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Post by squeamishossifrage on Jan 21, 2023 8:45:59 GMT
In my early photographic days, I could only afford B&W film and home processing, which was frustrating because I loved the works of Constable and Turner, and their use of colour, ranging from subtle to vivid. Later, the father of one of my girlfriends was a Canaletto enthusiast, and had many full size prints hanging in his fortunately large house. He inculcated in me an appreciation of some of the finesse of Canaletto's paintings and brushwork. The only photographer who ever influenced me was Karsh, and that in a negative way, as I realized after several attempts, portraiture was not for me.
As a result, I have for many years appreciated photographing the view or scene in front of me, something that appealed to me and I thought worth photographing, in the best way I could, to convey to the viewer something of what I saw at that time. I don't - or can't - do fine art photography, nor the artistic and moody images that come into vogue from time to time. I describe myself as a chocolate box photographer!
I would be very interested to hear the stories and experiences of others, the artists that have influenced them and had an impact on their photographic style.
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Post by kate on Jan 21, 2023 9:51:37 GMT
My endless curiosity.
My emotions - anger, confusion, boredom, peace.
My love of art.
My dark side.
People.
Obscured images requiring study.
How the weather changes everything.
Fifty years of looking.
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Post by peterob on Jan 21, 2023 10:06:28 GMT
I just like taking pictures of what is in front of me. I try to do it “well” but there is no artistic influence or intent. Wouldn't recognise such it it ran me over. If I look back on what I have taken over the years I think there are some fair photos and I can often match them to a theme that is running but they are all record shots. I quite enjoy going around the odd art gallery, once a decade or so, but I couldn’t recall anything I’ve seen.
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Post by squeamishossifrage on Jan 21, 2023 10:31:30 GMT
I just like taking pictures of what is in front of me. I try to do it “well” but there is no artistic influence or intent. Wouldn't recognise such it it ran me over. If I look back on what I have taken over the years I think there are some fair photos and I can often match them to a theme that is running but they are all record shots. I quite enjoy going around the odd art gallery, once a decade or so, but I couldn’t recall anything I’ve seen. To a large extent, I am the same, but there must be something in front of me to inspire me to try to make it artistic, be it colours, dramatic weather, or some characteristic of the scene that lends itself to invoking interest in the viewer. |
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Post by peterob on Jan 21, 2023 10:47:36 GMT
I just like taking pictures of what is in front of me. I try to do it “well” but there is no artistic influence or intent. Wouldn't recognise such it it ran me over. If I look back on what I have taken over the years I think there are some fair photos and I can often match them to a theme that is running but they are all record shots. I quite enjoy going around the odd art gallery, once a decade or so, but I couldn’t recall anything I’ve seen. To a large extent, I am the same, but there must be something in front of me to inspire me to try to make it artistic, be it colours, dramatic weather, or some characteristic of the scene that lends itself to invoking interest in the viewer. I’ll go as far as not taking a picture if the scene interests me and the light is bad |
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Post by zou on Jan 21, 2023 10:48:12 GMT
There are probably none that I've consciously been influenced by in the sense of emulation, but countless which I've absorbed into my aesthetic.
What I cannot really answer is whether I like certain photographers because our aesthetics meet, or did my aesthetic develop partly from enjoyment of their work?
Most recently though I'd say Daido Moriyama has been the nudge to get back out shooting, even though our styles are very different. So that's definitely another type of influence.
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Post by nickr on Jan 23, 2023 9:29:17 GMT
I've always loved Turner and the Impressionists, but probably the artist who has had the most impact on me is Picasso. Not that I've ever attempted to make my pictures look like his, but the first time I visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, I understood something about his artistic development, but more, how he would approach a subject. Several rooms of paintings of the same subject done very differently taught me an awful lot about emphasising different elements of a scene to come up with a very different result. It led me to understand in particular how important manipulating perspective is to photography, as well as point of focus, depth of field, and shutter speed to freeze or blur motion - all things I knew about, but suddenly knew how to use better.
There are quite a lot of photographers I greatly admire, but few I would try to emulate. I do try to do impressionist stuff from time to time, though, hence my interest in Holgas, Lensbabies, IR etc. - I really enjoy that stuff, as well as straight representation.
