Levon Biss

Levon Biss was born in Sutton, South London in 1975. Graduated with a BA Hons in Photography. He is a documentary and portrait photographer specializing in sports. I have great interest in sport so this is why his work caught my eye. He has been working on advertising campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world such as Nike, Apple and Mastercard. Most of this is done in the studio. As i said its sports photography side of his work that interested me especially capturing movement. He says light is essential but also studying the athelete/person to understand how they move so you know at which point to take the shot. He normally sets his camera at shutter speed 350th of a sec and aperture f8. 

Biss also published a book on global football titled One Love which took 2 years to produce and includes images from all over the world. Its a viewpoint away from the pitch such as the hot dog vendor outside the stadium.

  

I really like these pictures as they show the skill and timing required to capture motion/movement. Also working in a studio you can create amazing backgrounds and have total control of the light. 

 

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry was born in Philadelphia in 1950. After graduating from university and then working at a newspaper for 2 years he left to freelance in India. Here he learned and homed his skills such as the need for patience- to wait for the right moment. Hard work- taking 20 shots to get 1 good one and even coming back to the same place the next day and doing it all over again.
His style is documentary and his photo-journalism has covered many of the wars and conflicts of the last 30 years. His work has been featured in every major magazine in the world.

He is most famous for the picture of the Afghan Girl. It is a photograph which shows sadness,fear,poverty but at the same time beauty and colour. He captures these contrasts in much of his work where he has taken close ups of people.

This picture shows men at work- fishing. It is beautifully composed and looks like it could be scene out of a film.Mccurry's use of colour in his shots makes them outstanding. This is someyhing i would like to study further.

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Werner Bischof

Werner Bischof  started his career working as an independent photographer for various magazines. His coverage of the destruction of post-world war 2 established him as one of the foremost photojournalist of his time. Was the sixth person to join Magnum Photos. He was sent to cover the famine in India in 1951 and to Japan to cover the damage to the country after the war. The images he produced are amazing. The composition is fantastic, use of natural light, shadows, angles, balance and focus is excellent. All his work was in black and white and i think it works beautifully. He doesn't try to be too clever with his shots but manages to capture the right moment. This is a style and skill that i would like to learn.

I really like this image, the silhouette of a man observing the destruction of buildings during the second world war. Maybe one of them was his home. The focus on the buildings and use of shadows works really well.

This photograph of a railway track in India takes you right into it, looking at all the detail such as the person crossing the track and the smoke.It's an excellent use of lines.

Use of Filters in Photoshop

The filters used for the photo above were Artistic- fresco, Brush Strokes-accented edges,Distort-ocean ripple,Stylize-glowing edges,Sketch-stamp and Artistic-film grain.

The filters used for the photograph above were Artistic-neon glow, Brush Strokes-ink outline, Distort-wave, Sketch-graphic pen, Texture-craquelure and Render-lighting effects. 

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a documentary photographer and photo journalist. Is biggest influence was his grandfather. His style of photography is social documentary. His approach is intimate, anthropological (study of human behaviour) and satirical. He says he likes to give people space to expose there lives and values. I think he does this perfectly. The people in most of his photographs are just doing their usual thing,not posing for the shot. He has travelled the world capturing these wonderful shots. He likes to document modern society as it truly is, its different levels of wealth and poverty and to get people to debate such issues. His work is viewed in mainly magazines and newspapers although he says this is getting more difficult with the media and public's fascination with celebrity.

Although i don't think his photographs are great as far as composition is concerned they do take you right in and stare. This picture illustrates the wealth of the high society in Russia and shows a side of the country the rest of the world doesn't see. In my opinion the topic and message of the photograph is more important to Parr than composition. I like his work for being different and for making me think when i look at it.

This photograph illustrates perfectly his style. It looks like someones holiday snap. Having studied his style though i can see that he doesn't go for the cliched shots, which in this case would have been of people sunbathing in perfect poses. The woman at the front, looking completely out of place but obviously not concerned by her surroundings, is clearly his focus in this picture. It captures the human behaviour and satire he likes to portray.

light writing