Film vs digital. Old school vs new school. Colour vs black and white. These are some of the many titles that can be used to describe two different masters in the field of photography ; Yousuf Karash and Nadav Kander.
Yousuf Karash was an Armenian- Canadian photographer who was active during the 20th century. He was mainly responsible for photographing the 20th century celebrities and icons of the era. He has photographed the likes of Wilson Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Theresa and even President John F Kennedy. His style of photography is rather quite simple and straight forward due the technical limitations of his time. However, his limitation became his strong-point. One portrait in particular I feel an attachment to is the portrait of John F. Kennedy (JFK). In this portrait, Kennedy has is body position to the side with his hands clasped, looking upwards with a glint of light hitting is right side of face. This is powerful moment that I read has Kennedy’s dream and hope for the future. This idea of sending the viewer an outlining message is what I would love to accomplish in the next class.
Nadav Kander is British Israeli photographer who is active in the 21st century. Like Yousuf, he photographs celebrities and icons in today’s media. His work is focuses on using colour, shadows, depth and slow shutter speeds to create an unique style I found unthinkable. He also has a strong interest with double exposures and using a screen projectors to display an optical illusion of an image upon an image. One photograph that I find powerful is of Rosamund Pike from the movie “Gone Girl”. In this photograph Nadav utilized colour, depth and the use a projector to display an image of tree branches. I would love to play around with this idea in my next shoot with in conjunction of Yousuf style. Together, both of these two different styles would hopefully create something powerful.
The Kennedy portrait is an interesting one. While as you say the rim light makes him look idealistic, I am also aware that the pose makes him look like he is praying. He was was the first Catholic president and that was a big deal at the time. We can definitely work with a rim light in class. You have given me the idea to show Karsh’s Kennedy portrait and Kandar’s Obama Portrait in class.
I love the idea of working with a projection in class. I might be able to get a projector through Media Services. Not for this Wednesday but maybe for the next class. There just isn’t enough lead time. I will try to check tomorrow.