日本の写真レンズ: Photographers: Everyone is different

Like any other art form the ways and styles in which a photographer shoots and the end results of the process can be and are often very different from one person to another.

There should be no debate as to whether photographers are artists or not, like a painter they capture images but instead of using a brush and paint they use a camera and film (in this modern day it’s more likely to be memory card though).

And although it is my belief that like a painter not two photographers work can be the same, one can however be influenced by the work of other photographers.

Following the films watched in class, we learnt about just how deep of a difference can be between two different photographers, despite the fact that like a painter, they are using the same tool to capture images.

I will start with the undoubtedly world renown Annie Leibovitz

Creative and heavily edited

High fashion

A little more natural

Famous shot

Annie Leibovitz is a photographer famous for her work with Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

She is very well possibly the most famous and well know photographer in today’s times not only because of her own talent, but also due to the fact that many of the people who she shoots are famous celebrities.

Her work is often heavily edited and pain-strikingly staged as well a meticulously planned, considering the fact that she is a portrait/people photographer, some may argue that all of this leads to fake photo’s because being so altered, planned and stage would often remove all reality and truth in the person being photographer.

But Annie Leibovitz maintains belief that her photos in a way, just show the other reality, the other true self of the people she photographs.

The aim of Annie Leibovitz photos seem to be showing the true, or even an exaggerated beauty of the people she photographs, which is exactly why everything is often so staged, edited and planned.

Her work is people in art.

It’s very heavily conceptual.

It is probably the best way to describe it.

Despite everything, her work can still hold importance to the study of visual anthropology, her photography is a art which the viewer need to look at and perceive, something that the viewer often needs to form the own idea about, and because of the heavily artistic and creative style or her photos, it is possible for different people to gain different perceptions from one photo

Now moving to a completely different photographer, and style.

James Natchwey is a photographer, who like Annie Leibovitz specializes in people photography (though he does take landscape shots), but instead of artistic conceptual shoots, James Natchwey is a war photographer, meaning his photos all show in often graphic detail, the dark side of human life where Annie Leibovitz (often) focuses on the glitz and glammer.

James Natchwey’s photographs are far from glamorous, and to be honest, more of a handful of his photos are difficult to look at because they are truly confronting, which is to be expected due to the subject of his photos.

The purpose of such a style of photography is for the photos to be confronting a thought provoking; such photos are meant to make us realize the truth in life and the atrocities many people face in their lives.

James Natchwey travels to many places that many of us would not dare to enter due to risks, as we ignore the people that already live in such a place, he travels there so he can meet the people living in such places, witness their story and capture their story with his camera, providing us with pictures with force us (for better or worse) to realize the pain of others.

It seems as though he doesn’t simply aim is lens at tragedy, as he very well could do, instead he works to know the people he is photographing, understand their life and their story, gain their trust, so he can take photos with much deeper meaning, because he understands for some of the people he photographs, this is the only chance for them that people will learn what has happened to them while in the comfort of their own homes.

He also doesn’t place as much emphasis on the equipment, due to the travelling aspect of his photography, it is difficult to carry heavy expensive camera’s and equipment, but he shows that no matter what type of camera you have, you can capture amazing pictures if you put your heart and soul into it.

James Natchwey’s photos also tend to be put into black and white, however there are also instances where his photographs have been primarily black and white with only small amounts of a strong colour such as red or blue, this help increases the strength in dramatic photo’s.

Needless to say James Natchwey’s photography holds a great significance when it comes to the study of visual anthropology, not only the photos he takes, but the way he takes them.

They show humanity, or lack thereof, the visuals offered to us in his photographs confronts us with reality.

In finality, I will conclude with my own photography style.

I think my style of photography has recently moved into the area of people photography, over the last year I have loved taking photos of people, something that came as a surprise to me considering that from when I picked up at camera at a young age, I hated taking photos of other people and always istead opted for landscape or object photography.

But this could maybe be because in my younger age, perhaps I was unconsciously aware of my lack of knowledge and understanding of other people, so I did not think I could correctly capture them.

But nowdays I feel like a can capture a little bit of someones true self, their personality if I put the effort into knowing about them before aiming my camera lens in their direction.

My photos tend to be stylized and edited, but I try my best to maintain the true personality of the person I am photographing.

I don’t think my photos are as deep or meaningful as the photos taken by James Natchwey, nor are they as conceptual and glamourous as the photos taken by Annie Leibovitz, but they are what I strive and manage to take with my efforts alone.

However in the future, I would like to try my hand and more conceptual and meaningful photos.