Research Into Photographers Working In Studios And Using Text

For this project I have had to go away and research photographers who specialise in studio portrait photography and photographers who specialise text on their images that back up the meaning of photographs. I am doing a separate studio portrait photographer because I am planning myself to do portraits for my idea for this project.

Hemant J Khendilwal : Studio Portrait Photographer

Hemant is a an amazing studio portrait photographer who has exhibited his photographs in many exhibitions such as the Soho Gallery in New York, The India Habitat Centre, the British Council and the French Cultural Centre in Delhi. So manly because I chose to look at his work is because he has exhibited in many well known photographic countries around the world where many people really appreciate photography in the way that art and design really falls into it. But I have also chosen to use Hemant's pictures to use as examples for good studio photography because even though he is not well known, he gives me inspiration to create portraits of my own for this project and not still life, (I'm focusing more on the portrait than the text in these pictures). Hemant has done and accomplished to shot do the Deutsch Vogue Magazine which is a great opportunity for you to show your skills to many readers and other photographers and due to seeing he has done this, I have planned to use a couple of his images to use for my relevant research for my idea that I have in mind for my project.

Firstly I have chosen to use this image as one of my relevant  research because I very much like the innocence behind her look, but I feel that there is a dark horse within her. I like this picture because I am focusing mostly on the lighting that has been used in this image than the text and the background. I am looking at this picture, particularly in the lighting because due to the lighting, it creates a mystery vibe behind her look because the photographer has used Hard Key Lighting. The photographer has used Hard Key lighting quite well due to him not using the lighting to the extent where you can notice all the model's imperfections, but where you can see darkened shadows near her hairline, very close to the highlights on her forehead and nose area. This image shows off one of the biggest mistakes I can ever think of, and this is by noticing and figuring out how the photographer positioned his lights. But I am very happy with myself because all my knowledge behind studio photography, I have been able to see the the way that you can see where the light source was coming from. So from this picture, the light source is coming form the right hand side. I know this by the way that you can see the shadowing on her cheek and  as you scan left over the rest of her hair and also her clothing the shadowing is gradually getting darker and darker. I thought to myself about how many lights the photographer might of included, I thought about two lights, one around head height level and one above the model. I estimate this because I can see that the top of the model's head, is lit up really well and if there was just one light at head level you would be able to see shadowing.

I have chosen this photo as one of relevant research because I wanted to create my images like this in the way that the lighting is different and because I find that if the picture has a crisp white background, due to Hard Key Lighting. Due to the Hard Key Lighting, the viewer is able to take in what is happening within this image and even though this sort of lighting shows imperfections on anything that you are capturing images of, you are still able to see everything that you are wishing to see when viewing similar images to this exampled photograph.
I have also this image because I find that all the contrasting colours are standing out very well against the white background. I want to use this same technique within my own images that I am going to create because they will stand as very powerful images when they are being viewed. Mostly I am using this image as a relevant research because the background that the photographer has used makes him as a photographer look very professional and unique  when his work has been published. The last reason why I like this image is because there are no distracting shadows that are drawn to the viewers eye straight away, and the way that the photographer has used the lighting for this image, shows that he has been very precise and practical with the lighting equipment that he has used to create this sort of image. My opinion of this image when it comes to the lighting equipment, I have made an estimate on how many lights he has used to create this image and I imagine that by using around three to four big, hard lighting attachments onto lights are coming from the left hand side, from above and below the model.
The reason why I don't personally want to use shadows in my own images that I am going to create for this project is because I find that my images would get undervalued if there was a great amount of dominant shadows protruding into images. I would also find that the meaning that I am wanting to portray across to the viewer would not be as powerful as intended.


James Lomax : Text on Image Example

James Lomax is a English Photographer who is based in England whose day job is a librarian in his local library, funnily enough, he is an amazing photographer who has focused on many different projects, such as Photography-writing. He quotes to this on his website that he specialises on this topic hugely because it is a  neglected art. His history was that he went to university to study many things but in his second MA Degree in Photography, he undertook many projects such as environmental portraitures, jazz music and mountain photography. It shows on his website hat he has previously taught English and this is one reason why I have chosen to write about him and one of his images with text as one of my relevant researches.

I chose this image because when I first saw this image, it looked pretty bland and obvious a if there wasn't any big meaning and he had just casually captured a sign on a snowy bridge. However  when you read closer into a picture, you get a shock of really why this image has been taken and this is exactly what I thought when I read further into this image. When I read through James's meaning behind his image, he wanted to show the relationship  between image and text, between the photo and the description and how one photograph can denote one thing or something else entirely, based on how it is described. He asks on his website, ' can a photograph stand on it's own, or does it always need a description?' I like this rhetorical question because I find that it is different that a photographer would even ask this about his own photograph, even though he has created this picture himself, and I also find good because even if you tried to answer that question, there would be no real answer only a prediction.

With his image that Lomax has taken, he has put many scenarios or definitions, whatever is better to describe them as, that could explain why there ia a sign and gates or just explanations of what the image is about.

Scenarios/definitions:

• Man falls off pier, dies in icy water.
• Record levels of snow close Lake District tourism
• Windermere wildlife decimated by Arctic weather
• Photographer finds beautiful, graphic composition

With these different explanations, all of them could be true if you put that certain definition with the picture, it could and would be believable. But because there are many various definitions, this shows me that my text and image images, could be seen in many different ways or could put it to one obvious definition. For this reason I had to think whether I do want to have my images that give a bit of mystery within my pictures. Also from this, it has shown me and I have learnt that text does give an image more identity and a bit more of individuality and it shows that typography is a huge thing within the photography world and it is very popular and there are so many creative ideas out that that could give inspiration to anybody who views them.

Lastly Lomax describes this image as 'The Third Effect' because he said that it's 'subtle', 'complex' and 'powerful', however this method shows that whether it's the text within the image or either pared with an image can change the meaning completely with or without the text.