Look-Beyond The Artist-

Edition 1ยบ June 2017

Surrealist Photography

020317

interview with david doran

Beyond The Artist

SUMMARY

Designer

Diana Mercado

6 Photography tips

04

Surrealist Photography

06

Alex Noriega Dana Lixenberg

We are interested in showing the different types and styles of art in photography and illustration, we seek to ignite the artistic and creative spark in our readers and encourage them to create,

10

14

show and share their different creative ideas and that they achieve to develop themselves in this environment or just like a hobby and there before contribute to the artistic life in our time.

20

Illustrator David Doran

24 The Loneliness 28

The Wild Side Of Student Life

30

Wild Animals & The Forest

6 night photography tips for shooting better cityscapes There’s real potential for some impressive and creative shots to be taken after the sun goes down - if you know how. Matt Parry breaks down a few quick ways to get the most out of shooting in the blue hour.

1. Create star bursts

3. Explore ghosting

Turn street lights into star bursts to add a dramatic effect to your scene. For star bursts use a small aperture (higher f/stop) of between f/14 and f/20. The more diaphragm blades your lens has and the longer the exposure time, the more pronounced the effect.

Ghosting is caused when people in your frame move during a long exposure. If people are constantly moving and the exposure is long enough they may not appear but alternatively you can shoot multiple frames of the scene and blend them out in Photoshop.

2. Shift the white balance

4. Set yourself goals

On cloudy or wet evenings long exposures can make the sky look a murky brown. Reduce this by shifting the white balance temperature slider in Lightroom towards cooler, or convert the image to black & white to enhance the contrast of artificial light against the night sky.

When shooting cities in low-light conditions you have a relatively narrow window of workable light in which to get your shots, especially in winter when the sun sets faster and it gets darker earlier. Plan ahead and have a specific destination in mind before going out.

4

5. Try digital blending/HDR

RoadTrip is a perfect travel and cityscape tripod as it is easy to carry and extends to a great working height.

Some cityscape photographers prefer to use HDR or digital blending techniques rather than rely on a single exposure. Long exposures can create extreme contrasts, with blown highlights or loss of detail in the shadows, often nullified by HDR or digital blending.

Spare batteries During long exposures your camera is working harder. This kind of photography can therefore drain your batteries quicker. If you are shooting on a cold morning or evening this can impact battery performance, so you should carry spares.

The Photographer’s Ephemeris app If you want to shoot a cityscape that includes an iconic building, bridge or monument when it is lit up, it pays to do some research as to when the lights usually go on. Check this against the sunrise/sunset time and direction using an app such as The Photographer’s Ephemeris or PhotoPills. Preparation is key.

6. Get out in the rain Rain is one of the most challenging elements to contend with when shooting long exposures.

Water droplets on the lens are usually visible at narrow apertures, so check your lens between shots and wipe with a cloth. If using an umbrella or cover make sure to keep it out of the frame.

Remote shutter release A simple remote shutter release, such as the Canon BR-E1, will remove the risk of camera movement caused by pressing the camera’s shutter. They also give you better control over the timing of shots in Bulb mode. The BR-E1 has a 5m range.

Filters While filters have limited use once you hit the blue hour, I always carry a range of Lee Filters for sunrise and sunset including Neutral Density Grads for controlling the sky, a circular polariser for reflections and ND filters in case I want to shoot any long exposures.

What to bring: Tripod A tripod is essential for shooting the longer exposures required in low light. The compact, stable and lightweight carbon fibre MeFOTO

5

Surrealist Photography

Surrealist photography has come a long way. While Photoshop and other post-processing programs make it fairly easy to create surrealist photographs, back in the days of darkroom photography there were no computers to help you. All surrealist effects had to be either done in camera or in the darkroom – a feat that is not very easy to accomplish. From the famous Man Ray to the more recent Erik Johansson, it’s interesting to see where surrealist photography started and what it has morphed into throughout the years.

