This is an artist reference for my exam, as I am inspired by his cutlery images to create similar images experimenting with light and darkness to create shadows and other similar effects as the images he creates when exploring photography with cutlery. This artists fits into the theme variation and similarity because he is exploring cutlery (which is an everyday object), and he is focused on looking into the similarity between forks and spoons, but the variation in how they are perceived, using light as an important factor in order to create such unique and varied images. He experiments with different positioning’s of the cutlery, as well as a variation of camera perspectives he uses to capture these images.

This image by Luitad is intriguing due to how he has manipulated the background and lighting to create this unique shadow effect. He used what looks like two forks and one spoon to create the image above. He must have used a reflection of some sort (maybe a mirror) as you can see the reflection of the cutlery. I think this is very effective in achieving such a creative series of images. Luitad is using an artificial light to portray the forks and spoons as a sort of silhouette. I like how the sides of the forks and spoon are portrayed really dark due to how Luitad has positioned the lighting. This silhouette effect makes the image overall a lot more appealing.

Luitad’s images are inspiring me to do something similar. I want to do a shoot based on cutlery, where I would experiment with lighting to explore shadows and silhouette effects.

Metzker was born in 1931 in Milwaukee. He attended the Institute of Design, Chicago. He taught for many years at the Philadelphia College of Art and also taught at the University of Mexico. After his graduate studies at the Institute of Design (Chicago,) Metzker travelled a lot throughout Europe in 1960-1961, where he had two striking realisations in his work of photography: that “light” would be his primary subject and that he would seek a combination of complexity over simplicity. Metzker often said “the artist begins his explorations by embracing what he doesn’t know.” He was a successor to photography where he had developed new and experimental ideas within this field of art and design. Early in his career, his work was considered as having an unusual intensity. “Composites, multiple-exposure, superimposition of negatives, juxtapositions of two images, solarization and other formal means were part and parcel of his vocabulary.”  He was determined and committed to discovering the potential of black and white photography. Ray Metzker’s unique and continuous mastery of light, shadow and line “transform the ordinary into a realm of pure visual delight.” His street photography and darkroom experiments made it clear that his core, main subject was always light itself. Ray Metzker died in October 2014 at the age of 83 in Philadelphia. He had made this city his home since 1962.

I am intrigued by Metzker’s work as he is approaching the theme of light and darkness in a different way that I have thought about approaching it. He is more focused on light and shadows, mainly capturing street photographs that are exploring buildings and people. I want to experiment with different styles of photography in order to capture a good series of images that are exploring light and darkness. In order to do this, I want to do an architecture shoot that incorporates light and darkness/shadows into my architectural images.

This image of Metzker’s explores light and darkness as he has captured this photo at a good timing in order to get the woman walking past the light toned side of the building. I like how the woman appears to be walking as she has one foot up off the ground as if she is rushing along the street. Additionally, I like how she appears almost like a silhouette due to how dark toned she looks in the image. This contrasts well against the lighter toned marble wall. This marble wall implies that this city is not a poor one; it must be fairly wealthy as marble walls are the type to seem wealthy and substantial. This links to the context of the image; Metzker took this image in the 80’s in New York (Howard is in NY). New York in the 1980s was a controversial time; “A polarizing Republican in the White House, protests for equality in the streets and a new wave of sexual self-identification. This was N.Y.C. in the early ’80s, during the 36 months in which it changed art, design, activism, food, literature and love — forever.” This shows that many aspects of life were changing and evolving – rich people were becoming richer and people who received racism or discrimination were fighting for equality. The way Metzker has chose to go about his street photography that explores light and darkness is he captured the rich, pleasant side of New York. The woman in the centre of the image is dressed well, in a long coat with high heels on, as if she is rushing along to her daily workplace which is probably a well paid job due to the how well she seems to dress. Moreover, you can see the older fashioned cars which also hints that this image was taken on the 80s. On the left side of the image, you can see tall buildings in New York, which are also really dark toned like the main woman in the photo. I like how this is juxtaposed with the light toned, bright sky. On top of this, I like how the huge buildings have shadows on them; on the very far left building you can clearly tell that there is a big strike of shadow that is hitting the left half of this building. The other half of this building is a lot more brighter which had a good contrast with the shadows.

