Historical Lens Based Practitioners

Paolo Roversi
Paolo Roversi
Born in Italy in 1947, mainly working in the studio with his large format Polaroid he likes to resemble nineteenth century photographs, this is why I love his work so much.
These are just some of my favourite images:








How Paolo informs my work is by his love for vintage photos and replicating 19th century photographs and mixing it with fashion, these two things are real passions of myn.
The concepts behind his photos are always fashion based but a lot of the time when working for vogue some concepts may from the editors and writers and he will maybe add some of his own touch and concepts to the photos.
In one sense where things are different Paolo is that he says he is quite 'anti-technical' where as sometimes my work Can be quite technical.
As for technical skills he uses a large format 8x10 Deardorff and Polaroid, he loves working in the studio using HMI lighting along with natural available light and doesn't uses a light meter because he likes blur on his photographs.

Joel Peter Witkin
Joel Peter Witkin would have to be another inspiring lens based practitioner of myn. Born in 1939 New York. I love his surreal and abstract photos and how you can spend time depicting them. Also how they have a resemblance to famous painting and artists such as Dali and Man Ray but he puts his own interpretation on them.
I suppose how they inform my work would be the vintage process that is on them the black and white searched feel to them and sometimes that little something out of the ordinary. I suppose his main concepts and subject matters are normal people either beautiful woman almost like old nude paintings or disfigured people. Also there is the whole thing of the photos being staged and things being superimposed which is similar to my work like if I supper imposing birds in the sky
As for technical stuff I would guess a lot of the work if not everything would be studio based building these strange sets and probably working on medium format on Black & White film.



Louise Dahl-Wolfe
Louise was mainly known for her work in Bazaar magazine she preferred portraiture to fashion photography. I think this shows through with some of her photos like the one below.
I like her work for it's dramatic and magical like quality and the elaborate dresses and locations, looking almost like French mansions all adds to the glamour.


Steve Meisel
An American born photographer but now dead, again another famous Vogue photographer shooting mainly for US and Italian Vogue.
This work again is similar to the other photographers above having that strong look on 19th century medium. I love the textures and darkness of the photos mixed with the beauty of the model and clothes.









Some links between these images and myn are show below:




I think the main resemblance between the photos is the vintage feel to the photos, I love adding this process to my photos, I think it comes from always loving 18/19th century photos that are black & white normally torn and scratched and the portraits were sometimes quite obscure and a lot of the backdrops in the studio were staged.

Contemporary Lens Based Practioners

Lara Jade
Well the first person that comes to mind for my contemporary lens based photographer would have to be Lara Jade www.larajade.com
When I first came across Lara's work, I loved it and thought there was nothing like after a lot more research I'd found some similar photographers but still not as unique as Lara's work.
These are just a few of her images:
(All images are copyright to Lara Jade)



Tim Walker
Other modern practitioners would have to be Tim Walker who works a lot for vogue magazine. He uses a lot of peculiar sets and quite obscure things, here are a few of his images:
(All images are copyright to Tim Walker)

Javier Vallhonrat

Javier Vallhonrat work has a very unique style which in some way is different from a lot of the other work, even though all the photos vary you can still tell it is his work.
A lot of his photos remind me of paintings of 18th century paintings with robes barly covering the models showing a breast and the way they all lye. Which is similar to Joel Peter Witkin's work.








Patrick Demarchelir
Patrick Demarchelir work is mostly quite contemporary but then on the odd occasions when shooting for vogue or another magazine he will use this vintage feel the photos below at guess will have being done on medium format Polaroid unlike a lot of his work on his website looks to be digital.
Again I really like the old style photos that he has done like below and unlike me I would have shot these in digital and made to look like film Polaroid, I would love to shoot with these cameras but can take lots of practise but the outcome would be great.





Chadwick Tyler
I love Chadwick Tyler's work to bits using great locations desolate and abandoned.
The final outcome of the photos is great the colours are fantastic again having that 19th century feel.
I think there is a definite resemblance between myn and Chadwick's work even though I am quite new to his photos.
As for technical I would maybe think that Chadwick uses a digital camera unlike most of the historical practitioner's would use pinhole, medium/large format film cameras.
The sharpness in these first few photos look very much like digital photography and then later post processed.