Man Ray

While Man Ray worked with a wide variety of mediums, he is most well-known for his surrealist photography and photograms (which he called rayographs). For those not familiar with photograms, they are photographic images made without a camera. You can create a photogram yourself by setting yourself up in a darkroom, placing objects on top of photo paper, and then exposing both the paper and the objects to light. Once you develop the photo paper, you’ll see that there are white shapes where the objects sat. Photograms are an easy way to get acquainted with surreal and abstract “photography” in the darkroom.

While Photoshop was not an option in Man Ray’s day (1890-1976), this didn’t stop him from creating some of the most influential surrealist photographs of all time. He used solarization, double exposures, montages, and combination printing to create works of art that left viewers scratching their heads.

6

Maurice Tabard

Maurice Tabard (1897-1984) is another notable surrealist photographer. Like Man Ray, he used the techniques of solarization, double exposures and montages to create eerie and unnerving photographic images. He began his work as a portrait, fashion and advertising photographer, while experimenting with surrealist images in his personal work. A room with an eye, a lady who seems to be turning into a tree, and ghostly solarized portraits are only a small portion of the surrealist work he created.

Hans Bellmer

Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), born in Germany, is most well known for his unsettling portraits of mechanical dolls that he created himself. He originally studied engineering and was incredibly interested in politics, yet gave that up to pursue a career as an artist. He had read about Surrealism and sent photographs of his dolls to other artists, who immediately praised his work. This spurred the collaboration with other artists and led to his work on a few more books, ranging from his own photography to experimental poetry to illustrations of erotic stories.

7

Dora Maar

Dora Maar (1907-1997) is best known for being one of Picasso’s lovers. Together, she and Picasso studied with Man Ray, which could be why Dora Maar became so interested in Surrealism. Her famous Portrait of Ubu became well-known within the Surrealist movement, being a photograph that many have speculated to be a armadillo fetus; Maar declined to let the public know exactly what the subject of the photograph was.

This photograph is a good example of what Surrealist photography is when it doesn’t include the use of double exposures or solarization; the image itself is strange and unusual, and while it may be grotesque, continues to fascinate a wide audience.

Erik Johansson

Let’s fast forward to the modern day. Erik Johansson is a Swedish photographer and retoucher, born in 1985. He is lucky enough to be born in a day and age in which postprocessing techniques are used widely throughout the photographic industry, and lucky enough to have an imagination that allows him to create beautiful surreal images. He began his career as an artist primarily through drawing; when he became interested in photography, his love of drawing as well as computers led to him experimenting with different post-processing techniques. Instead of simply being finished with a photograph once the moment was captured, this became a canvas on which to create surreal scenes that are crafted so beautifully that it’s almost hard to believe they aren’t real.

8

Christopher McKenney

While Erik Johansson creates beautiful, dreamy surrealist images, Christopher McKenney takes dreamy surrealism and puts a darker twist on it. His photographs often feature a human whose body is missing and face is covered; the face is either obscured by a sheet, covered with a paper bag on fire, or hidden behind a mirror (among many others). In these photographs, the entire body is often not seen. All of his images are post-processed to have eerie, de-saturated color tones, and are typically shot in the middle of the woods or on a back country road.

Stephen Criscolo

Stephen Criscolo is a 20-year-old self-taught photographer. While all of his images are heavily edited via Photoshop, he has had no formal photographic training. Instead of creating surrealist images within our own world, each of his images seems to be from an entirely fictional planet created within his own mind. Jellyfish and planets are both reoccurring themes in Criscolo’s work, along with images that tend to be monochromatic in color (primarily blue hues, primarily purple hues, etc).

9

Alex Noriega, US Landscape Year, talks about his award

Alex Noriega, 2016 US Landscape Photographer of the Year, looks back on his work

Winning landscapes The shot of mine that took the top prize of the 2016 US LPOTY competition shows the sunrise illuminating Mount Rainier as it rises above low clouds, seen from high above Tipsoo Lake, Washington state.

I have to say, it feels good to be crowned the 2016 US Landscape Photographer of the Year. Before this, I had only entered one competition, but this year I entered US LPOTY and the 2016 Epson International Pano Awards, and happened to win both.

People often wonder what the real benefit of entering photography competitions is and for me, first and foremost, that benefit takes the form of the cash prizes.

