Who is he?

Andreas Gursky was born January 15th, 1955, Leipzig, East Germany. The son of a commercial photographer, Gursky grew up around photography, starting to photograph things with a black and white Leica camera. He soon started to go against the trend and began working with coloured imagery and tripods. Gursky started to focus more and more on detail in the composition of his photos, the style he is now most celebrated for. By 1980 Gursky was producing photographs so large that they could only be printed on commercial boards, leading him to print of the largest photo paper ever, which he then combined single sheets with to make even larger. From here he became best known for his monumental digitally manipulated photos that examined consumer culture and the busyness of contemporary life, using his unique composition strategies to result in dramatic images that walk the line between representation and abstraction.

Gursky soon became fundamental in redefining photography for a new generation of photographers. Using digital image manipulation forcing into debate a new version of truth within photography, becoming apparent that the truth manipulating abilities of the camera could distort reality and erode the viewer’s trust. This pushed people to consider the question of truth, with this new digital photography becoming more and more relevant. Some of his work can be seen below:Once I had reviewed a few of his works I decided to go on and analyse one of his photos, by doing this it would allow me to understand what made his photography so effective. Whilst giving me an insight into the techniques and focuses of the style of photography he uses, and the thought process behind it. The image I have chosen is called ‘99 Cent’, taken 1999 of a local convenience store: Visual: Visually this image is extremely aesthetic, with the broad variety of colours present in the shop providing a sea of rainbows to be looked upon by the viewer. This is stopped from being too consistent and overpowering through the use of obvious shelves which stops the packaging from merging with the next, the white poles which pop up occasionally also add to this through their symmetrical layout across the shop, providing clear coordination in the piece and an unseen structure in the shops structure. I love how the packaging of the food is countered by the texture of the ceiling, which seems to almost reflect the colours of the below, fading into the distance as if its never ending.

Technical: When looking over the photo, I notice that the image itself uses a relatively higher exposure than usual due to shadows and black areas not being to noticeable and through the faded effect of the variety of colours such as red and blue. However a low saturation could have been used, reducing the colour of the products, stopping them from being too overpowering and instead becoming aesthetic. Gursky has purposely angled the camera so that he picks up the symmetry of the entire shop, with the poles and heads being reference to how he has done so. Finally the inclusion of the wall on the left breaks up the shop from becoming purely focused on products, presenting consumer life in the picture as well.

Conceptual: The image itself is meant to be a spectacle of consumerism appearing as organised, rigorous and formal. However the photo actual is hyper real, where yes its rooted in reality, however there is no physical space like it. By portraying such heightened constructions of our existence from dollar stores to football fields and sprawling cities, Gursky’s photography acts as a symbol of contemporary life. Seen through the mirrored food flattened and the iconic work, over exaggerating the environment of the surrounding environment.

For this post I will be analyzing how a photo of my choice by a photographer can be interpreted and the story behind it that may be carried. The photographer I have chosen is called Robert Capa, a Hungarian war photographer, considered one of the greatest in history, here I have selected his famous ‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’, 1936, which depicts the instant death that this loyalist has been captured through in mid shot. Here I will be looking at four factors that create such an impact when reviewing the picture; contextual, conceptual, visual and technical.Contextual: Taken during the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, showing the moment of a bullet’s impact on a loyalist soldier, Capa’s photograph has become the emblem for the medium’s unrivaled capacity to depict sudden death. The style of photojournalism became the mark that defined Capa’s work from there on, joining the company Magnum Photos in the late 1940s. The photo itself appear to capture a Republican soldier at the moment of death, the soldier is seen collapsing backward after being picked off from a distance by a sniper. The pictured solider is dressed in civilian clothing but wears a cartridge belt, and following its publication was acclaimed as one of the greatest photos ever taken. However since the 1970s there has been significant doubts about its authenticity due to its location, the identity of its subjects, and the discovery of staged photographs taken at the same time and place.

Conceptual: The idea behind the image was to capture one of the most shocking moments in war, death. Although it was supposedly an accident, the image itself was published because of its insight into the impact of war, and how one moment can lead to another resulting in tragedy. When taken the photographer wanted to capture life on the front line, and life between skirmishes, attempting to depict life in such an isolated region of the country.

Technical: The image itself uses a higher shutter speed to capture the motion of the solider without blurring either the subject and landscape, by doing this the result is crisper without any eye-sores created by faults. Within this image the contrast seems to have been lowered so that only the more dominantly dark objects are defined (such as shadows, gun, hair and dark grass), this leaves the rest of the photo as more bland and faded due to it only consisting of different shades of white, whilst creating a stark outline for the main focus of the picture, the soldier. The black and white result of the camera used produces a more sinister tone surrounding his death due to it being devoid of any other colours, this to me adds context to the image as it reduces your perspective on the story being portrayed, instead giving only the option of two viewpoints.

Visual: Visually the pieces incorporates an executioner, stark backdrop and dramatic nocturnal lighting. By doing so, this for the viewer zeroes on the instantaneous death received by the soldier which will be forever anticipated in the photograph. The image itself seems to resemble an equally famous picture of the civil war in Spain named “The Third of May, 1808” by Francisco Goya in 1814, this provides a narrative element for Capa’s image due to there being a story behind the position and landscape it was taken in. Because of the piece perfectly evokes both discrete moment and an epoch, where one encounters a distillation of the Fascist violence, and the brutally extinguished Republican sense of hope for a new, free egalitarian society, ultimately defining the Spanish Civil War.