Kanghee Kim is currently 27. She was born in Korea but moved to New York with her family when she was 14. At that time, there was a need for more nurses in the USA, and her mother was helping to fill that gap – but their lawyer missed a deadline. Kim was never able to secure a citizenship. Eventually, she was protected under the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) policy, but her status has made leaving the country too much of a risk. She states: “I really miss Korea, especially over the last few years. Korea is the motherland. Whenever I see photos or hear about it I feel a bit torn.” Kim only got into photography in her final year of studying painting. It was this time that smartphones and cameras (technology) were improving; she was frustrated by how much space and materials were needed to paint. “I love walking around and being outside. Approaching photography as a painting was solving that problem” – Kim states.

“Golden Hour“ is Kim’s second book to be published by Same Paper, (who are based in China). Its carefully-assembled pictures are taken during the magic of the “golden hour” – the moment immediately before sunrise or sunset. This is part of her ongoing body of work, “Street Errands”. Most of Kim’s images are taken in New York, California, Colorado, and Hawaii, the furthest place she could go within the states. “When I first went to California, I was pretty shocked. The sky felt so close to me. I saw palm trees for the first time, I’d only ever seen them on the internet.” says Kim. She was inspired to work with images of the sky, after visiting the West Coast. By using photoshop to manipulate and edit her images, Kim feels that she can escape, creating a “new space that feels almost like travelling to an unknown place. When I’m working on these images, it feels very therapeutic. I’m so focused I don’t think about my problems”. Making these surreal images has also been a way for Kim to appreciate what she can do within her current situation. “I used to get bored of doing the same things in the same surroundings, so finding the moments that I really like and layering them helped me to not be so pessimistic or self-pitying.”

Image Analysis

This image taken by Kim is a very surrealist type of image. The way that she is focusing in on the effects of the sun during the ‘golden hour’ in the US creates this dream-like series of images. This image in particular, is portraying how sunlight creates this huge effect of beauty onto a normal scene. I like how Kim has used an editing technique process; she has manipulated the side of a bus stop (along with its shadow it creates) and placed a beautiful image of the blue sea, contrasted with the bright orange blossomed sky. She has also used a technique to make sea waves appear as if they are on the pavement. She has done this because she wanted to show that although she misses her place of birth, (Korea,) she has interpreted her current home place (the United States) to be as beautiful as her original home-town, Korea. She is implying that she loves to see a beauty in everything, and using the sun as a main focus point helps create this aspect of dream-like subject matters – this street she has photographed to incorporate images of the sea and sun would have been a plain, standard image but her surrealism artist traits has made her work much more outstanding and unique. I also like how she has made the orange sun that is being reflected on the windows of the top of the building a lot more vivid and bold; although the sun may have been reflected on these windows, it would’ve been no where near as pretty as she has edited it out to be. She really wanted to make sure each and every image in her “Golden Hour” photo-book is showing bold features of the sun and the sunlights beauty. This makes her work have an attractive aesthetic, with an orange, welcoming cover and a warming golden typography. The colours in this image are really standing out – I also like how in the top right corner of this photo, you can see a bold colour of sky blue. Her touch of surrealism has really made me intrigued into her work, and has made me realise that the sun is such an amazing factor to base a photographic piece of work on.

Kim’s work of the ‘golden hour’ links to the exam title ‘variation and similarity’ because she has made every image take an approach that pinpoints the sun as its reason of beauty and boldness – they are all similar due to the fact that they are brightly coloured and consider eat sun within some part of its photo. Yet, each image is varied from the other, as she uses different settings, as well as people, to create her creative series of photos. I have chosen this artist as one of my artist references because I am keen to follow the route of light and shadows as my exam project. I want to contrast these 2 aspects of everyday life to show how different and the different effects they create; as Kim has shown in her project, light creates a very warming, happy aesthetic, which I could want to incorporate into my work that explores light. Kanghee Kim has been a great influence into my inspiration to photograph light, as I am intrigued to do a few shoots on the effects of sunlight on different scenery. However, (as I stated in my specification,) I want to explore light as a whole – not just sunlight. This may mean I will have to capture some shoots in a studio or a dark room in my house, and use artificial sources of light, such as lamps, lighters, torches etc.