PhotoSlaves » Photographers

Daido Moriyama

Photo Slaves — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:59:17 +0000

Daido Moriyama is a Japanese photographer noted for his images depicting the breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan. Born October 10, 1938 in Ikeda, Osaka. Daido Moriyama studied photography under Takeji Iwamiya before moving to Tokyo in 1961 to work as an assistant of Eikoh Hosoe. He produced a collection of photographs, Nippon gekijō shashinchō, which showed the darker sides of urban life and the less-seen parts of cities. In them, he attempted to show how life in certain areas was being left behind the other industrialised parts. Though not exclusively, Moriyama predominantly takes high contrast, grainy, black and white photographs within the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, often shot from odd angles.

The images he captures often show everyday people and everyday things in a manner not to be found in the average Tokyo tourist guidebook. Whether by using blur or cropping, Moriyama’s bleak and lonely black-and-white pictures have garnered him the reputation as one of Japan’s great modern photographers. The people of Moriyama’s work are often faceless, covered in shadow or obscured by blur. It is not unusual for a backside – a couple descending stairs, for example – to be the image’s main element. Unlike Araki, who generally uses color photography to target women in various settings, Moriyama’s focus is capturing Shinjuku’s blend of old, new, and unpredictable in monochrome.

Many of Moriyama’s images imply action of some kind has happened or is about to happen – even if that is truly not the case. The feeling is that of drifting in and out of a scene: a hostess draws a cigarette from her pack as two of her colleagues watch for customers near their club’s brightly lit entryway; a woman moving through a crowded street scene casts a glance over her right shoulder, the upper half of her bare backside showing a few tattoos with the rest obscured by shadow. Daido Moriyama was influenced at an early age by the work of American photographer William Klein known for its blurry images and the variety of angles and perspective used.

By using the curtain as a kind of screen, running interference on an otherwise straight-ahead subject, Moriyama reminds viewers that what they see is not the world as it exists but a highly stylized, filtered version of it. Indeed, looking through Moriyama’s very specific perspective, seeing through his hungry eyes, sets the mind wandering.

Portfolio of Daido Moriyama:

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Official site: www.moriyamadaido.com

Turkey Cinemascope by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Photo Slaves — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:42:44 +0000

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is a Turkish photographer and film director. Born in Bakırköy, Istanbul on 26 January 1959, Nuri Bilge Ceylan spent his childhood in Yenice, his father’s hometown in the North Aegean province of Çanakkale. His interest in the art of photography, kindled during his time at high school, blossomed at the Boğaziçi University photography club, where he also took passport-style photos to earn some pocket money. As well as photography, he also became involved with the mountaineering and chess clubs. The university’s extensive library and music archive played a significant role in fuelling his passion for the visual arts and classical music in particular. Meanwhile, the elective film studies course he took with Üstün Barışta and the film club’s special screenings did much to reinforce his love of cinema, which had taken root earlier during showings at the Cinémathèque in Istanbul’s Taksim. These were the years before DVD and video when films had to be watched at the cinema.

After graduating from university with a BSC degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering,he went to London and Kathmandu to decide what he should do in life. Then he went to Ankara back to do military service. When he was in the army, he found out how to give shape to the rest of his life ‘cinema’.

He began by acting in a short film directed by his friend Mehmet Eryılmaz, but at the same time participating in the entire technical process from beginning to end, thus building on the knowledge he already had. He later bought the Arriflex 2B camera that had been used to shoot that film in order to make his own short film. In those days, video cameras were not yet an option.

Towards the end of 1993, he began shooting the short film KOZA (Cocoon), using a combination of negative he brought back in a suitcase from Russia and some stock long past its expiry date that he was given by the state broadcaster TRT. The film was screened at Cannes in May 1995 and became the first Turkish short to be selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Three full-length feature films followed that could be cast in terms of a sequel to KOZA; they have also been described by some as his ‘provincial trilogy’: KASABA (The Small Town, 1997), MAYIS SIKINTISI (Clouds of May, 1999) and UZAK (Distant, 2002). In all of these films, Ceylan enlisted his close friends, relatives and family as actors and took on just about every technical role himself: the cinematography, sound design, production, editing, writing and direction…

When UZAK, the final film of the trilogy, won the Grand Prix at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Ceylan suddenly became an internationally recognized name. Continuing on the festival circuit after Cannes, UZAK scooped a total of 47 awards, 23 of them international, and so became the most award-winning film in the history of Turkish cinema.

Next to follow in 2006 was İKLİMLER (Climates), which again premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, this time scooping the FIPRESCI Prize. The lead roles in this film were shared by Nuri Bilge and his wife Ebru Ceylan.