But don’t get me wrong – I’m not a materialistic person. I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to rush out and spend all the winnings on ‘stuff’. I see money as freedom – freedom to go on adventures and create images.

On another level, a contest such as US LPOTY also brings a lot of exposure on social media, so that is an obvious business benefit, and I always like my work being seen by more people.

Alex’s US Landscape Photographer of the Year image of Mount Rainier in Washington

I’m very familiar with Mount Rainier and its different aspects, and I knew that I liked the heavily glaciated east side, and the autumn tundra foliage to be found on the ground.

Plus, you’ve got the craggy midground with its propensity to be filled with low clouds.

I didn’t want a straight reflection shot lacking a midground, so I hiked high above the lakes and used a longer focal length (35mm). There was one precise spot I found to stand where the lake would reflect the mountain, and the whole scene was cradled symmetrically by the rows of trees, while showing off the foliage in the foreground.

The fog and light are what made the shot,

10

e Photographer of the d-winning work

giving the image a clear hierarchy and sense of depth. I wanted that early light on the highly reflective east-facing glaciers on the mountain, so I knew a sunrise would be superior. Even if something amazing happened at sunset, it would merely be a silhouette of the mountain against the backlit sky.

What makes a successful landscape image tends to vary from photographer to photographer.

One of Alex’s winning images from the 2016 Epson International Pano Awards – taken in Utah

On a very basic level, I want to instil some sort of emotion in the viewer. Often that reaction is ‘I want to be there’, but that generally happens with wider scenes with a real sense of place.

Maybe it’s just a sense of wonder about the size of the landscape or the realisation of how long it took to form.

Landscapes can show us how small we are, or inspire us to get out and explore our world, rather than sitting in front of glowing rectangles all day. If we’re talking about a tighter abstract-type image, maybe the goal is to confuse the viewer, and keep them guessing at what exactly they’re looking at, while still being visually pleasing and interesting.

Finding your style

11

Looking back at everything I’ve learned so far, I think perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to find my own voice.

The work I care least about (and have purged from my portfolios as I continually curate) is the work where I was attempting to emulate other artists. That’s a good way to learn, but eventually you’ve got to have your own style, and your own purpose and drive to make the images other than ‘someone else shot that and it’s pretty, so I should do it too’.

A shot from Mount Rainier, Washington

When I’ve attempted to emulate others, or had tunnel vision for a certain type of image, that’s when I’ve found myself fail. It’s easy and lazy to go and grab an image you’ve seen before, but it’s much more difficult to find something original.

Sure, blend your influences and take bits and pieces from the artists you love, but make your own product out of it. Whenever I’ve failed to be original, after I realise my mistake, it gives me the inspiration to go back and try again to find my own unique interpretation of a place.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. A lot of people new to photography, as with many forms of technology or art, are afraid to try things that might not be ‘correct’. Don’t worry about being proper from the start. Just try a lot of different things as they come to you.

You’ll have plenty of time to learn the ‘rules’, to the extent that they even actually exist.

Looking for locations

Research is a pretty key factor when you’re thinking of going out to shoot landscape photographs.

Google Images is a nice resource for tourist snapshots of an area, allowing you to see the possibilities for fine art images. I’ve recently tried to avoid seeing other photographers’ images of an area before visiting, so that I don’t get tunnel vision about what not to copy or about what works at the location.

For what I’ve been working on lately, Google Earth and hiking books have been a good start. Really, you just need to show up somewhere once you decide on a place, and start looking.

When I’m researching a location, the first thing I look for is solitude. I’m done shooting the same thing as others and jockeying tripod legs, unless it’s my friends or clients along with me. I do my best work when I’m alone and I can really explore and concentrate without getting in anyone’s way, or vice versa.

12

Another of Alex’s images from the 2016 Epson International Pano Awards – Mount Whitney, California In terms of light, I’m not that big a fan of spring and summer. I’m much more drawn to autumn and winter scenes. Snow can be so amazing, as is autumn foliage, and especially if you get the two combined.

