Artist References:
Sammy Baoji:
Biography:
Sammy Baloji was born in 1978 in Lubumbashi. He studied Computer and Information Sciences and Communication at the University of Lubumbashi. With a borrowed camera, he began photographing scenes as sources for his cartoons. Baloji juxtaposes photographic realities, combining past and present, the real and the ideal, to illicit glaring cultural and historical tensions.
What inspired Sammy Baloji?
Sammy Baloji was inspired by the history of his country. His photographs are related to The industrial culture of Congo.
What was Sammy Baloji known for?
Sammy Baloji was famous for his photography, film, installation art and archival research into the history and legacy of colonialism. His exhibition and research project Hunting and Collecting, staged initially at Ostend’s Mu.
Sammy Baloji Mood board
Personal opinion:
What I like about Sammy Balojis work is the way he sets up his camera and is able to capture both the past and the present day within one photo, I really like his style of work as he has found different ways to include different generations of the world and how it works within one image.
Image Analysis:
Within this image there are wide variations of natural lighting in different brightness’s within different areas of the image. The colouring is like a warm yellow/orange colour with the people in the image being in black and white this creates an opposite colour contrast from the foreground and the background. The white balance holds a warm temperature. In this image there is a rural landscape with a broken/unfinished building along with a metal tower in the background, there are also some dirt piles covering the land and some yellow crate boxes near the red building. In the foreground there are 7 age ranging black children/teens stood completely naked, they almost look like they have been cut out from a previous image and merged into this image to create the contrasting effect. the focal point of the image is definitely the children as they stand out amongst the yellow/orange sunset backdrop.
Artist Study :
Mandy Baker
Biography:
Mandy Barker is a British photographer. She is mostly known for work with marine plastic debris. Barker has worked alongside scientists in hopes of bringing awareness to the mass amount of plastic that is floating around in our oceans.
who inspired Mandy Barker?
Mandy Barker is not inspired by any specific people however she says “My work is inspired by current scientific research, by way of reports or directly with scientists. Science is not subjective; it is factual. There’s no room for aesthetics or emotion. So, the work of an artist and a scientist are opposed in approach, but, in some way, they seek to achieve the same outcome.”
what is unique about Mandy Barkers photography?
Mandy Barkers photography is unique in its own way, She creates beautiful images of plastic and waste from around the world and creates montage photos of all that she finds within one image, Her work has a deeper meaning behind it all and represents the effects and the pollution which surrounds us every day.
Personal Opinion:
I love Mandy Barkers style of photography as she has a very unique way of both making an image so delicate with detail and beautiful whilst also having such a strong meaning behind her photography painting a story behind her images and educating people with her photography about the state of the world and the impact humans have had on it.
Mandy Barker Mood board:
Image Analysis:
In-depth analysis:
In this image of Mandy Barkers it really creates a hidden message. She has used multiple layers of a few images and resized each one either larger or smaller creating a full scene on the screen. Each of the individual elements of the image have really good strong lighting which makes us able to really make out every little detail of the objects used. For me this image is really unique and almost creates a sense of power and meaning whenever I look at the image. The structure she has used is where the objects almost fade into getting larger when in the centre of the screen and a lot smaller around the outsides. This image almost creates a story behind pollution and why it is so important to try and avoid any form of throwing waste into the sea or anywhere in which it doesn’t belong. This image gives me this impression as the objects in the image look to be worn pieces of rope which she has probably found on a beach as it is very common to find however with the way she has presented it, the balls of rope look like little jellyfish and octopuses, this creates a deeper meaning to her image as it almost shows the impact that the waste has on our sea life and the animals creating a picture of the animals being turned into plastic as due to all the waste that ends up in the ocean thousands of our sea creatures die from eating plastic every single year. That is why Mandy’s photography is really eye-opening and creates a deeper meaning and value to her photography.