Monthly Issue #12 | October 2014
THE BEST PHOTOS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT
A TASTE FOR FOOD
PHOTOGRAPHY
21- YEAR-OLD PHENOM AND HIS FANTASTIC SELF-PORTRAITS: INTERVIEW WITH PHOTOGRAPHER ALEX STODDARD
CONTENT
PRO INSIGHT Luck ........................................................................................................08
INSPIRATION Falling Into the Hands of PicsArtists..........................................18 The Hypnotic Collages of veronique.........................................62
PICSART IN ACTION Bring Pop Art Colors to Your Photos.........................................28
TUTORIALS The Best Photos Come to Those Who Wait...........................30 Projecting an Image Over a Body................................................40 Halloween Face Painting Design Tutorial................................48 How to Draw a Powerful Wizard................................................56
WHAT'S NEW 4 Reasons to Update to PicsArt 4.6.4 for Android...............72 A Taste for Food Photography......................................................76
INTERVIEW 21-Year-Old Phenom Captures Fantastic Self-Portraits: Interview with Photographer Alex Stoddard.........................84
FEATURE Autumn in a Tube .........................................................................104 DIY Witch Hat..................................................................................106 The Monochrome Mysteries of Frรฃncisco Jordรกn.............108
Cover photo by Alex Stoddard
MEET OUR TEAM... Editor-in-Chief | Arusiak Kanetsyan Art Editor | Cristina Gevorg Art Director | Vahan Balasanyan Designer | Ina Sarko Copy Editor | Madlene Minassian Editorial Contributors | Arto Vaun, Satenig Mirzoyan, Mark Gargarian Special Contributors | Chris Corradino In-House Photographer | ma_lina
@ma_lina
Address: PicsArt Inc., 800 West El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040 Copyright of Socialln Inc. ( PicsArt Photo Studio ) 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be re-used without the written permission of the publisher. The content of this magazine is for informational purposes only and is, to the best of our knowledge, correct at the time of publication. PicsArt Photo Studio does not claim any ownership right for the photos in the Magazine. All photos,if not mentioned otherwise, are the property of respective PicsArt users. The PicsArt username or photo owner is cited on each photo. PicsArt Photo Studio has a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, limited licence to use, modify, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, and reproduce PicsArt users’ photos, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Magazine in any media formats through any media channels.
WELCOME !
This month, grab a hot cup of coffee and nestle under a blanket, because our October Issue is perfect reading for art enthusiasts looking to get lost for an hour. We really packed it in this time with a fresh spread of beautiful art, fascinating photography articles, illuminating tutorials and compelling news. Fresh from the airport and exhilarated by his latest expedition to Tanzania, acclaimed photographer Lou Jones has penned his latest squib of wisdom on what it takes to make your own luck in the field. For another take, flip open to our latest lesson from resident photography professor Chris Corradino to find out why your first 10,000 photos are your worst.
PUBLISHER: PICSART
Looking to refill your creative juices? Find inspiration in the stunning self-portraits of Alex Stoddard, a 21-year-old phenom who takes surreal photos that prod at man’s relationship with nature. Brush up on your own skills with one of our tutorials and learn how to draw a wizard or create double exposure with our app. Your friends will be asking you questions right and left when they see your results online.
FOLLOW US...
To go deeper into the app, find out what’s new and read about our latest updates or check out our Pop Art effects with PicsArt In Action. Then, pop over to the latest amazing art from the PicsArt community to see galleries of original artwork and rising talents, like our PicsArtist of the month, Frãncisco Jordán. All of this and more is right here between these covers. Turn the page to get started with our resplendent October Issue.
LUCK By Lou Jones I recently spent a month in Africa; Tanzania to be exact. The trip is part of a long-term project. (See my recent PicsArt article “Anatomy of Long Term Projects�.) My studio staff spent months researching in anticipation. We pursued every avenue to make the assignment efficient, economic and prolific. But a lot was left up to luck, by design. The dictionary defines luck as: 1. success or failure apparently
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brought by chance rather than through one's own actions; 2. good fortune; 3. to come upon something desirable by chance; 4. believing that whatever happens, either good or bad, to a person in the course of events is due to chance, fate or fortune. Sage intellectuals such as Buddha, Louis Pasteur and Mark Twain debunked the notion of luck. The best photographers do copious preparation to find the right locations, the right times of day and the right seasons to get the best pictures. That improves their chances of success for that unique set of images. Out of necessity, we make much of our own luck.
