Claudia Harris, PHOTO 202 Style Assignment

      The first photographer I researched is Rudy VanderLans. I checked out his book, “Still Lifes, California” which depicts color images of landscapes and objects from small towns and large cities in California. VanderLans is a Dutch photographer and graphic designer who mostly  photographs landscapes and objects that he finds in nature/other settings, that he does not manipulate. VanderLans shoots in digital. I was unable to find information about what type of equipment/camera he uses. His photos have a good deal of phallic images in them (lines) that either move the eyes across the page, or interrupt the image and keep your line of sight focusing in one place. They are well and evenly lit images that seem to use daylight as their only illuminating factor. I would differentiate VanderLans’ work by its close up nature and its constant muted colors that show whatever is being photographed in its natural form. By close up nature I am referring to the fact that the majority of his pictures, while they are showing a scene that might have a good deal of subject matter in them, they still focus on a “small” area rather than on a massive layout of space. Even when his photos have a good deal in them they still feel very minimalist and uncomplicated. Part of this might have to do with the “every day” nature of what he is photographing. The majority of them are easy to look at and make the audience want to continue looking at them. They are unassuming yet intriguing. 

The second photographer I researched is Nathalie Grenzhaeuser. I checked out her book, “Trespassing” which deceits color images of abandoned or desolate landscape/factory areas in different towns in Germany. These images are taken in the winter months and almost all have snow cover somewhere in the image. Grenzhaeuser shoots in color digitally with a wide angle lens and shoots landscape/objects that are in a natural scene (they are taken as they appear and are not fabricated). The images are far away from the lens and show a lot of space in the photo. Her style of photography is one that leaves whoever is looking at the image feeling like there is more going on in the image than can be seen. Each image feels a bit scary. This is helped by the cool, muted colors that are used and the fact that her images lack the appearance of humans. Giving it a post-apocalyptic type feel—especially in the images with man made structures here you would expect to see people. Further—the landscape subjects of her images are unsettling. Abandoned factories, farms, oil rigs, open spaces that have containers in them and other appliances where you cannot really understand why what is there is there in the first place. Her images leave a lot to be understood. If the sound of a still afternoon standing outside in the snow had an image—it would be these images. She uses the objects in her images as guiding lines to move the eye across the page, this helps the image to be more pleasant to look at—even if the image is of a scary or unsettling landscape. 

The final photographer I researched is French photographer, Sophie Calle. I checked out her book, “Take Care of Yourself” which depicts different women all holding the same “love letter” in different locations. The version of the letter is shown in different ways, and the book goes on to explain the letter and what it says. The women who are photographed in the photo range greatly in age, race, appearance, setting, etc. Calle shoots with film on a telephoto lens. Her distance from subject to lens is, I would say medium in length. She allows for the setting around the subject to be in focus, but she is not so far away that it is difficult to tell what the main subject of the photo is. I would describe her images as full of emotion. Not only in the way the setting and the colors work to show the sadness in the subject and in the letter, but the faces of the subjects and the way she arranges their bodies to show how upset they are feeling is very evident in her work. Her images can be differentiated by their ability to tell the same story (the hurt over the letter) through so many different models and settings. Each photo is incredibly different and yet incredibly similar. You are able to get the same message; heartache, from each image no matter how old/young the model is or where the image is being taken. The settings of the images move from outdoors to indoor to around many people to completely alone. The consistency of the message and the individuality of the entirety of each image really encompasses her work.