Hailing from Bolton, Lancashire, Lee Jeffries is a photographer best known for his powerful portraits highlighting homelessness. His background in photography was based around shooting sporting events in Manchester however, during a one off encounter with a young homeless girl in London his perception of photography completely changed.When he describes the encounter he claims he was taking a candid shot of the young woman when she noticed him and expressed her unhappiness. He said he had two choices, to walk away or to approach the woman in order to apologize. He chose the latter and through doing so learnt a lot about what it was that he wanted to express through his images. Lee Jeffries' images are incredibly emotional and powerful. The eyes of his subjects express the pain and sorrow of a life spent on the streets, the fear of facing constant danger, abandonment, addiction, and dehumanization from mainstream society. His work relies heavily on post production in Photoshop, utilizing the dodge and burn tools to the best of his ability in order to really draw out the raw emotion from his subject with the focus being the eyes. It is said that 'the eyes are the windows to the soul' and I would say his work is a perfect representation of this statement. Through his photography he not only highlights key social issues that need to be urgently addressed, but he also manages to create art and a sense of beauty from the pain and suffering of his subjects. I truly admire Lee Jeffries' work and consider him a huge inspiration not only from an artistic perspective but also morally. I think it is essential that we, as humans, treat each other as completely equal no matter what our social situation. Below are some examples of his work:
William Klein:
The second photographer I have chose to look at is William Klein. Born April 19th 1928, Klein is best known for his career as a fashion photographer working for Vogue magazine. He was admired by many for his unique take on photography, bending the rules in order to fulfill his creative vision. "uncompromising rejection of the then prevailing rules of photography".[1] This is apparent when you compare his fashion photographs to other traditional work of the time. He made it clear in his satire documentary Who are you Holly Magoo that fashion photography was not where his interests lay. Klein considered the industry superficial and nonsensical but carried on shooting fashion in order to earn money through photography. Klein's true interest in photography was in social documentary and street photography. His raw images of 50's New York helped to shape the art of street photography. It is easy to see that his evolutionary take on fashion photography came from his love of street photography. Unlike Bresson, Klein was not afraid to let himself be known to his subjects, quite often encouraging them to act up for the camera in order to achieve more dramatic images. I really like Klein's approach to his fashion work, we all at some point work doing something that we don't necessarily enjoy for money and the way he completely made it is own is truly admirable. I also find his take on street photography extremely entertaining. Rather than capturing a single artistic moment like Bresson, his photo essays combine within a series to tell a story. I feel the fact that William Klein is such a character has contributed massively towards his great success in photography.
Henri Cartier Bresson
Henri Cartier Bresson was a french artist and photographer born in August 1908. He began his artistic career painting but after experiencing much frustration and discovering the photograph titled Three boys at lake Tanganyika he turned to social documentary photography in order to fulfill his creative vision. His pioneering work has helped influence specific areas of photography such as life reportage and street photography. In clear contrast to William Klein, Bresson rarely interacted with his subjects as he felt that true art was captured in the everyday moment. Moreover, a photographer's style can heavily reflect their personality and this could also have contributed to his observational style. He was also directly influenced by his interest in surrealism which focused on the equality between the usual and the unusual. "They saw that ordinary photographs, especially when uprooted from their practical functions, contain a wealth of unintended, unpredictable meanings."[1] These influences are also apparent in his lack of dark room manipulation as, in direct contrast with Lee Jeffries' who heavily relies on post production elements to convey his vision within his photographs, Bresson felt the stories told themselves best without the need of enhancement. I really appreciate the way that Bresson captures things exactly as they are in their most natural form. Although I sometimes heavily enhance my own photographs in post production I feel there is a lot to learn from Bresson in his abilty to portray art in everyday life in it's true and organic form. Furthermore, as written in his book The Decisive Moment (1952) "photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression."This is clear in his use of specific movement within photographs which I recognise as it is one of the reasons initially began to love shooting action photography when i was younger. I am a great
fan of Henri Cartier Bresson's work and it is clear to me why he has had such a strong photographic
influence and gained the title the 'father of socialjournalism'.[2]
fan of Henri Cartier Bresson's work and it is clear to me why he has had such a strong photographic
influence and gained the title the 'father of socialjournalism'.[2]
[1] Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Early Work. Wikipedia {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier- Bresson#cite_note-2}
[2] Wikipedia {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson#cite_note-2}
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