PRO INSIGHT
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For most assignments, my clients and I don’t like surprises. We want to control the models, the lighting, traffic, permissions, etc. Anything left to chance can bring a photo shoot to a halt, costing tens of thousands of dollars. Of course you cannot anticipate everything. I did an automobile shoot in northern Maine and thought I had taken every precaution. At dawn on the day of the shoot, the mosquitoes came out in droves. A force of nature. That whole morning was miserable. THE GIFT For street photography you launch into the unknown, having no preconceived notion of what you will find. At the end of a good day I hope to capture one great image. If it is good enough, I call it “the gift”. I try for at least one gift a day. But I work hard at it. It is random but is that luck? Often the best pictures are accidental: a celestial event, a once in a lifetime occurrence, “the perfect storm”. We need to not only be there, but also to be receptive to unusual circumstances. Eternal vigilance increases luck. While setting up the most elaborate shots, I always remind myself to look behind me. We can be so tunnel visioned that the simplest, best visuals happen around us when we are not paying attention. On my first trip to Africa years ago, I was down on my knees shooting a dance ceremony. While taking time out to reload my film, I looked over my shoulder. Being on their level, I saw the beautiful faces of the village kids in the audience. That image is in an exhibit right now. AFRICA Just being in an exotic, foreign location like Tanzania stacks the deck in my favor. But this was still a hard nut to crack. In developing new contacts for the second phase of www.panAFRICAproject.org, my studio staff contacted multiple resources and they, in turn, introduced us to other experts in Tanzania, and so on ad infinitum. Before we disembarked we organized institutions and individuals who could show us the inner sanctums, but we left room for what would surprise us upon arrival. Luck? 12 | PicsArt Monthly
Most Maasai are reticent to having their picture taken. But we were introduced to a Maasai warrior who escorted us into remote regions and paved the way for me to get a few pictures in his village. It was fortuitous and invaluable.
INVISIBLE Even if I had the time and the price was right, I could not pay everyone who asked for money to be photographed. So I devised totally new methods to get candid photography. Firstly I was more selective, i.e. I chose carefully which images seemed worth the trouble. Secondly, I chose more unique points of view for a lot of the photographs. PicsArt Monthly |13
Locals love to show off their environments and will turn you on to the most obscure, quaint, and exciting treasures if you engage them. Concierges, taxi drivers, and restaurant owners are excellent resources. I have used college students as guides, translators and models. Camera club members are excellent “fixers”. Last year in Ghana, I drove 200 kilometers with a doctor to his hospital for a chance to photograph the clinic he founded.
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All over the world, there is little chance you will be mistaken for a native. So your only recourse is to not draw attention to yourself. I wear no bright colors, mostly dull shades and buy clothing that has no labels or logos. This goes for those loud manufacturer’s camera straps. I substitute nondescript ones. I cover the brand names, the makes and models on all of my cameras with masking tape. I buy generic everything.
I tell my students that if you move slowly enough, eventually you blend into the background. Become almost invisible, and control your own luck. But the more time you spend in a location, the more familiar you are, the better your pictures will become. Just be careful, you have to know when it is time to move along. That’s NOT luck.
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FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF PICSARTISTS Hands are extraordinarily expressive, so much so, that photographing someone’s hands can almost be considered a portrait of sorts. Hands can certainly pack the same emotional punch as a traditional portrait. The precision of hands gives them a deep range of emotional expression. The way we reach out and touch the world says a lot about how we feel. How we feel about the world in a certain moment, depending on what we are grappling with or experiencing, can manifest itself in whether we are digging our nails in with frustration, or extending a loving caress. Hands are often the first points of contact we make with other human beings, and the way we hold our hands reveals a lot about ourselves, whether they are dancing through the air, playing out a free-flowing conversation, or clasped together in reserved nervousness. In these shots users explore hands through photography. Together the photos in this gallery form a play of gestures, taking us through a surprisingly varied range of emotions. 18 | PicsArt Monthly
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@maha151
INSPIRATION : PHOTO
@miirriam
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@lisafussel
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@delacam
@simayguler
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@delacam
@deluuxe
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BRING POP ART COLORS TO YOUR PHOTOS One of the breakthroughs of the Pop Art Movement was its use of color. Pop artists used processes like silkscreen printing to simplify the rich
and realistic color palettes of original photos into a limited range of unnatural tones. Realistic tone variations were substituted for uniform pinks, yellows, and bright blues, giving images a new, startling look that people weren’t used to seeing. This color revolution began to apply itself onto many paintings of pop stars and cultural icons, foregoing painterly depth for a new and intentionally artificial filter that changed the way we look at the world around us. PicsArt’s Pop Art Color effects tap into these colors and bring the Pop Art color revolution into your photos. Choose from some of the Movement’s most recognizable color themes and transform your favorite shots into Pop Art with the touch of a button.
