Yinuo Zhang_ Style Writing

• THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, David Hamilton             

        David Hamilton was a modern British photographer and film director. He used Minolta lenses exclusively due to their lower contrast and he was known for his Hamilton style, which brings the soft focus of the photos to the viewers. Hamilton was best known for his photography of young women and underage girls, mostly in the nude.

Hamilton’s artistic skills began to emerge during his job at an architect's office. After becoming known, he was hired by Queen magazine as an art director. Hamilton began photographing commercially while still be employed, and his dreamy style quickly brought him success.

In his book, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, all subjects of photos are young women or girls, mostly in the nude, looking directly at the camera. The most photos are captured from level-angle with the subjects. The photos usually include the upper body(medium shoot) or just the face of the girls(close up), typically without much body gesture. These girls are physically attractive, and even sexually allure, while from their clear eyes, we can see the innocence of young girls. Virginity is a challenge and it is self-regarding, which we can see deeply from their eyes in the photos. The pictures are soft focus, letting it feels like there is a filter in the front of the lens, making the photos a feeling of dreamy, causing the viewers to imagine what the girls are thinking of when they were captured and what they experienced at this beautiful age. If I would talk about his photos over the phone, I would like to firstly describe the feeling when I first look into the photos. And then I will talk about what I see from their eyes, with the imagination of what they may think of at the capturing time. I will not describe too much about their gestures or behaviors, since I think their bodies and eyes are the most attractive things to me.

 I do like this book, with the photos he took. Because I can feel the innocence of the girls, and it also reminds me of my teenage time, which I think is precious for all female, generally. Although the pictures look not that “clear”, the whole tone of them are actually simple and clear, giving people a dreamy and warm feeling.

• Pictures of Hell, Mark Ruwedel

       Mark Ruwedel is a modern American artist, who has photographed American deserts and other remote locations for over 25 years. I think Mark Ruwedel uses the telephoto lens most of the time when capturing landscape.    

        Mark Ruwedel found his interest in photography when he was studying painting in state college, PA. He studied photograph when he was in graduate school in Concordia University, when he started working with the view camera and teaching. In 1990s, he began his travels to photograph and pursue his interests in the contemporary landscape, with the nature dynamic.  

         In Ruwedel’s book Pictures of Hell, it includes hundreds of pictures he took in Hell where was found by Charles Carr in 1958. The photos are all landscape and are in monochrome, capturing different aspects of Hell, including forests, river, rocks,etc. The capturing shots are also various including low angle shots, deep focus, etc., making hundreds of photos of nature dynamic. And also the different layers of the photos make people engaged in the photos better.    

       It seems like Ruwedel’s pictures are easy to describe, which is actually not. If people see his hundreds of pictures almost photographed similar things, it would be difficult to tell the deep side of these photos generally. In his book Pictures of Hell, it says “it is important not only to consider the context of Ruwedel’s recent practice, but also its overall nature and character: a seemingly insatiable appetite for the variety and strangeness of the North American West, from its sublime natural landscape to the absurdly optimistic attempts to conquer it, whether literally or metaphorically. ”, which I think can tell the importance and feelings in understanding the photos.   

         This is the first photograph book that I chose to write about. When I first open the book and saw several pictures in it, I know it is the one that I am looking for, with all these grandiose landscape, captured in monochrome, creating a feeling of mysterious and definitely captivating to me. I have always been seeking for pictures, and also want to photograph, like these.

•   BERLIN+TOKYO, Kosuke Uchimura

            Kosuke Uchimura is a modern Japanese photographer, who also grew up in London and Ottawa. Uchimura first visited Berlin in 1987, and did not return again until 2005. He was trained and worked as a photographer for 15 years in Tokyo. 

I cannot find many information about Uchimura, but from the photos he took, I think he used the wide-angle lens often. In his book BERLIN+TOKYO, he photographed more of the motion of people in Berlin and Tokyo, mostly without looking at the camera directly, doing their own things in daily life, such as students running to the school, business men carrying folders and walking across the street, children playing on the ground, etc. In some of his photos, he includes only animals or a place, a building, in the photos.    

          In the book, Uchimura captured Berlin and Tokyo, which people do not often see connection between. However, he thinks the two cities have certain commonalities, such as in the patterns of two cities. Therefore, he photographed these two cities which he loves both, and to let people feel similarities between them, or even create a new city in their minds where Berlin and Tokyo can melt together to become a single and complete city. He took the photos from different angles, including level-angle, low-angle and high-angle. Also, he use different focal length and interesting composition to make the viewers more engaged in the scenes.

          Uchimura has favored “things that are Germanic” since his childhood, and he likes contemporary and classic music, which I think may contribute to his career as a photographer. After his return to Japan, he started photography. The reason he started to photograph Japan may possibly explained by his lack of living in japan during his childhood, which caused him to record and discover the life and things happened in Japan, through camera, after he returned.   

         The photos he captured incorporate motions and were photographed in monochrome most of the time. If you look closely enough at the picture, you may find that there consist of stories, from people’s behaviors or eyes, in the photos which are really interesting. Also, there are usually shapes incorporated in the photos, making various composition. If I talk about his work over the phone with somebody, I would like to firstly describe the environment of the picture, and then tell whether it is colorful or black-and-white. And then I will talk about the behavior of people or animals, with what I can see and understand from their eyes, or just simply tell the story that may happen during the capture of the photos.          I do like his works, since every picture has different compositions and each seems have their own stories to tell, making the photos captivating to the viewers.