[www.juliafullerton-batten.com...] --

Julia Fullerton-Batten was born in Bremen, Germany. Her father was English, and her mother was German, which has explained for her frequent movement between the United States, Germany, and England. Currently living in London, Fullerton-Batten has travelled around the world extensively, spending time in Asia, Australia, and South America. She attended the Berkshire College of Art and Design and graduated with a degree in photography. After college, she began freelance assisting, learning many new things about the many new fields she was working in, and helping to develop her own unique style.

Fullerton-Batten got her first big break after she produced a number of award winning still-life shots while in Vietnam. That has led to many contracts with big name advertising agencies and a large amount of commissions. She has since won many awards and had showing of her work at London’s National Portrait Gallery, Paris- Photo, Photo-London, Arles, and at a group show in New York.

Fullerton-Batten’s series are very interesting. She has many different series under the sections of Personal, Projects, and Commissions on her website, each with different subprojects. There is a very wide variety of work on her site, ranging from advertising shots for Visa, to a crowd of Asian schoolgirls simultaneously eating lunch, to shots of teenage girls walking through miniature suburbs. Here I’ll mostly focus on her Projects section, in particular, her series “In Between”, and “School Play”.

”In Between” is perhaps one of the most interesting series of photos I have seen. It consists of nine shots of figures, mostly mannequins, in the middle of an activity, all in midair. These shots intrigue me because of the suddenness of the pictures. They had been, I’m sure, hours of set-up for each shot, but the feeling that the picture captures one instantaneous moment never to be seen again is something that really strikes me as cool.

On the other hand, her series “School Play” consists of 9 shots of schoolchildren, who all look exactly alike. They are either always doing the same activity, or doing something completely different than everybody else. These photos are very interesting because one can tell the extreme amount of work that went into them, as all the girls look the same and are very particularly posed in order to get the best effect out of the photo.

It’s important to touch a little bit on Fullerton-Batten’s advertising shots as well. She has done work for places such as the Nobody’s Children Foundation, Sony, American Express, Ikea, and even Volkswagon. These photos show the wide range Fullerton-Batten is capable of, as they are so completely different from her personal work or projects. I think that is amazing that she is talented enough to excel in many different styles, and that’s why I like her work so much

[www.goshen.edu...] --

For this blog, I reviewed the portraits taken by Beth Glick. These portraits can be split into two main groups in a few different ways; there are solo shots and group shots, and there are also portraits of Noah Yoder and portraits of other people. I will split the gallery up into the groups of shots I feel are most prevalent: solo portraits, and the group shots.

The solo portraits seem very candid, especially those of Noah. They seem almost as if he was just standing on the stairs when Beth found him, minding his own business. Because of this, I feel that the first shots really encompass his personality, especially IMG_0033, shown here. This particular shot seems to capture the essence of Noah's character.

The second half of the solo portraits seem like much more of classical portraits. These feature close-ups, along with obviously staged shots, instead of the initial shots with a more candid feel. These shots capture a different, more creative side of Noah, as he seems to have come up with interesting ideas for the pictures. Conveying different ideas, these shots portray Noah as playful, another part of his character. This is also the half that has the shots of Becca Friesen, the two solo portraits that aren’t Noah. Her pictures seem arranged, as she is standing on a table, yet also have an interesting portrait feel, bringing out the inquiring part of her personality because she is staring up at the sky with a inquisitive look.

The second half of these portraits are black and white group shots. These are very different feeling than the solo portraits, because they don’t convey strong personal emotions as much. These group shots show variety in personality through the group and the viewer can get a general idea of what everyone was thinking while the shot was taken. I find it interesting that the emotions of the group members change through the different shots, showing a wider range as a whole.

I like the fact that the first group of shots has very similar colors throughout. The predominant colors are blues, greens, and browns, with only hints of reds and yellows. This gives an interesting, cooling and calming feel to this set, which is contrasted against the energy given off by Noah himself. The second set of shots, all black and white, have a lot of contrast and shadows, which are interesting to see with regards to the different figures. As a whole, I like these portraits because they portray many different emotions and personalities in a variety of ways.

Andreas Gursky is a photographer born in 1955 in Leipzig, Germany. He grew up in Düsseldorf where father was a commercial photographer. This introduction to photography led him attend the German State Art Academy, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the early 1980s. Here, Gursky studied under Hilla and Bernd Becher, whose methods of photographically cataloging architecture and machinery were distinctive and detached, a technique that was affectively impressed on Gursky. His experiences there, along with British landscape photographer John Davies, were the main influences to his own approach to photography. Gursky has had considerable financial success in the photography world, selling his print 99 Cent II, Diptych at a London auction for $3.3 million.

