Research Notes – Paul Gaffney

On the feedback of my Square Mile assignment, my tutor suggested me to look at Paul Gaffney‘s project – “We Make the Path by Walking”, since my final series was mainly landscape photographs, and I can say that the suggestion was spot on.

Gaffney is an Irish photographer currently doing a PhD related with landscape photography and the project I was suggested to look is a series of landscape photographs from rural places in Portugal, Spain and France took during a year on many of the author’s long walks and presented as a self-published book (released in 2013).

It’s composed by 40 pictures showing forests, gravel roads, viaducts, rocks, rivers that alternate between cold and warm colours, achieved by capturing for example mist and sunlight respectively. The majority of the photographs show some kind of human intervention, being it a road or a forgotten piece of cardboard, but they all share a sense of quietness, transmitting peace to the viewer, which is mainly what the author wants to achieve, since he sees long-distance walking as a form of meditation.

I really like this piece of work, mainly because is a strong sequence transmitting the idea of a peaceful and quiet journey, but also I really identify myself with the composition and the colour tones.

We Make the Path by Walking – Special Edition from Paul Gaffney on Vimeo.

References

1. Paul Gaffney’s website – http://www.paulgaffneyphotography.com/images-1
2. British Journal of Photography – http://www.bjp-online.com/2013/11/we-make-the-path-by-walking-by-paul-gaffney-book-review/

 

Research Notes – Toshio Shibata

Toshio Shibata is a Japanese photographer best know for this photographs of large scale man-made structures usually located in wild landscapes.

Shibata originally studied oil painting at Tokio University of Arts, turning his attention to photography, while in Ghent attending the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. It is said that on his return to Japan he found Tokio and it’s surroundings visually cluttered, so he started looking at post-war infrastructures and the nature around them.

Red Bridge, Okawa – Toshio Shibata

One example of that work if the famous “Red Bridge, Okawa”, where we can see a big metallic triangle shaped red bridge leading to a darker forest on the other side of the river. The lighting in the picture (supposedly sunset) is superb, dividing the image in a light well known foreground and a darker unknown forest in the background, where apart from the trees and a road it’s impossible to know what else is in there. The contrast of the sunlit bridge against the darker background of trees with the sunlight fading from the top left to the bottom right corner keep the photograph perfectly balanced.

More recently he started focusing on water as the main subject of his work, making use of long exposures to capture its movement and having much of this subject of work presenting dams around Japan.

Nikko City – Toshio Shibata (from Laurence Miller Gallery)

References

1. The Guardian – http://gu.com/p/4b925/stw
2. The New York Times Magazine – http://nyti.ms/1D6NEwk

Research Notes – Gabriele Basilico

In order to prepare for the Soft Light Landscape exercise, we were asked to research the work of Gabriele Basilico.

Basilico born in Milan in 1944, picked architecture as his university subject, becoming an architect before starting focusing on photography. Started mainly photographing landscape, moving later to architectural photography.

Quartiere Isola, Milan, 1978 (by Gabriele Basilico from Artribune)

He got widely known in 1982 with his work about the industrial areas of Milan – “Ritratti di Fabbriche, Sugarco”, where he presents photographs of factories, in Milan.

He was then commissioned by the French government to document the northern coast transformation where he captured mainly seascapes. He went Beirut in 1991 to cover the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war after being in Berlin documenting the German reunification, after the fall of the wall.

Oporto (by Gabriele Basilico from Sara Pavone blog)

Between the referred projects and throughout his career, he visited and documented the architecture of several european cities like Oporto, Trieste, Geneva, Hamburg or Vigo, dying of cancer in 2013.

Personally I find his work really strong and consistent. All his work is mainly black and white, shot from far and usually with no sign of people, making his photographs impersonal, but a perfect documentation of architecture and cityscapes. The smooth lighting usually presented, along with quite scenes suggests that he usually took his photographs early in the morning.

His strong composition is achieved with the use of the different building shapes and forms and the lines “drawn” by roads, cable lines, rail tracks, bridges and stairs, but in my opinion the main characteristic of his photographs are the black and white and the way he uses the light.

Place des Martyrs, Beirut (by Gabriele Basilico from Domus)

Research Notes – Trent Parke

Before starting Project 2, about Shadows it was recommended to have a look at Trent Parke‘s work and make some notes about he uses high contrast light and shadow.
As a street photography lover and follower of In-Public for sometime now, I’ve came across with Parke’s work before.

from In-Public website (by Trent Parke)

Parke is the only Australian photographer part of Magnum collective and as mentioned above, he is also part of the street photography collective In-Public.

His work is well know for the use of high contrast on his street photographs. He makes use of the strong light and the casted shadows from the buildings. His idea is to remove all the clutter from his pictures by making use of the shadows and have the subject(s) on the light.
The way he uses the light and handles the shadows makes his pictures dramatic and in some cases, looking almost surreal. The way he drives the viewer to the subject(s) is so good, making strong compositions.

from In-Public website (by Trent Parke)

from In-Public website (by Trent Parke)

He’s best know for his black and white work which has its own melancholy, according to him, influenced partially by music videos like the ones from Sigur Rós, Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, but what strikes me the most it’s his colour work.
The way those pictures have the dark from the shadows and the colourful saturated subject on the light usually on screaming lively colours.

from In-Public website (by Trent Parke)

“Light does that, changing something everyday into something magical” (Trent Parke)