For light, you won’t find many blazing sunsets or sunrises in my portfolio. I love golden, dappled storm light with a dark sky as a backdrop. Fog is always a favourite, too, as it gives many scenes depth.

Alex’s kit choice The lens that I’ve been using a lot of recently is the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/4G ED VR on a Nikon D600 camera. I seem to be using that a lot more than my wider lenses. I find it more difficult to come up with something that doesn’t feel formulaic with the wideangles.

I’ve been excluding skies altogether in a lot of my recent photography.

Accessories wise, I’m a photographer who tends to travel light. I don’t really use filters or accessories. I usually just have the camera, lens and a Really Right Stuff TQC-14 tripod. I couldn’t do without an L-plate on the camera, but that’s part of the main tripod support system and not a mere accessory. I also use a shutter release/remote, but using a two- or fivesecond timer is just as effective in most cases.

A close-up of the foliage found around Mount Rainier

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Next, I’m looking for possibilities for composition – just interesting attributes of the landscape to work with (see the Mount Rainier image). If you look at a place like an overlook at the Grand Canyon, sure, that’s an amazing view.

But there aren’t tons of possibilities, as you aren’t able to change your perspective much, and the scene is so dependent on conditions. I like places that have something to work with in any type of light; both small and large scenes.

13

Dana Lixenberg wins the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize 2017

The Dutch photographer takes the £30,000 top prize with an intimate photo project charting the lives of Los Angeles residents since 1993

Wilteysha, 1993. © Dana Lixenberg

Toussaint, 1993. © Dana Lixenberg

Dana Lixenberg of the Netherlands has won the 2017 edition of the internationally recognised Deutsche Börse competition with her long-term photography project capturing a multi-faceted portrait of the residents and community of the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts, Los Angeles.

revisited her project over the following 22 years as she followed the trajectories of individual lives in the neighbourhood.

In her later visits, she took to bringing audio and video recording equipment to keep documenting the conversation and ambience of the area, capturing the complex effect that passing time has had on the community.

In addition to existing as a physical photo project, Imperial Courts (1993 – 2015) also exists as a web documentary, developed in partnership with Lixenberg’s collaborator Eefje Blankevoort.

Titled Imperial Courts (1993 – 2015), the project began back in 1993 in the aftermath of riots sparked by the infamous beating of Rodney King by the LAPD, and charts the community of the area as it returned from the scene of violent protest back to an underserved and often invisible community.

Following a controlled and formal photographic style that she calls “slowing things down”, Lixenberg expanded and

Writing about Lixenberg’s winning series, Brett Rogers of the Photographer’s Gallery says: “This comprehensive and measured series impressed all of the judges through

14

Untitled II, 2013. © Dana Lixenberg

its affirmation of photography’s power to address important ideas through pure image. Lixenberg’s work is simultaneously understated and emphatic, reflecting a cool sobriety, which allows her subjects to own the gaze and their contexts without sentimentality or grandiosity.

Originally presented in book format, each portrait operates as a self-contained story.

Dana Lixenberg has expertly harnessed the photographic medium to rethink stereotypical representation and empower a community with direct voice and visibility.”

As grand prize-winner, Lixenberg will be awarded £30,000. Her work is currently being exhibited with the other shortlisted photographers in London until 11 June, at which point it will embark on a tour to Frankfurt and New York.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is a annual award, originally established by the Photographer’s Gallery in 1997.

The award is intended to honour a living photographer, of any nationality, for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format in Europe, which is felt to have significantly contributed to the medium of photography in the previous year. 2017 marks the twentieth year of the prestigious competition.

15

J 50, 2008. © Dana Lixenberg

Tish’s Baby Shower, 2008. © Dana Lixenberg

J 50, 2008. © Dana Lixenberg

16

Nu Nu, 2009. © Dana Lixenberg Nu Nu, 2009. © Dana Lixenberg

DJ, 1993. © Dana Lixenber

17

Illustrator David Doran explore the beauty of ci British illustrator David Doran’s great love for travelling, experiencing culture and vintage travel posters has propelled his latest book - a beautiful treasure trove of 32 pull-out prints illustrating major cities around the world.