Competing at the 61st Cannes Film Festival with his 2008 film ÜÇ MAYMUN (Three Monkeys), Nuri Bilge won the Best Director award. ÜÇ MAYMUN later went on to become the first Turkish film to make the Oscar shortlist in the Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category.

In 2009, the director returned to Cannes, this time as a member of the main competition jury.

At the end of 2003, in the course of location scouting for ‘Climates’, Nuri Bilge returned to photography for the first time since military service. From this point on, he began devoting his time to both cinema and photography.

Portfolio of Nuri Bilge Ceylan:

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Official site: www.nuribilgeceylan.com

Moving pictures by Chris Friel

Photo Slaves — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:57:07 +0000

Chris Friel is a British colour blind painter who bought a camera in 2006 and has not painted since. His work is influenced by the land and seascapes of his home town, Whitstable, in Kent, and by the challenging environments he encounters in his parallel career as a television documentary sound recordist. By simply moving his camera during exposure, Chris creates beautiful and otherworldly images of the landscape around him. He has been shortlisted for Landscape Photographer of the Year for the past three years running. His images have been exhibited in the South Bank Centre, on the Santiago subway in Chile, projected behind the London Sinfonietta in the Royal Festival Hall, and nearer home in Whitstable. Chris is one of the finest contemporary landscape photographers in the UK today.

Portfolio of Chris Friel:

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Official site: www.chrisfriel.co.uk

Nils Jorgensen

Photo Slaves — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:41:01 +0000

Nils Jorgensen was born in Denmark in 1958 and educated at The King’s School, Canterbury, UK. He went on to study photography at the West Surrey College of Art and Design. In 1982, after working for the Associated Press in East Africa, he joined Rex Features Ltd based in London. In 2002 Nils joined online street photography collective In-Public. Nils has exhibited in the UK and America. His work was featured in new Thames and Hudson’s ‘Street Photography Now’ book and has recently been acquired by the Museum of London. In July 2011 his photographs were exhibited at London St Pancras International Station as part of The London Street Photography Festival.

Portfolio of Nils Jorgensen:

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Official site: www.nilsjorgensen.com

World around Nina Ai-Artyan

Photo Slaves — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:03:07 +0000

Nina Ai-Artyan is a professional photographer from Russia. Graduated from Moscow State Textile Academy as an artist-designer. Next 2-3 years she was working according to her specialty. Photography became her passion in 2003 and since then she concentrate only on photography.

As she said, from the very beginning of her photographic way, she was especially attracted by the street photography genre. As something very desirable and difficult. Street with all its variety, sometimes absurdity, diverse of modern world and the ability to see and combine seemingly incompatible seems is an ideal place for photographer. Photographer who appreciate spontaneity and prefers to observe and follow extracting from the ordinary something unexpected. Moreover, according to Nina Ai-Artyan, street photography in the best way conveys the essence of photography. The image that appears in no time should reflect an instant moment – all that appears, forming in strange combinations and disappear in a second, completely irrespective to the will of the photographer. The only thing photographer need is to see the moment, feel it. Photos of Nina Ai-Artyan are just an attempt to show themselves and to the world around her pieces of what she sees and feels. Show and catch a fleeting moment of the people and streets world. Nina draws inspiration from the surrounding her world and the Light. Since these two ingredients are the basis for any pictures of her.

“Listen to yourself and own feelings, watch the light and its beauty.”
Nina Ai-Artyan

Portfolio Nina Ai-Artyan:

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Official site: www.nin-a.com

Fine art nudes by Mikhail Palinchak

Photo Slaves — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:30:08 +0000

Mikhail Palinchak famouse Ukrainian photographer. Was born in 1959 in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. Photography became his passion at the age of 12. Most of his craft has been self-taught from journals available in the old USSR. In the past he worked as a professional photojournalist for a regional newspaper. Over the past 20 years his works have been shown in more than 400 exhibitions across the world (USA, UK, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, France e.t.c.). Mikhail Palinchak is an artist of international federation of photoart (AFIAP).

He has a strong attraction to capturing the mystery, puzzle and beauty of women, particulary by setting his subject up in opposition to the forces of nature, both as he puts it, creations of God. And within this article we are sharing with You only his Fine Art Nudes photos.

