ARTIST REFERENCES

This page includes artist references that I have made throughout my projects.

SERGE HAMAD

Serge Hamad, self-taught Algerian visual artist based in New York, photographed from an early age. He used both video and photography in the mid 80s as a media to cover war-zones and inform about socio-political situations such as Iraq, Balkan, etc. In 2010, Hamad mainly focused on Fine Art photography. His work has been exhibited at several galleries in the US as well as internationally since then.

I have selected a few pieces of Hamad’s work to display here. In the bottom piece of artwork, I can see two photographs of a building displayed side by side as a diptych. One is a digital manipulation of part the other.

The main focal point of this image is the manipulated part as it is unusual and stands out as being unnatural compared to the rest of the piece. The formal elements in this image are; line, tone, shape, pattern, form, texture, and most prominent, colour. Along with formal elements, an important part of there photos are the compositional techniques used. In this photo, I can see the use of lighting, contrast, viewpoint, focus, and composition.

This project of Serge Hamad links to my topic of formal elements as his work revolves mainly around the formal element of colour.

In my opinion, this artwork is creative and quite unique. I find it interesting because of how simple yet eye-catching it is. I am inspired by the use of the formal element colour in these photos as it is something I would like to explore. I like the effect that having the digital part of the diptych has, as it is simple but adds to the attractiveness of the photographs.

Hamad’s work could be compared to that of contemporary photographer, Nick Frank. Both photographers use a wide range of colour in their work and include a sort of “colour scheme” in their images.

MARCUS CEDERBERG

Marcus Cederberg, contemporary minimalist photographer, started his photographic journey in 2014 with the use of his iPhone camera to shoot his minimalist photographs, which he then would post onto Instagram. Cederberg stated that “ today my Instagram is my main platform where I try to inspire my many thousand followers when it comes to minimalism photography”. Cederberg’s work has been displayed all over the world. He has had his work exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Berlin, Hyderabad, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and in Orebro.

When most photographers take photographs, they try to capture as much as they can within the frame. However, for Marcus Cederberg, it is the other way around. Cederberg tries to get as much as possible out of the frame, getting as few items and simple composition as possible. This is how he achieves his minimalistic style when taking photographs.

We can see in this photo of Cederberg's that he uses the formal elements to make his photo look unusual and unique . The formal elements he explores are; line, shape, pattern and colour. We can see use of simple compositional techniques, repetition and filling the frame. The formal elements work together in a way that allows the photo to look minimalistic, and lack compositional techniques, but still look eye-catching.

Cederberg’s photos are so appealing as his minimalistic style is very different from what most people are used to seeing. As humans, we are almost always being exposed to busyness and high levels of detail in our everyday lives. Also, as I touched on previously, the majority of photography is about how much detail can be captured in a moment. This is polar to the photographic theme of minimalism of which Cederberg follows so well, allowing for his audiences be exposed to something different, something unusual, calmness and tranquillity. As a result of the photographs unusuality, the brain will pick up on this more than it would with a usual, busy photograph as it recognises it as something new, therefore attracting the photograph to the eyes of the audience.

His work shows that as important compositional techniques are, you do not need to use as many as you can to compose outstanding photographs, it is how you use the formal elements that count. This is what inspires me about his work.

CHRISTINE ERHARD

Christine Erhard is a German female contemporary photographer. Erhard’s first verified exhibition was Art Cologne 1997 at Koelnmesse GmbH in Cologne in 1997, and her most recent exhibition was Light and Mind at Galerie Bernd A. Lausberg - Düsseldorf in Dusseldorf in 2021. Christine Erhard is most frequently exhibited in Germany, but also had exhibitions in United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere. A lot of Erhard's work focuses on abstract architecture and manipulating her work to create shapes and structures. in the middle photo, I can see a photograph of what seems to be an already manipulated 3D structure of a building, presented in an abstract manner. The main focal point of this photograph is the arch of grey building which looks like it is a photograph that’s been bent in order to make this photo more abstract. This is due to its eye-catching tendencies, such as being different from the rest of the photograph. There are a range of formal elements in this photo. We can see; line, shape, tone, line, colour and form. We can also see the use of compositional techniques, such as; leading lines, contrast, focus, viewpoint and focus. Erhard's work links to my topic of formal elements as her work focuses on the formal element shape which is an aspect of what I plan to investigate. In my opinion, Erhard's work is interesting due to the work put into creating a singular image. I am inspired by the small details that each photo contains.

ANDREAS GURSKY

Andreas Gursky (born 15 January 1955) is a German photographer and professor.

He is recognised for his big format architecture and landscape colour photographs, usually the use of a high point of view in majority of his photos. His works attain several the highest prices in the art marketplace among living photographers. His photo Rhein II was sold for $4,338,500 on 8 November 2011. Gursky’s work is slightly abstract and heavily based on pattern. The contemporary artist shoots his vibrant, highly detailed images of supermarkets, landscapes, architecture, and crowds.

In the photo that I have chosen to evaluate, I can see a long beach full of sequenced colours of parasols laid out in rows. This photo has been taken from a high viewpoint like many of Gursky’s photographs. There is a section of the sea visible and also a section of the surrounding urban area. The main focal point of this photo is the first yellow row parasols as it is the most visible thing and is perspectival “closer” in the foreground. There are a range of formal elements and compositional techniques in this photo. The formal elements that stand out most are pattern, line, colour and tone. We do see other formal elements such as shape and form, however, they are not the formal elements that make up the main aspects of the image. The compositional techniques that we can see have been considered by Gursky when taking this photograph are; depth of field, focus, leading lines, contrast, and viewpoint. The viewpoint used and the repetition, pattern and colour all make this photo unique to Gursky’s style of photography as is what he focuses on when taking his photographs. I could argue that his work relates to my topic of formal elements due to his consistent use and heavy reliance of the same formal elements within his work.

I am inspired by how Gursky makes his photographs look similar, regardless of their subject matter, as this is requires creativity.

LEE ATWELL

Lee Atwell is a contemporary street photographer, is the curator and editor of ‘StreetWise’, and ‘TheAppWhisperer’ (a column dedicated to street photography). She has received several international photography awards and has had photographs featured in publication, websites and web-magazines as well as having her photos exhibited in several cities - in the USA, Canada, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, France and Portugal.

Atwell’s photographs are always exploring shadows and lighting. She uses natural light to create shapes and different tones within her photographs while also exploring with different angles and subject matters. This makes her photographs have a slight abstract feel to them due to the amount of shapes that she creates.

In this photograph, we can see an individual who is walking somewhere that looks like an urban setting. There is a lot of strong contrast of tones in this photo with prominent blacks and whites. The clear formal elements in this photo are line, tone, shape, and form. Atwell used the compositional techniques of rule of thirds, lightning, subject, contrast and viewpoint. The main focal point of this photograph is the individual who is walking “into the dark”. This is due to the parts on the person that have strong highlights and lighter tones contrasting with the blackness of the shadowed background.