Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall is a Canadian photographer whose early work helped to create the Vancouver School. The Vancouver School, or the Vancouver School of Photography, was a style of photography created in the 1990s that portrayed intense and complex content. Wall attended the University of British Columbia in 1970, and later did work at the Courtauld institute in London.

I am interested in Jeff Wall's work because of how perfect everything is arranged, and because of how well he establishes a connection between his subjects and their environments. I am also drawn to the high contrast and chaos often found in his photographs, and they create a mood not often consistently matched. Additionally, it initially appears that Wall spends a lot of time setting up his subjects and their environments, which I appreciate as their clutter greatly enhances his work. After reading more about Wall, I found this assumption to be true, as I learned about his painstakingly-long setup process and his incredible patience. These are two aspects of photography that I have yet to apply, and I am very excited to do so.

In my emulation, I will be doing mostly environmental portraits with complex and dark backgrounds. If not already provided by the scene, I will tint the picture slightly blue and will increase the contrast. Additionally, I will make sure to have nothing but the subjects in the foreground, as to replicate the work done by Wall.

I will use my Nikon DSLR as to capture the most detail and to allow for further editing which will guarantee the similarity between my photos and those of Wall.

Fazal Sheikh

Fazal Sheikh is an artist who is known for his portrait photography of people who are displaced or live in marginalized communities. In his work, Sheikh attempts to provide a better understanding of his subjects for his viewers. He was born in 1965 in New York City, and after attending Princeton, he began his career of photography. His projects of taken all over Africa and throughout the Middle East.

I chose these three photos because they were all portraits of some type, as the portraits were by far my favorite and the most impacting part of the collection. I chose the first photo because it presented a portrait in a very unconventional way, and I chose the succeeding two because of the emotion which they incite in the viewer.

The guided meditation was very beneficial to my understanding of and connection of the photo, which was the middle of the three included above. As it went on, I began noticing more and more details in the photo which I had not noticed previously. While I could not empathise with the subject and her feelings, the exercise made me feel as if I had a greater understanding of the situation and its circumstances.