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Post by MJB on Jan 23, 2023 9:34:51 GMT
The only artist who has inspired me is Mother Nature.
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Post by stevewmh on Jan 23, 2023 11:35:15 GMT
Most of the time it's just point and shoot though there are times I see something and think how so and so would capture and treat an image.
Recently been taking an interest in birds, not the beautiful detailed shots most birders do but more abstract. The wonderful work of Masahisa Fukase has sort of inspired a attempt in this direction
I fall in and out of styles and just pick one I think might work for the subject in front
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Post by zx9 on Jan 23, 2023 18:34:10 GMT
Undoubtedly there are the subconscious influences that show up in some of my photographs, the biggest influences were some of the characters, read household names, I met in the business in the late 80's / 90's that made me aware that I would never be a photographer.
Just take photos for my own amusement was the conclusion, it has been an on off love affair ever since.
That was an answer I have spent two days trying to write.
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Post by Kath on Jan 25, 2023 11:32:39 GMT
I find I have to work quite hard NOT to be overly influenced by art I like. I'm one of those saddos who can read a novel and end up writing in that author's 'voice', or get enthused by an artist and find myself seeing everything through their filter. If I spend too much time with you and you have a strong regional accent I'll probably end up sounding a bit like you too. It's not done deliberately and it can be very embarrassing. On the plus side it usually doesn't last very long. This can mean (and it's something I was accused of at art school) that I don't really have a recognisable visual language of my own. It depends what I've soaked up recently. I suspect being aphantasic plays a part and that I've compensated for that by mimicking what's around me in some way. (It doesn't explain the accents but hey ho). I suppose the art/artists who've had the longest attraction for me are early 20th Century european - think Matisse, Maholy-Nage, Picasso, Kandinsky. Colour is really important to me and so I find myself drawn to photographic work by people like Saul Leiter, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin. A lot of black and white stuff really leaves me cold unless it's exceptional and then it's usually something that needs B&W to enhance the graphic quality of what I'm looking at.
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Post by zou on Jan 25, 2023 12:50:35 GMT
I find I have to work quite hard NOT to be overly influenced by art I like. I'm one of those saddos who can read a novel and end up writing in that author's 'voice', or get enthused by an artist and find myself seeing everything through their filter. If I spend too much time with you and you have a strong regional accent I'll probably end up sounding a bit like you too. It's not done deliberately and it can be very embarrassing. On the plus side it usually doesn't last very long. This can mean (and it's something I was accused of at art school) that I don't really have a recognisable visual language of my own. It depends what I've soaked up recently. I suspect being aphantasic plays a part and that I've compensated for that by mimicking what's around me in some way. (It doesn't explain the accents but hey ho). I suppose the art/artists who've had the longest attraction for me are early 20th Century european - think Matisse, Maholy-Nage, Picasso, Kandinsky. Colour is really important to me and so I find myself drawn to photographic work by people like Saul Leiter, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin. A lot of black and white stuff really leaves me cold unless it's exceptional and then it's usually something that needs B&W to enhance the graphic quality of what I'm looking at. Fascinating! Contrary to the art school view I'd say you do have a personal style. Almost every image I've seen you post here has a particular je ne sais quoi which makes me immediately recognise it as yours. Consistency in presentation certainly impacts on that but there's more to it than that. |
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Post by Kath on Jan 26, 2023 8:28:49 GMT
Fascinating! Contrary to the art school view I'd say you do have a personal style. Almost every image I've seen you post here has a particular je ne sais quoi which makes me immediately recognise it as yours. Consistency in presentation certainly impacts on that but there's more to it than that. That's very interesting, and thank you! I didn't necessarily agree with everything I was told at art school but I thought there was some validity in what they were saying about visual language because I sensed it myself - trying to convince myself that being constantly inconsistant was a kind of consistency of its own! |
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Post by gray1720 on Jan 26, 2023 8:32:59 GMT
Having always suffered from art failure, the biggest influence on my artistic style has been Fenris who introduced me to www.artybollocks.com/ |
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Post by stevewmh on Jan 26, 2023 8:49:56 GMT
Having always suffered from art failure, the biggest influence on my artistic style has been Fenris who introduced me to www.artybollocks.com/The artists statement are quite something.  |
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