What photographer(s) inspire your photography

Tsc Tempest , Jan 29, 2012; 03:30 p.m.

Hi all,

recently, I've been doing a bit of soul searching and wrestling with the question of, "What photographer(s) inspire me to be a better photographer?" and "Which photographer(s) work do I really admire?"

I'm ashamde to say, not one name tumbles of the end of my tongue, and I'd be pretty hard pressed to name more than three or four photographers where I'm familiar with their name, let alone their work [Adams, Collins, Moriama, Seper, ...really struggling now, hmmm, ummm, Bill, the new-cyanotype guy? ...you get the picture.]

The reason I'm so bad at this is because I'm don't consider myself a 'celebrity follower' i.e. I might look at something and go, wow that's great, but I'd rarely take the additional effort to find out who made the shot. Same with music, film, sports, book authors etc. Just never really been my bag.

Anyway, Food Photography has been an on again, off again interest of mine, so I thought I'd try and identify a few leading lights of the genre, take a look at their stuff and ask myself a few 'disect the picture' questions based on the ones I really liked. What a minefield that has proven to be.

1. Most successful togs, work with very capable stylists, e.g. Delores Custer, Charlotte Plimmer, Jaqueline Buckner, John Carafoli... (searched them from this site)

2. Glamoa togs seem to be very few and far between, e.g. Patrice de Villiers, Richard Jung...

So, here is where I need some help. IYHO who would you say is a leaing contemporary light of food photography, really out there and inspiring. Can such a person exist without a stylist? and, for inspiration should I be looking at the tog or the stylist?

To keep this topic also relevant to others, who would you say is a really inspiring contemporary photographer? What genre? Why do you think they are so good?

I welcome any responses and discussion and look forward to turning around my contemporary ignorance, and indifference to what's going on around me.

Cheers,

* the new cyanotype guy is Mike Ware, but I guess you knew that. ;-)

Responses

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Tsc Tempest , Jan 29, 2012; 03:32 p.m.

Glamoa = Glamour, high profile

Lupo Lobo , Jan 29, 2012; 08:23 p.m.

I am afraid I can't help much with who inspires me but I might be able to tell you something about what inspires me.

Food ... we come out of the womb screaming for it. We crave it, we need it and it is one of a few things that all life forms have in common. It is infinity diverse and as different from one house to another as it is from one continent to another and yet it is just food. It can be beautiful and also disgusting. It can provide nourishment and can also be fatal. Not enough will kill you and too much will do the same.

So yes, food inspires me. I learned to cook at an early age and the ability to put simple ingredients together with the addition of time and temperature has given me the ability to provide sustenance not only to myself but to others I care about. It has been in the past few years that I have become interested in photographing food. It combines two things that I enjoy very much. Enjoying food and enjoying photography.

Although it is likely far too late in my life to consider making a living at food photography or photography in general I truly wish I had combined the two passions in my early years. For now I just do it because I love it. I share both the food and the photographs with family and friends. I query the population here at P.Net for ideas and techniques and then try to share my results whether they are a success or failure.

More to your question - I can't name a single food photographer that inspires me. I do not seek them out I just deal with what I have before me. I taught myself, my lighting setup would be heartily dismissed by semi-pros and pros alike. I look at some food blogs for ideas on a certain foods I am thinking about making and to see some visual representation of what it is supposed look like. I will then put my spin on it from there.

To me there are very different levels of food photography. Documentary, commercial and then my favorite - food porn. Food porn is in your face, make your mouth water kind of stuff. Sometimes extremely detailed and complicated and sometimes so simple. All the rules can be broken. DOF super narrow or very broad. Composition can be so creative. Food porn is more about trying to present an image that causes you to try to prevent yourself from licking the image off the screen than it is about a technically commercially viable image. I want it to get an immediate reaction of some sort from the viewer.

When I want to look at decadent, desirable and mouth watering food I often go to the foodporndaily website. They feature a photo of the day. The image is displayed and described and contains a link to the photographer and or their website. By clicking on the front page image it will load the image from the previous day and so on so that you can click through some very nice food photography and also link out to the artist for more information. I submitted once and was thrilled to have my photo of the first meatloaf I ever made accepted and featured.

Hope that helps some what.

Alan Klein , Jan 29, 2012; 10:20 p.m.

Lupo: The fact that you can eat your subject when you're done shooting is a scrumptious idea!

Lupo Lobo , Jan 29, 2012; 10:55 p.m.

It is a benefit - I try very hard to not waste food for the sake of photography.

Alan Klein , Jan 29, 2012; 11:16 p.m.

Very thoughtful of you. Waste not. Want not.

Tsc Tempest , Jan 30, 2012; 03:18 a.m.

Hi Lupo, thanks for the link, a useful site that. I too started out in food very young. Have from time to time made a living out of it as well. Same with photography, also attempest to make a living out of it as well.Now, I'm reviewing and refining my interests and consolidating my diversions, hence the interest in the inspiring photographers bit. Would you care to share your setup? As unconventional as that might be?

Lupo Lobo , Jan 30, 2012; 08:59 a.m.

Tsc - I described it somewhat in another thread here on Photo.net. (about half way down the page) Hope that helps

Richard Sperry , Jan 30, 2012; 02:06 p.m.

Rolf Horne and Edward Weston(Brett and Cole too).

Roman Loranc right now. I am still in awe of his prints.

Man Ray and Jerry Uelsmann to remind me that what I print does not need to look real. Franscesca Woodman to remind me that poor image quality prints can have an artistic impact and value.

David Scott , Jan 30, 2012; 02:51 p.m.

I am always inspired by the portrait work of Cheryl Nicolai Jacobs.
http://www.cheryljacobsportraits.com/

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