Adam Farhat

Adam Farhat is a young photographer from Portland, Oregon. His work primarily consists of portraits of his cat. He uses a variety of techniques in his work, however he is widely seen as a pioneer of smartphone photography, as he is a known advocate for its ease and convenience. Many critics in the past, however, have argued that his work is just a physical representation of his laziness, as his work seemed to only depict his cat. However, Farhat responded to the criticism by shooting the photo of a lifetime with a DSLR, rather than with his smartphone. While working on a collection of slow-motion work, Farhat took a freeze-frame photo of a man jumping off of a short ledge. Because he had metered his camera to the light of the background, his frozen subject appeared as a silhouette. To this day it is regarded as one of the greatest photos ever taken.

My favorite aspect of his work is his ability to blend simple concepts and an amatuer style while still maintaning a high degree of professionalism in all of his photos.

Masao Yamamoto

Masao Yamamoto is a Japanese photographer who was born in Gamagori-City in 1957. His early work largely comprised of small photographs that he subjected to a process of artificial aging so that his work appeared "timeless." This work has since transitioned to that which attempts to depict the "rupture between the past, present and future." Throughout his entire career, however, his work as always depicted the connection and relationship between man and nature.

All of his work is shot in black in white, and depicts the aforementioned concept of connecting humanity and nature. Much of it depicts isolated subjects in a simple background. I especially appreciate how his contrast between black and white that is exaggerated by the simplicity of his photos creates a simple, appealing image that is left up to interpretation due to the repeated subject of nature.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer from Brooklyn, New York. He attended Purchase College, and it was there that he first began photography as a hobby.  He later received a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University, where his work began to transition from a creative outlet to a more professional endeavor. Since his graduation and his senior thesis, Crewdson has continued to make over a dozen other exhibitions of his work.

Much of that work is not surrealism, but rather it captures a surreal image. His subjects are often standing in elaborately setup stages, and he uses very precise and purposeful to create dramatic images. Additionally, this light is often very sharp or has both hues of warm and cold colors. The surrealism and combination of different colors of light are what primarily draws me to his work.