PICSART IN ACTION
TUTORIAL : SHOOTING
THE BEST PHOTOS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT by Chris Corradino
All photos by Chris Corradino
Leonardo Da Vinci didn’t get much recognition until he was 46 years old. Ansel Adams started as a pianist before picking up the camera. Van Gogh only sold one painting while alive. Yet, despite these initial struggles, each artist left an undeniable mark on the world. Their secret? A passion to create art even when no one else was interested in looking. Persistence is necessary to succeed in any worthwhile endeavor, including photography.
Largely considered one of the most influential photographers of the last century, Henri Cartier Bresson said “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”. Unfortunately some photographers give up before this, frustrated by results that don’t meet their expectations. The hard-working photographer however, can use these mistakes to learn from and improve. It’s time to dust-off those forgotten tools and put them to use. Imagine the possibilities of your next 10,000 images.
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The ingredients of any spectacular photo are only one part technical. Sure, the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO are important. Yet, as any great chef will tell you, recipes are meant to be tinkered with. Today, we have more control over images than ever before. From in-camera settings to the digital darkroom, our pantry overflows with possible options. Rather than settling for the same tried and true formula, keep pushing yourself to learn new methods. Be bold in your experiments, and you just may stumble on a new recipe for success.
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Commercials for the New York Lotto once ran the slogan, “You have to be in it to win it”. I find the same concept true of photography. It’s difficult to predict when or where the next great photo opportunity will arise. Only those who head out with their camera often will find what they’re looking for. Overnight success is a myth. Most anyone who has accomplished something worthwhile first paid their dues with splendid effort and persistence.
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Rejection letters are valuable material to save, or even frame. These are brilliant motivators for proving the naysayers wrong. Don’t consider them as failure, but rather a reminder of the work still left to be done. As the Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Stay determined, work hard, and remain patient. The best photos come to those who wait.
PROJECTING AN IMAGE OVER A BODY
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TUTORIAL : EDITING
With PicsArt, there are numerous ways to creatively blend images with one another, each one with its own use in creating striking artistic illusions. In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to blend a photo over a portrait. The results look as though the person in your photo is having an image projected over them by a film projector. It’s easy to do and, once you get the basics down, there’s no end to what you can create with this handy trick! PicsArt Monthly |41
UPLOAD PHOTO Upload a photo, preferably a portrait of a person against a fairly uniform or neutral background.
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SELECT DRAW From the menu bar, select the Draw icon.
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ADD PHOTO Select the Add Photo icon to add a second image in a higher layer. Choose an image with lots of patterns ideally.
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INTEGRATE PHOTO Adjust the size of your image and fit it over your portrait. Reduce the opacity to blend the two images.
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ERASE Select the eraser and customize its stroke size to your liking. Erase the parts of your added photo that extend beyond the figure in your portrait, perhaps leaving only a piece for style.
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EFFECTS Confirm your drawing and select the Effect icon. Choose an effect to give your photo its final polish, like the Dodger effect depicted below.
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HALLOWEEN FACE PAINTING DESIGN TUTORIAL Getting excited for dressing up, and transforming ourselves, for Halloween
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does not discriminate between age. This tutorial will show you how to create a spectacularly spooky postcard or collage for the occasion with PicsArt’s Halloween backgrounds and Clipart. With a few creative touches, anyone can create something special and unique on PicsArt that captures your Halloween persona.
UPLOAD BACKGROUND Enter Collage from the Main Menu and choose Background to choose your desired Halloween-themed background.
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ADD PHOTO Choose Add Photo to place and adjust a photo onto your background.
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APPLY EFFECT Add an effect to your photo such as Twilight. Tip: You may change the opacity, which will help you later erase undesired parts of the photo.
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BLEND PHOTO INTO BACKGROUND Choose the Brush to erase undesired parts of your photo to reveal the background. Adjust the Brush for size and lower hardness to avoid sharp edges.
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FINAL TOUCHES Bring back the opacity of the photo. Then, select the Lighten blending mode. Confirm to save your progress.
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ADD CLIPART Open the Halloween Clipart package and choose your clipart items.
