has a very magical essence to me and I think that it looks very mysterious.

This picture is great in my opinion. I think that Harris has framed this image very well. The dark blue material around the rabbit cage restricts me to look directly in the center of the picture, where the brightest light is shown. I also believe that the angle that he used is effective. It creates interest and gives us a similar view to what the little girl might be seeing. Also, the dark shadows, caused from the blockage of light, give the rabbits a black outline. Again, this picture is quite mysterious because you can’t really see any fine details, all you see is shapes. Additionally, the girl looks very mesmerized by what she’s seeing. She looks relaxed and eager to learn.

This picture captures Harris’s daughter and wife trying to get the water off the plastic roof with brooms. In my view, this picture is quite amateur and doesn’t really follow any compositional rules, however it works. The yellow hints and hue’s in the background add a golden and warm feeling to it. The color yellow is significant of hope and happiness. I think that the contrast between the yellow light translucently shining on the ground and the water is great. There’s an aspect of freshness to it, the bright colors throughout exude positive vibes. You can tell the sheer energy and probably excitement that they are feeling whilst pushing the roof up. It seems as if they are having lots of fun as they’re both smiling and their body languages show signs of joy. Likewise, the green and calm field in the background adds serenity. Green is significant of power and growth. You can also see a bit of a blur in between the girl and the mother’s bodies that was created through their movement. On the whole, this image has a summer feel to it and is great in capturing a fun family moment.

Lastly, here’s a picture of Harris’s wife doing the laundry. Sam says that she hates taking pictures, so she always try’s to get her face covered in some way or another. You can see that her arm is up in an unnatural manner. It’s these moments that make the picture so intriguing. I’d like to find out more about this scene. Like the previous image, this is cropped in a rather different matter. I think that the tree on the left takes my focus to the left side, whilst the leaves on the right also divert my attention. This is because there is not much alignment or hot-spots from the rule of thirds. Nevertheless, I think that the sense of surprise and ambiguity is greater than if the shot is perfectly framed or not. I like how it’s been taken in such a way, that it doesn’t follow the perfect compositional rules or techniques. It’s just simple, refreshing and shows an engaging moment in family life.