#cleanwhite

Pink heart smoke on white background

featuring @cameronbrownblog​

This image is by Helena Třeštíková and is actually a still from a documentary called Marcela. I like the image because the woman’s face is familiar. She is not a high fashion model. I like the expression of the model, she is relaxed but not forcibly. She doesn’t have a strong or affected sense of calm, just a temporary still one, which is more natural. She looks as though she’s distractedly thinking about something. I like the framing of the image and how from the ear, through the eyes, up to the cigarette there is a strong leading line. A small triangle is created also between her fingers and nose. 

https://guidedoc.tv/documentary/marcela-documentary-film/

“Marcela, the biography of a smile

As part of a television series about the lives of several married couples in socialist Czechoslovakia, Director Helena Třeštíková covers 25 years in the life of Marcela. One of the first scenes of the film is the day of the marriage with her husband Jiri in the dawn of the 80's. By then, the jovial smile of a hopeful Marcela stands out in the black and white images. But little more than a year later, after conceiving a little girl, both separate. The divorce would only be the first obstacle of her life. From here on, the traits of a naive smile will evolve in front of us in a captivating story.

In what could be an unknown diamond of contemporary documentary, Marcela is to evoke the imperfect and crude documentary film tactics of the late sixties, where cameras and the sound recorders were lighter to follow the story of anonymous characters in the streets. But the life of Marcela, whom we see grow in age from the  twenty-something to her fifties, turns into a hardly navigable maze. The rules of two social systems experienced in  Czech territory become sterile in the face of the abasement of the individual by the inexplicable avatars of destiny. The raising of two children in a solitary maternity, her bad luck in the search for a new love and an endless search for a job are processes that Marcela faces head on high.”

Research continued

What I really like about this image is that it is split clearly into two halves, black and white. There are only three colours in the image - brown, black and white. There is a lot of negative space and it really centers the models. In this case the clothing has a big impact because it creates that black negative space. It’s an emotional image rather than being a plain factual studio shot with no expression.

This image is by Milton Smith (Los Angeles) and is part of the series ‘Within - A Visual Narrative’.

All of his work can be found here: https://500px.com/p/miltonalexander?view=photos

Some more work I find interesting:

This is by Olga Melnikova, a Russian photographer. I love the colour in the image and the use of the magnifying glass is fantastic. I like how the blue lines on the face relate to the blue fabric around the neck, and the white mascara resonates with the highlights popping in the image. I love the crispness of the hands and how everything in the image really just centralises that main area of the zoomed in face. 

Her work can be found here: https://500px.com/p/omymb39ccq?utm_source=iso.500px.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=embed&utm_content=web&view=photos

To look at even more images for inspiration, I would look to work by Platon who is a very famous photographer.

Some of his work:

Platon has shot for many presitigious magazines and newspapers including  Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and the Sunday Times Magazine. In 2009 he teamed up with Human Rights Watch to help them celebrate people who fight for equality and justice in countries where the citizens are suppressed by political forces. More can be read about his life here: http://www.platonphoto.com/text/biography/

These are my favourite 3 images from this time in the studio, i feel Elias looks confident and and powerful. The shadows are also exactly how i wanted to, i feel you can definitely see my inspiration that i have taken from Richard Avedon, but without his movement, he inspired the height and closeness that i have taken the image from, and you can see my inspiration that i have taken from him with the shadows and light that i have used on Elias.

Before and after