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BLEND CLIPART INTO PHOTO Blend your clipart into your image by choosing the Overlay blending mode.
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CONJURE UP A WIZARD WITH PICSART DRAWING TOOLS British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.� Drawing with PicsArt can feel a little like that at times; an entire art studio like lightning at the tip of your finger. This month, get your introduction to what drawing with PicsArt is like with this wizard drawing tutorial. By the end of it, you may not feel so different from the great magician on your canvas once you realize just how easy it is. 56 | PicsArt Monthly
TUTORIAL : DRAWING
DRAW A ROUGH OUTLINE Open a new canvas by tapping on Draw in the main menu and selecting the Draw on Blank option. Draw a very rough outline of your wizard to frame him within your canvas.
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REFINE OUTLINE Reduce the opacity and add a new layer. Trace a refined outline using your rough outline as a guide. Reduce the opacity, add a new layer and repeat the process for a final outline.
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ADD SHADING In new layers, add shading of various darkness. Reduce the opacity of each layer to control the shading intensity. Merge your layers into a single shaded layer when done.
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COLOR THE DRAWING Customize the brush to color-in your drawing in a higher layer. Hide your shading layer while you’re at it to work in a clean space.
FINISH SHADING Unhide your shading layer, and make sure it is at the top. Reduce opacity to beautifully integrate your shadows into your colors.
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LIGHTING ACCENTS & BACKGROUND Use the previously described techniques to add details in higher layers and a background to the bottom layer. Use translucent, bright colors to add lighting accents on top.
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All photos by @veroklo
INSPIRATION : DRAWING
THE HYPNOTIC COLLAGES OF VERONIQUE PicsArtist veronique klotz (@veroklo) creates hypnotic digital collages, taking some lessons from Pop Art and finding fresh and original ways of making them her own. Veronique’s technique uses PicsArt to weave various images and drawings into complete paintings, a technique which she has refined into a unique style of her own. Her paintings are images pasted into patchwork backgrounds of textures, colors, and scenery, like those of the early pop artist Richard Hamilton. She uses bright and fluorescent colors; hot pinks, astro turf greens and ultra bright yellows. The images she chooses for her collages are varied; horses, muscle cars, fish, portraits, and flowers. The backdrops span newspapers, skylines, wallpaper, and even the pyramids of Giza. These collages are eclectic messes, thrown together like a disorganized desk drawer, but yet none of it is ever overwhelming or overly confusing. Each painting has its own lightness, brightness, and a pulsing but welcoming energy that makes them really fun to look at. Perhaps the only real test for a good painting is if you don't mind staring at it up on the wall every day, and Veronique's paintings pass that test. Freefall into a trance and admire her hypnotic and beautiful work.
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WHAT'S NEWS
INSIDE PICSART’S ANDROID UPDATE: 4 MAJOR TRANSFORMATIONS For our latest Android Update, our development team burned the midnight oil to give you precision photo blending, fluid communication, smarter navigation and closer links to your Instagram photos and friends. Here are the four core enhancements you will get when you upgrade to the new Android version.
Precision Blending of Clipart & Photos When adding photos or clipart into your workspace, our update will now give you precise control to blend them into their surroundings. Instead of simply dropping them into your background, you can now use a brush to shave off or restore pieces. This way, you can get rid of superfluous objects or control perspective by erasing chunks to make them look like they are partially hidden behind another object.
Fluid Communication Communication on PicsArt has been brought to the forefront. Simply put, talking to your friends and followers has never been so fluid. Each photo will now display the most recent comments, so that you can jump into the conversation without ever leaving My Network. To reply to a comment made on your photo without leaving your screen. press and hold on the comment. These new options are available thanks to an overhaul of the My Network section and all of your social tabs, which have been redesigned for logical and easy navigation between your favorite activities. PicsArt Monthly |73
Instagram Integration We’ve also expanded Instagram integration to include an import function so that you can grab and edit your Instagram images on PicsArt at any moment, then share your artistic skills with your Instagram followers using the export option. We have also made it possible for you to find and connect with your Instagram friends on PicsArt. Managing photos and friends between the two apps has never been so effortless.