For his photography subjects, Gursky tends to be drawn to expansive urban spaces. These scenes tend not to be extremely visually exciting, but instead are very straightforward, yet at the same time, mysterious. His extremely large color portraits of architecture and landscapes have a very different feel than one would expect, due to different reasons. Many of these photographs are taken from a very high point of view, such as Chicago Board of Trade II, which was taken from the top of the building, showing the mass of people. The unexpected points of view of his photos provide a new vantage point on scenes we, the viewer, already know. The other aspect of Gursky’s photos that set them apart from other photographers’ work is the color found in the photos. Gursky’s print 99 Cent II, Diptych is a photo from a big box grocery store. The colors in the print are striking, and create quite an effect on the viewer. The print is a mosaic of colors, and eye has no focus point on which to rest.

Gursky’s photos are startling works of art. Some of his prints are as large as six feet high and ten feet long. I am awestruck by the depth of detail present in the photos, down to the smallest detail. His shots are very well balanced, especially 99 Cent II, Diptych, which is almost completely symmetrical down the middle. Chicago Board of Trade II is full of chaos, yet Gursky still captures organization amidst the madness, as one can pick out pockets of different colors here and there. Both this presence of color in his photos along with the points of view used are strangely mechanical, which I believe leads to the bizarre allure of these photos and this photographer.

[www.carolyndrake.com...] --

Carolyn Drake is a documentary photographer who is currently based in Istanbul. She started working as a photographer at the age of 30, when she left her multimedia career in New York City. Drake decided to learn about the world through her own personal experiences, so she started documenting life in various places, mostly throughout central Asia. Her work has been supported through many grants from institutions such as Duke University and National Geographic.

Drake’s series focus on the lives of regular people in small towns. Her photos spotlight the everyday lives of these people, shini ng a new light on their normal activities. These photos chronicle lives of coal miners in eastern Ukraine to fashion models in Kazakhstan to Turkish villagers lives after a flood. These photos provide an interesting viewpoint on the lives of these various people, giving the viewer an amazing window into their world. Drake’s photos transport us to these different worlds, places we have never before seen, and help us better understand the lives of the inhabitants, both their struggles and their triumphs.

The thing that draws me to Drake’s photos is the intimacy present in her shots. Some of her photos seem spontaneous, taken on a whim, and make the viewer feel as if they are in the same room as the subjects. These photos typically feature bright colors, giving them cheerful tones. Drake’s series bring us into subjects’ houses, and show us the differences between their lives and ours.

Drake’s series also show the native landscape around the areas. These shots are almost like paintings, with beautiful light streaming through trees or water flowing under a wooden bridge. This photo here is one of my favorites of Drake’s shots. The photo is of a wooden bridge built over a flowing stream. The area is filled with dirt and rocks, and appears very peaceful. The photo is balanced well by the bridge in the middle and is full of similar hues in the wood and dirt. Drake took this shot with a long exposure, as shown by the movement of the stream. The fast moving stream and the similar hues give the photo an almost animated feel to it, as if it was a bridge I stumbled upon in a video game, instead of a bridge found over a mountain valley in Tajikistan. That is one thing I admire about Drake’s photography, her ability to transport the viewer into not only a new space, but possibly a new reality.

Richard E. Aaron took up photography at the age of seven, when he got a camera as a gift from his bank. The only child became very serious about photography throughout his teenage years and eventually went on to receive a BA, BFA, and MA in photography. Aaron has had a career as a media photographer for over 30 years, and has shot many of rock and roll’s finest, both on and off stage. This photo seen here is of Bruce Springsteen, and exemplifies many aspects of Aaron’s work.

Many of Aaron’s photos were taken at concerts at an intimately close range with the subject. All his photos are black and white because according to Aaron, when working with color film, there are too many elements on which to concentrate. When working in black and white, the photographer can concentrate only the subject, and not miss any action. This photo is a great example of this, as Aaron attests that he barely snapped it in time. Many of Aaron’s photos are shots like this- he made sure he was at the right place at the right time, and captured golden moments just in the nick of time.

I really like the huge amount of contrast in this picture, and the extremely black background into which Springsteen’s legs fade. Also, there are many crisp shadows, which are quite uncommon with for shots with available lighting. Aaron says that for this song, there were just two lights for this shot, one straight above the subject, and one a few feet behind, which is the one visible in the photo. The simplicity of the lighting, I believe, is what gives the photo its impressive feel. Springsteen is also centered in the photo, which helps to isolate him as the subject. The viewers’ eyes are drawn to his face no matter where they start looking at the photo, which shows the composition is very well done. Overall, this photo really captures the essence of Bruce Springsteen, the subject. It is dramatic, energized, and very dynamic, and I believe that is what makes a good photo.

This is my first blog entry! i'm excited! woo!