Chelsea Galleries was an interesting trip. It was cool to see different types of photography styles that are out their in the world today. Its quite amazing how you can great so many different beautiful works of art with one tool, a camera.

Prison Nation

This was the first exhibit I found interesting. You’d don’t normally get to see photographs from inside prisons. Prisons in general are a mysterious place, you only know what you get to see on TV, and from what we know thats not always the most reliable source. So it was definitely interesting to see photos from real prisons taken by photographers. It was interesting to get a real understanding of what its like to be incarcerated. We got to see what inmates did on day today bases and also see what it was like for them after their prison experiences. The photos I saw gave me a better outlook on life. The photos where the inmates where being freed still had such a sad feel to them. You would think that the prisoners would be happy to be free. But sometimes thats not the case because they have been out of the real world for so long they are not used to it. 

Facades – Grand Tour

The second exhibit I found interesting was the Facades. Markus Brunetti’s high quality photo compositions of European architecture was highly impressive. At first we just thought that these where 1 super high quality photo. I was also intrigued how he got a clear shot with no people around. I soon came to find out that each photo is actually a composition of tens of thousands of smaller photos captured over months composited together to create one large super high quality photo. I can only imagine how tedious this process was, but the results are extravagant. The quality is ridiculous its soooooo high quality. You can see absolutely every part of the architecture, it actually got more quality the closer you got. Thats something that you don’t normally see. The amount of time and work that went into each photograph definitely places this exhibit at one of my favorites.

Leaning Out – Jeffrey Milstein

The third exhibit I found interesting was the Leaning Out exhibit by Jeffrey Milstein. This exhibit featured high quality drone photographs with a birds eye view over remarkable places. Its super interesting that once you get a different perspective over normal everyday things they become these beautiful patterns. You don’t look at streets as streets anymore or railroad tracks as railroad tracks anymore, you start too see beautiful shapes and patterns. I just found it super interesting seeing things from a different point of view.

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia is one instructing photographer with a stunning unique style. His photographs to me almost look like paintings. I love the stylized look that he goes for with such instructing lighting technique. He always appears to have 1 or 2 subjects in all of his work. The subject always appears to be glowing and illuminated from the background. Looking at his work it is easy for thew viewer to see who the main subject is. The photograph that stood out to me the most was the one of the young man standing in the parking garage illuminated by the one light in the photo. I just find the photo so interesting and inspiring. I love the tones of the photo and just the lighting. I love the way his face and shoulders are illuminated and thatches so bright up against this dark surrounding.

Mannions work is definitely very interesting. He uses a lot of color and contrast throughout his photography. He positions his subjects in a way that describe them in their field of work. He is great at recreating their attitude throughout the photo. Avedon style is very colorless, its usually black and white. His photos have great lighting throughout and inserting composition. He also can be seen using this motion blurring effect through many photos. Its investing because it gives a still image this sort of movement and also a sense of mystery. It makes the image look like its fading away. You can see Mannion recreating this style throughout some of his species like the photoshoot with Jayz. In one of the photos jays is moving and has that added motion blur look. Mannions photo of Jay Z does look like he took into account his teachers teachings. You can see similar composition styles and lighting. The subject has great facial expression and the photo just works very well.

Yousuf Karsh definitely has one unique style and you can see the same sort of style through all his photography. His photography is very dramatic with exquisite lighting. He photographs a lot of celebrities and historic people throughout his career. He specializes in portrait photography and I believe he is successful at it because of his positioning of the subject and lighting. The photos captivate you and make you wonder more about who the subject is if you already don’t know. They give the person an extra sense of greatness. He knew the best way to light the subject and how to get the readers eyes to follow the story in the image. He would learn about his subjects so he could position them in a way to tell their story. He would not prepare in advance for the photoshoot instead he would think of everything the day of. This sort of unpinning is what helps a photographer think on their feet and can usually creat the most interesting images.

Nadav Kander is a modern day portrait photographer that spends most of his time photographing celebrities. He uses very cool colors in his photography work and in lighting his subjects. You can almost instantly tell something is his work from the aroma of cool blue lighting hitting the subject or the frame. I believe Nadav has use this cool light to his advantage in making himself stand out from the average portrait photographer and establishing a style thats true to himself. Nadav also has a great eye for positioning his subjects in an interesting way. He is known for his portrait photography, but he also specializes in landscape and other forms oh photography. But yet you can lost see his style across all different arrays of his work. I believe the cool colors would be the best way to describe his style of work. He loves using them.

What I really likes about his style of work is the way he makes you feel a connection with the person in the photo. It really brought me back to when I was in high school and made me remember all the different people that I had in my classes. You’re looking at these people you have never met and yet you almost feel like you know them because you remember someone that was similar to them. You can make out the popular person, or the gothic person or even that shy girl that never talked to anyone. You look at them and it reminds you of that person that you knew. Bey does a very good job lighting his subject and making them stand out against the harsh distracting environment behind them. The lighting that he uses is very soft and almost feels like window light. The way he positions his subjects compliments the type of person that they are. The subjects all have a story about who they are and what they have been through. The photos Bey took almost make you want to learn more about the person to see who they are. Im also very impressed at how little time he had to work with and the fact that he was able to learn the person and figure out a position that best compliments them.