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Smarter Navigation To go along with this broader level of connectivity, we’ve also given the network a smart new toolbar. We have added a new Popular section in the Explore tab which features the most liked images from the PicsArt Network. You can also customize your photo display options in your Profile. The update is available for Android 4.0 and above. Download it from the Google Play Store. PicsArt Monthly |75
A TASTE FOR FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY
In the past few years, two trends have converged: the “foodie” movement and the skyrocketing use of smart phones to take photos of what we eat. It’s not very surprising when one considers that, although it’s a basic human need, food is a highly ritualized, sumptuous, and visual thing. No wonder these days it’s captured so much by photographers, both amateur and professional. With the rise of social media, tantalizing and even artistic photos of food have become another way to gain attention. From Instagram and Facebook, to Pinterest and PicsArt, the Internet is now awash in photos of food. Whether it’s an amateur’s photo of a BBQ cookout or a professional shooting the rich and dynamic dishes in a fancy London bistro, you can’t go online without figuratively going to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Photos of food allow photographers to capture an intimate meal or an elegant night out and leave it to the viewers’ imaginations to create their own connection and story through the photos they see. After all, everyone has a deep-seated connection to preparing, ordering, and savoring food. It has gotten to the point where courses and entire websites exist and are devoted to, for example, iPhone food photography. Instead of simply documenting what they are eating, people are taking the time and making the effort to create visually more polished, artistic photos. Because there is such a huge amount of food photography, it has created demand for better, more innovative images. Consequently, one can find a vast array of unique, interesting, and tasty shots of food. There is no doubt that this is a trend that isn’t going away anytime soon. 76 | PicsArt Monthly
@donaluna
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@tintin-faberge
21 YEAR OLD PHENOM AND HIS FANTASTIC SELF-PORTRAITS: INTERVIEW WITH PHOTOGRAPHER ALEX STODDARD At just 21 years, Alex Stoddard is turning heads in the photography world with a portfolio of artistic self-portraits that any experienced photographer would envy. Born in Jacksonville, Florida and raised in Georgia, Alex currently makes his home in Orange, California. His work has already been exhibited in galleries, auctioned off at large commercial events, published, and lauded industry wide, but most impressive of all, his photos are just remarkably beautiful. His surreal portraits explore the human form and our relationship with nature. They often take on a whimsical and fantastic feel. Here is some of what we learned about his photography.
How did you become a photographer? I started taking photographs when I was sixteen. I would go back into the woods behind my house and take simple self portraits every now and then, and eventually it escalated into a hobby that I would try to find time for each week. I took it a step further when I started a “365 Project�, in which I sought to take a new photograph every day over the course of a year. I posted the images online and slowly developed a following that had grown to tens of thousands by the end of the project. I decided by my graduation from high school that this was something I wanted to devote my life to. 84 | PicsArt Monthly
INERVIEW
How did growing up in the deep South influence you as an artist? I often say that I am a product of my environment, or at least it’s true about my development as an artist. I was raised in a very rural part of Georgia, surrounded by beautiful forests and fields. Nature is very important to my work, and I like to emphasize man’s place within it, so it was easy to do this when I could just walk out my back door and have that all at my fingertips. I don’t know if I would be a photographer if I had been raised in a city, as I don’t find that environment inspiring. PicsArt Monthly |85
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Your photographs have a heavy emphasis on nature, and integrating into nature. Can you talk a little bit about why this theme appeals to you? Nature’s beauty and diversity speak for themselves. I don’t know anybody alive that can’t appreciate some aspect of nature for its beauty. It also has a timelessness that I find appealing.
Have you always been interested by the surreal? I suppose so. As long as I can remember I have been involved in some kind of art - drawing, writing, whatever - where I would create my own little worlds and characters. Real life just bores me. It’s fun to play out fantasies that could never happen in our own reality.
Your portraits of children are interesting because the children are so often faced with terror, headless adults, chasing crows, gas masks, etc. What is the meaning behind this? It’s weird, but I feel like my childhood was the time in my life when I felt most alive... when my emotions were the strongest, and everything felt more vibrant and dangerous. I think I was just a really sensitive kid, so everything that happened to me felt very strong especially my fears. So I think it’s easy for me to revisit my childhood fears in my photographs, because I can remember my feelings so intensely.
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Another interesting theme in your images is the hiding/obstruction of a subjects face. Is this deliberate, and what is its significance in your work? It’s often deliberate, yes. Obscuring the subject’s face lends a certain anonymity to the photograph that can often allow the viewer to insert himself into the image and imagine himself as the character. It also takes away the element of recogniting a person for who they are and makes it easier to view the piece as art. It preserves the fantasy.
