Uwe Langmann & Shaun Stubley
BLACK & WHITE
fotoblur WINTER 2011
12
fotoblur magazine black & white
Issue 12 fotoblur / 1
FOTOBLUR MAGAZINE
Black & White ISSUE 12 Editor & Publisher: Lance Ramoth Copy Editor: Tiffany Altieri Email: contact@fotoblur.com Web: www.fotoblur.com/magazine ISSN: 1944-0006 Fotoblur Magazine is a unique publishing project created by the online photo community at fotoblur.com. Printed on demand by MagCloud http://fotoblur.magcloud.com Cover Photo Boundless by Gaurav Singh Learn more at www.fotoblur.com/magazine
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Images published in Fotoblur Magazine are the sole property of the contributing photographers and are copyrighted material. No image may be reproduced without the express written permission of its owner. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, electronic or mechanical without the prior written consent of the publisher. © 2011 Fotoblur Magazine.
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHERS
Shaun Stubley 07 Uwe Langmann 16 CONTRIBUTORS Abdulmajeed Abdullah Alessa 85 Nader Mansour Yaseen Alhddad 36 Hikaru Arai 87 Niki Barbati 88 Yury Bird 40, 41 Arunas L. Birutis 106 Marcus Björkman 62 Roberto Bon 83 Valentina Bunic 67 Marsha Cattaneo 75 Andreea Chiru 43 Stefania Cruceru 70, 71 Alper Çukur 51 Mohsen Daemi 79, 80 Iringo Demeter 99 Delinggan Dipitiga 95 Fahad Dossary 65, 86 Jon Downs 72 Mukti Echwantono 42, 54 Luca Ferdinandi 96 Mia De Fleur 50
Mads C. Forchhammer Bill Gekas Sietske Hoekstra Kazuyuki Iijima Rob Jenkins Yamba Karn Michael Ken Awen Dominic Lauron Hengki Lee Janina Leonaviciene Maciej Leszczynski Peep Loorits Zsoka Lorincz Hamoraon Lubis Jorge Maia Kaushik Majumder Katerina Man’shine Mario Marino Sergey Melnitchenko Nima Moghimi Robert Moran
98 82 93 48 69 38 33 60 76, 77 104 57 49 102 28, 66, 68 92 30 63 47 39, 55 105 56
Naufal Mq Francesca Parità Pierre Pellegrini Esteban Rios Jafar Ranjbar Saadi Saad Salem Paolo Scarano Gustavo Scheverin Parisa Shademan Mont Sherar Gaurav Singh Mj Suayan Junya Suzuki Chot Touch Marco Virgone Vinay Kumar Vishwakarma Francis Willey Linda Wride Qin Yongjun Plosz Zoltán
84 46 100 74 53 90 81 103 101 64 44, 45 97 78 29 37 91 34, 35, 52 58 94 32
Issue 12 fotoblur / 3
Remembering
Steve Jobs.
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“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs 1955-2011
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Shaun Stubley - Queen for the Night
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER
Shaun Stubley http://www.fotoblur.com/people/shauns http://www.artesphotography.it
Shaun Stubley was born and raised in the market town of Loughborough in the heart of England. His interest in art started at a very early age, inspired by the “chiaroscuro” painters who used techniques to create the illusion of three-dimensional forms. His fascination for this technique greatly influenced his illustrative style and is evident in his current photographic artwork. Now living in Milan, he works as a freelance photographer and designer. Fotoblur got a chance to talk with Shaun Stubley about his views on artistic philosophy, creativity, and expressivity.
