Actually named Guy Louis Banares, he was born in Paris in 1928 and died in Paris as well in 1991. He was a fashion photographer with a very pecuilar style. He got his start in photography while he aws a cadet in the French Air Force. The first fashion photographs he ever took were published in french Vogue in 1955, a magazine at which he worked until 1987.
Some of his photographs (on his website) are very different from anything I have ever seen. For example, the image of the nude woman in the studio where her figure is distorted is insane! I really want to know how he does this. It seems like either some sort of strange and bizzare glass figure in between the camera and the subject, but I cannot figure it out! His other photograph that is interesting to me, the image under Beauty of the girl looking through the goldfish bowl looks somewhat like a Surrealist, Dali-like painting, where the image of one thing, an eye, plays into and takes form with the glass.
His stuff is really different, and I really enjoy his perspective of photography.
Duane Michals
Born February 18, 1932, he is a photographer who is mainly self-taught. Michals received his BA from the University of Denver in 1953. He worked mainly with commercial photography for a long time. He tended to take photographs of people in their enviromments, mainly because he didn't have a studio.
His sequenced photographs are his most interesting. One of my favorite things about his sequences is the stories within them. Some are more obvious than others, and some are more related to feeling than others. For example, the Chanced Meeting is interesting because it shows that moment that you tend to see in movies, where two people say goodbye and walk away, one looks back then the other does, both at different times, and neither knows. What is different about this one is that the two are strangers and both share a moment in which they connect, though they are not aware that the other has felt the same moment. His way of telling a story through multiple photograhs is what I like about him most.
Using the mirrors to replicate reality is really cool in the pieces you showed, a more realistic approach than just doing it in photoshop. its like they spent more time in the process part of making the image which gives it more of a sense of purpose. also like the chance meeting series. capturing an everyday event that we dont spend but a second thinking about but taking it out of context to study it.
ReplyDeletedid you consider using an actual mirror to create the images you are making in "reality" by placing the mirror next to prints and rephotographing? that might be an interesting trajectory???
ReplyDeleteYou should check out Claire Pestaille and the guy who makes these: http://yayeveryday.com/people/960. I'm literally obsessed and it reminds me a lot of what you're doing.
ReplyDeleteJessica Halfyard