Despite being David’s debut book, Alphabet Cities: Around the World in 32 Pull-Out Prints carries finesse and character. The typographic alphabet book was published by Penguin Random House last week, but David worked on the project for over a year -– drawing each print by hand before applying a digital finish.

The book contains posters of 30 different locations, taking inspiration from vintage design such as 1950s adverts and early Underground posters. The prints are designed to be be pulled out and framed, with interesting facts about each city placed on the back of each one.

David had previously worked with Ebury editor Elen Jones, and the pair wanted an opportunity to work on another book together.

With Elen’s idea for a typographic alphabet book, and David’s love for travelling, Alphabet Cities was born.

The book displays David’s multi-faceted, colourful graphic style that plays out in organised chaos, such as in his poster illustration for the BAFTA awards earlier this year and his matchbook design for Bernstein & Andriulli’s portfolio book.

David used one colour palette to work across the wide range of destinations, including both warm pink, red and yellow tones and cooler blues and greens.

We spoke to him about the research that went into Alphabet Cities, how he decided on which elements from each city to include, and what it’s like to work within a formulaic layout.

20

n’s new type-based prints ities around the world David’s debut book of prints, Alphabet Cities, is inspired by vintage travel posters and his love for experiencing different cultures.

How did you decide which landmarks from each city to include?

David Doran: “I wanted to work with a

combination of recognisable landmarks and more subtle elements of a city which captured the atmosphere and character of the place.

I enjoyed using Big Ben as the focus on the London poster, and in contrast focussing on the water towers of New York, rather than a more obvious choice like the Empire State Building, or the P for Paris being found in a lamp post.

The level of which the letters stand out in each picture varies from page to page. My plans were for readers to be able to discover the letters for themselves and to be able to enjoy the posters on multiple levels.”

Which was your favourite city to Talk us through the creative proillustrate and why? cess.

DD: “New York is one of my favourite cities, I

DD: “Each poster began with researching

love to dip into the busyness for inspiration.

I enjoyed working with the composition of the poster for New York, and the level of detail I could bring into the image. There’s something very satisfying about working with the shapes of New York buildings.”

21

each city (unfortunately the budget for the book didn’t stretch to cover a world tour for research purposes) I’d then create sketches, finding ways to involve the letters for each location.

I draw each image by hand, first with pencil, then ink pen. Then, the drawings are scanned in and worked on digitally, adding textures and tones, working in layers in a manner that takes inspiration from traditional printmaking techniques.”

Favorite illustration

How was illustrating for Alphabet Cities different to your other work?

DD: “The scale of this book was vastly different to my normal projects; I’ve worked on many quick-fire editorials or ad campaigns which have taken a few months, but this book took over a year from beginning to final publication.

I really enjoyed working within the boundaries of a formulaic layout; My aim was for the book was to have good rhythm and continuity from page to page, offering something different to see in each city, but remaining part of the same world.

I enjoyed the challenge of making the one colour palette work across each varying poster, highlighting different elements of the cities climates or culture.”

22

Are you wanting to illustrate more books after this one?

DD: “Absolutely! There are

plans in the pipeline. I love how books balance out more commercial illustration work.”

What other upcoming projects do you have in the pipeline?

DD: “I have on-going editorial

and advertising work, as well as hopes for more books.

There are also plans to travel more and create work inspired by these experiences.”

David works from his studio by the sea in Falmouth, illustrating for international brands, editorials, festivals and publishers.

23

THE LONELINESS OF LONGING FOR OTHER PEOPLE’S APARTMENTS I’ve lived alone in many apartments in the past decade, from a tiny, splintering studio in Iowa crawling with millipedes to a massive, cheap prewar in Kentucky that leaked each time it rained. I loved these apartments, the pride and comfort that came from opening a cabinet and finding things that belonged only to me. When I moved to New York, I signed a lease on the first place I found because I’d been warned that finding an apartment there was “impossible.”

24

25

The tiny, bright rooms felt like an initiation into a city that I’d come to know, through television, as a place where people very often lived alone.