ARTISTIC PHILOSOPHY I think that the main purpose of photography is to evoke emotions - it makes no difference what the subject matter is. A wedding shot, a holiday shot, a landscape, or a flower - the viewer should get a certain feedback from the image. It could be one of joy, sadness, love, fear, surprise, pleasure, or intrigue. This may sound banal, but history has taught us that the most successful photographs are those that succeed in stirring strong
emotions within us. Naturally, as a portrait photographer, my prime aim is to capture the inner essence of the subject as well as creating evocative images. I believe that art is the means by which artists convey their passion, unleashing their creativity to evoke emotions. True artists create with their hearts, a philosophy which I always try to adhere to, no matter what I’m photographing. CREATIVITY Without creativity, the world would come to a standstill. In photography, creativity is fundamental. It helps us in our journey to develop our own personal signature style which will ultimately get our work noticed. At times, content and technical know-how alone are not enough to achieve our goals. It’s the way we photograph our subject that sets us apart from others. I think it’s true to say that many successful photographers put creativity before technical know-how. When teaching photography, I try and stress the fact that one doesn’t necessarily need to have the latest camera with the most megapixels to achieve the best results. continued on page 15
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Shaun Stubley - Sensitivity
Shaun Stubley - Debutante
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Shaun Stubley - Storm
FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER - Shaun Stubley Radiance My Future Wonder
Discovering our own creative potential can be a lengthy process and often only comes to light after a period of practicing, experimenting, and studying the work of others. We should try and break away from what is considered “normal”; think outside of the box, think differently. If we want that light bulb to glow brighter then we must start thinking that creativity is the most important element in a photograph. Being inspired by whatever we’re photographing helps us to capture the subject in a more creative way. Experiment by shooting at different angles, try different compositions, don’t be afraid to make mistakes but above all, be open minded. EXPRESSIVITY To some extent, all my artwork expresses two strong recurring elements: elegance and romance. Not all my subjects are models - some are friends and some are women who simply want to be photographed for many different reasons. The end result, however, must always embrace these two fundamental elements which have, over the years, helped me establish my signature style. To obtain this, it’s important that my subjects have complete trust in me and feel completely at ease in my
presence. They need to be totally relaxed before I start shooting, they need to understand the kind of mood I’d like to create so we can work together in harmony. I always ask my subjects to visit my website before we arrange the shoot so they can see my style. There’s nothing worse than photographing someone who has never seen your work. I need my subjects to have total faith in my ability, but also to be very open minded and understand that we’re not taking passport shots! It’s important for me to photograph my subjects in a way that they’ve never been photographed before. Soft lighting and elegant poses are of the utmost importance and both help greatly to enhance their femininity and create romantic, elegant images. Photography has become my main creative outlet. As an artist it enables me to express my opinions, stir up emotions, communicate my message and, at times, allows the viewer to understand my character. Portrait photography has become a challenge for me, almost an obsession. To be able to capture the inner essence of a person in my own personal style is exceedingly rewarding, both for myself and my subjects. This in itself is a powerful motivation!
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Uwe Langmann - Warden
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FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER
Uwe Langmann http://www.fotoblur.com/people/uwelangmann http://www.uwelangmann.com langmannde@arcor.de
Uwe Langmann was born and currently lives in a small city near Munich, called Memmingen, Germany. Uwe Langmann’s journey into photography began while pursuing a career in filmmaking. While shooting photos of locations for a film idea, his friends and family began noticing his talent in photography. This happy accident eventually led Uwe to focus on photography as his main interestmedium of artistic expression.
I’m more ed in showing a sense of poetry in the ordinary. Like a painter creates an abstraction of what he sees.
Uwe’s work possesses a mystical simplicity and an almost dream like quality. Uwe says that the intent of his work is to not portray the world as it is. He explains that “I’m more interested in showing a sense of poetry in the ordinary. Like a painter creates an abstraction of what he sees.” He also tries to avoid communicating any specific idea through his work, but instead, wishes the viewer to formulate their own opinions and ideas. “For me, art must not tell a story but is something that exists solely for its own pur-
pose.” He describes his work as open for interpretation where one might see an interesting arrangement of objects while another sees a metaphor for societal issues. Each person should formulate their own interpretation of his work. However, Uwe admits that many of his images lend to feelings of loneliness and despair and occasionally communicate a lack of connection to the world or even emptiness. But he says optimism can be found in many of his images, especially where he intentionally captures connections between objects such as in his image “Family.” While shooting, Uwe looks for subjects that feel desolate, that seem alone in an open space. He will often include small elements of human presence such as poles, fences, and machines. His ultimate goal is to look for subjects which possess interesting shapes, rhythmic patterns, and which resonate with one another. As Uwe says, his intuition guides him while looking for the right scene to capture.
Limited edition prints available on request.
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Uwe Langmann - Scales - Car & Pylon
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Uwe Langmann - November Road II
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Uwe Langmann - Quiet Movements
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Uwe Langmann - Family
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Uwe Langmann - Out of Sight
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Uwe Langmann - Ad Infinity
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Uwe Langmann - Winter 010
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Uwe Langmann - Foggy Grove
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ISSUE 12 GALLERY
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Nader Mansour Yaseen Alhddad - I Love My Place
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Marco Virgone - Into The Hole
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Gaurav Singh - Boundless
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Gaurav Singh - Immortals
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Francesca Parità - Decadence
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Mario Marino - Karo Boy, March 2011, Ethiopia
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Kazuyuki Iijima - Repetition
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Peep Loorits - Dots and Squares
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Robert Moran - Floor 10
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Maciej Leszczynski - Romeo and Juliet
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Linda Wride - Curve 2 of 4
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Junya Suzuki - Fragment of Life
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Mohsen Daemi - What If?
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Mohsen Daemi - The Last Breath
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Paolo Scarano - BLACK
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Janina Leonaviciene - Irish Flight
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Nima Moghimi - Scar of Life
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Arunas L. Birutis - / | \
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