Are your photos shot on location, or edited, and do you feel strongly about one preference over the other? They are almost always shot on location if I can help it. I prefer it this way because it’s always going to look more realistic, as the lighting conditions will match up. I worked on a big job recently where it was most practical to shoot everything in a studio because we had to accomplish a dozen different setups in the matter of a few hours. I shot a lot against a green screen that day and had a bit of a challenge making everything match up (subject and background) later in post production. It’s just more work.
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There is a very theatrical side to your photos as well. When you are shooting do you direct or act out performances, and if so, how do you decide what you want emotionally or physically from a “performance” for a shoot? I do direct my subjects or act out the performance if it’s a self-portrait. Rarely do I have a subject just standing in place and posing, but rather I have them act out the moments before and the moments after my shutter clicks. It’s all about the story that I am trying to tell with the particular image. It’s never just the one moment. Often I will go into the shoot knowing exactly what I want emotionally or physically, so it’s easy to translate this to my subject by acting it out for them myself before they have a go at it, but sometimes with more experienced posers, I will explain to them the emotion and have them interpret it themselves. That can often lead to a more authentic personal performance from that individual.
What inspires you to create? Knowing that I have the ability to and that I have endless possibilities before me are all the inspiration I need.
How do you know that you have done something “good” or that you are on the right track with your work? If I personally respond to a piece emotionally, then I know it’s good enough for me. PicsArt Monthly |99
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@benda8
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FEATURE : PHOTO
AUTUMN IN A TUBE October’s Photo of the Month is user benda8’s (@benda8) interesting twist on fall, in this case, a full 360 degree twist. The photo is a panorama of a forest in autumn, bent into a closed circle. It looks as though the forest floor has been rolled up like a carpet with the ends touching, and as if the camera is peering up through the middle at the treetops mashing together in the center. Photo editors everywhere have been taking delight in this trick of rolling up panoramas because the final results are so beautifully bizarre. A single stretch of space becomes a small cozy universe, and this shot by benda8 is a great example, perfectly bottling up the orange dried grass and twiggy bark of fall into a single, narrow tube.
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FEATURE : TIPS & TRICKS
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MATERIALS • Black construction paper (2) • Chalk • Scissors • String • Tape
1. Use durable black construction paper and chalk to draw a fairly large spider-web and a few spiders. 2. Draw the inner circle of the web according to the circumference of your head. 3. Along the inner rim of the circle, draw ridges pointing towards the middle of the circle. 4. Cut out your spider web and spiders. 5. On the second black sheet, cut out 1/3 of a large circle (like a slice of pie), and attach its sides to make a cone. 6. Fold out the ridges of the inner circle of the spider web. 7. Place the cone on top of the erect ridges and tape the ridges to the inside of the cone. 8. Attach your spiders to strings and tie the strings onto different areas of your spider web/brim.
….Witching you a Happy and Creative Halloween. PicsArt Monthly |107
All photos by @senseleesss
FEATURE : ARTIST
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Our PicsArtist of the Month, Frãncisco Jordán (@senseleesss), is a monochrome specialist. Monochrome describes photography shot exclusively in black and white or in various tones of the same color. Frãncisco found that by keeping it simple with colors, the weight of lighting considerably amplifies its dramatic value. Frãncisco’s photos are very much made in the tension between light and dark, and their composition is kept simple to let the dynamics of this contrast direct and guide our eyes. Frãncisco’s personal signature is most apparent, however, in how the darkness always seems to be what’s most important in this contrast. He keeps most of the action in the light areas, and keeps the dark areas pitch-black, giving the darkest areas a powerful yet persistently unknowable presence. The darkest areas stick out of the photo like clouds of ink, which seem to gently swell against the light, making their presence felt while never fully revealing their contents. The way he uses the darkness is not imposing, however, but rather a seductive tool in his vision. He romanticizes the aging and natural world, focusing on vintage planes and antique doors, open skies and churning seas, or a woman flashing an inquisitive glare. This eclectic melange seems to coalesce into a greater vision of antiquity in graceful decay within a timeless natural world. It is the shrouds of darkness which Frãncisco uses to create a sense of something greater than what’s in the photo, a larger mystery. It is an oddly foreboding scene to set, and thrown among it all, fixing us, are the eyes of a young woman, unaware or unaffected by the complexity of her partially obscured surrounding, and untouched by its uncertainty.
OCHROME ES OF CO JORDÁN
Frãncisco is a notable photographer because he knows that style isn’t just a way to send a message, it is the message. He doesn’t focus on subjects and give them an edge, but rather assigns them roles in his larger, darker, monochrome mystery. PicsArt Monthly |109
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