What continues to surprise me, when I walk down a street at night and catch the corner of a bedroom beyond a window’s curtain, or someone flipping through TV channels from the couch, is the longing I feel for these homes I’ll never be invited into—or, maybe more accurately, for the lives I’ll never live. Just as when we read a book or watch a movie, these peeks offer us a moment to imagine ourselves transposed.

26

Previously, Kristen Radtke considered the loneliness of the parking-lot phone call and the subway nap.

Kristen Radtke is the managing editor of Sarabande Books. Her graphic memoir, “Imagine Wanting Only This,� will be published in April, 2017.

27

Andrew Fairclough captures the exciting & wild side of student life Andrew Fairclough’s editorial illustrations of Australian student life capture the beauty in outdoor adventure, food & nightlife

Andrew Fairclough’s illustrations of student life are beautifully attuned to texture and detail, encapsulating the freedom and fearlessness that runs strong amidst those fond university years.

Whether it’s eating cheap street food, finding rooftop outlooks or in this case, pretending you’re on the end of Titanic whilst getting pushed inside a shopping trolley (hmmmm) – these are all memories and experiences often never forgotten from our youth.

“I ended up landing on a series of student lifestyle scenes contained within the silhouette of youthful profile portraits, using negative space to create an engaging visual whilst ensuring an otherwise anonymous scene felt more human and relatable,” says Andrew.

He loosely sketched the scenes in pencil and much of the line work was created quickly in Ilustrator with hand-drawn elements and textures finally added in Photoshop.

The scenes themselves were governed by the format of the guidebooks, with different chapters covering outdoor adventure, shopping, food and drink as well as nightlife.

Andrew’s recent illustration series for Insider Guides’ International Student Guides touches on these nuances of liberation. The free, annual guidebooks are distributed in major Australian cities to equip international students with knowledge on how to enjoy living abroad.

Andrew was given a not-too-definitive brief to illustrate a series of scenes and characters representing various aspects of Australian student life as covered in the guides.

28

After quitting his job in business and retraining as an illustrator and designer, Sydney-based Andrew found a love for traditional print processes, including silkscreen, risograph and photocopying.

Although most of his work is created digitally, he’s keen in incorporate the imperfections and details from more traditional processes.

He began his illustration career by working on skate and snowboard graphics in between full-time work in a design agency.

Andrew finds inspiration in old magazines, newspapers, comic books, gig posters and record sleeves. His work reflects mid-century spot illustrations and design as well as vintage sci-fi, surrealism and DIY art culture.

He admires the work of artists such as Art Chantry, Wallace Wood, Istvan Orosz, Virgin Finlay and Michael Leon.

Andrew has worked for clients such as Billabong, Nike, GQ, Penguin and Jack Daniels.

29

Wild Animals And The Fores Photog

Norwegian artist Andreas Lie’s merged photographs look deceptively simple: the outlines of wolves and bears encompassing misty photographs of woody landscapes.

A second glance, however, shows there’s something more going on: a fox whose red fur melts into fiery orange treetops, a crow whose knobby feet give way to lonely tree trunks in the depths of a forest. The two photographs — a wild animal and a wild landscape — have been matched and blended with such subtlety that it’s difficult to tell where the fur ends and the leaves begin.

Lie’s works build from photographs, but he is careful to note that he is not a photographer.

“I am a digital artist,” he clarified in an email to The Huffington Post, explaining that he uses stock photographs that fit his concept, then overlays them in Photoshop.

Though some of Lie’s work takes human or other subjects, he seems to have found a comfortable spot working with natural subjects. “I started experimenting with merging landscape photography in humans, and I had also done some work with animal portraits before so it was a natural progression to combine the two,” he says.

What’s more, the untamed beauty of each animal — a wolf, a fawn, a squirrel — aligns with the stately wilderness Lie juxtaposes with their forms, making it seem as though the creatures are materializing like spirits from their habitats.

30

st Meet In Digitally Merged graphs

Lie says he’s happy if his art has any impact (he mentions that people have gotten tattoos of his work), though he doesn’t imbue it with a specific message. Despite this, a clear one seems to come through: The indomitable spirit and dignity of the wild animals and landscapes he celebrates in his art.

31