Mikhail Palinchak portfolio:

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Official site: www.palinchak.com

Gueorgui Pinkhassov

Photo Slaves — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:12:26 +0000

Gueorgui Pinkhassov is a photographer, born in Moscow (Russia) in 1952. He began his interest in photography in his teens, and enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1969. Following college and two years in the army, he joined the film crew at Mosfilm. Continuing his interest in still photography he became a set photographer at the studio. His work was noticed by the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who invited Pinkhassov to be unofficial photographer of his film Stalker.

Being awarded independent artist status by the Moscow Union of Graphic Arts in 1978 allowed Pinkhassov far more freedom to travel, allowing him to exhibit his work internationally. In 1979 his work was noticed outside of Russia for the first time, in a group exhibition of Soviet photographers held in Paris. Previously, his work had mainly been seen in a number of Russian magazines, including L’artiste Sovetique.

Pinkhassov moved permanently to Paris in 1985. He joined Magnum Photos in 1988 and become member in 1994. He works regulary for the international press, particularly for Geo, Actuel and the New York Times Magazine. His book, Sightwalk, photographs of Japan, explores individual details, through reflections or particular kinds of light, often approaching abstraction.

Photos of Gueorgui Pinkhassov:

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Gueorgui Pinkhassov on Magnum Photos →

Trent Parke

Photo Slaves — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:22:30 +0000

Trent Parke (born in Newcastle, Australia in 1971), the first Australian to become a Full Member of the renowned photographers’ cooperative Magnum Photo Agency, is considered one of the most innovative and challenging young photographers of his generation. Whilst working as a press photojournalist during the first years of his career, he received numerous national and international awards, including five Gold Lenses from the International Olympic Committee, World Press Photo Awards in 1999, 2000 and in 2005. In 2003 Parke was awarded the prestigious international W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his series Minutes to Midnight. Parke documented his journey around Australia over a two-year period, examining ‘the current and changing state of the Australian nation’. Capturing the mood of a still young and emerging nation, Parke examined the disjuncture between the perception of the Australian ‘way of life’, with its nostalgia and romanticism, and the more complex reality.

Trent Parke was born in 1971 and raised in Newcastle, New South Wales. Using his mother’s Pentax Spotmatic and the family laundry as a darkroom, he began taking pictures when he was around 12 years old. Today, Parke, the only Australian photographer to be represented by Magnum, works primarily as a street photographer.

“Trent Parke has one of the most vivid visual signatures in Australian photojournalism. His photographs do not observe life so much as contain its contradictions within dense, idiosyncratic tableaux.” Robert McFarlane, Sydney Morning Herald

“I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical.”

Trent Parke portfolio:

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Faces by Lee Jeffries

Photo Slaves — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:47:26 +0000

After an accidental acquaintance with a homeless girl that was huddled under a sleeping bag in a doorway in London’s Leicester Square a former accountant Lee Jeffreys (Lee Jeffries) began photographing the humilated and offended in the cities of Europe and America.

Manchester born photographer Lee Jeffries has marveled professional photographers, amateurs and passers-by with his honest, compelling and raw portraiture. His strength not only lies in his use of stark contrasts but in capturing the humanity of his subjects. When we view them, far from finding their age repulsive our own fears, anxieties, and scars are instantly reflected onto them like a mirror. We cannot help but stare at ourselves in admiration.

Portfolio of Lee Jeffries:

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Lee Jeffries’ photostream >>

William Eggleston

Photo Slaves — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:35:41 +0000

William Eggleston, born in Memphis, USA in 1939, has, for almost fifty years, photographed his fascination and disdoin for everyday American civilisation. His work focuses on what he sees as the captivating banality of the Southern states, where the desire, alienation and solitude of everyday life become extraordinary, thanks to his rare sense of detail. Of course William Eggleston didn’t ‘invent’ color photography, as John Szarkowski once stated somewhat provocatively. But he did facilitate the breakthrough of color photography in the museum context.

He aimed his camera at the seemingly banal aspects of everyday life and he pointedly ignored the ‘Decisive Moment’ of Henri Cartier-Bresson. In other words, in Eggleston’s pictures decidedly nothing happens. He is photographer of suspense. He activates the shutter release, it seems, before something happens – or afterwards. Overall his activity is, and he readily admits this, inspired more by snapshooters rather than the work of recognized masters of the camera. Eggleston considers his role to be that of a neutral observer. He carefully avoids implying and hierarchy in his picture. Every element plays a role. Nothing is emphasized in a special manner.

William Eggleston – a genius of photographic understatement. “He doesn’t try to hype what he sees”, as Richard B. Woodward once pointed out, “he photographs what’s there. what no one else would even think of looking at, and better than anyone else, he makes something out of almost nothing.”

William Eggleston portfolio:

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Official site: www.egglestontrust.com