Castillo+-+Free+Choice+Masters

[|Karl Blossfeldt:]


Blossfeldt, the photographer of the far left image is known as a historical master who is famous for composing closer-up images of flowers and plants. In short, Blossfeldt taught sculpture at the Royal School of the Museum of Decorative Arts based upon observing natural plant forms up close. His attention to detail encouraged him to incorporate botanical specimen into his photography as it became popular. He is best known for the use of macrophotography and his belief in the understanding and observation of natural forms to inspire contemporary arts. Personally, I admired the sense of symmetry that is in a lot of his work because it allows for defined positive and negative space yet the image still is visually engaging with the textures of the plant. In my own work, I hope to possibly stray from the rule of thirds and compose a visually interesting image that still has a basic sense of symmetry.

[|Jerry Uelsmann:]


Uelsmann, another historical master photographer, is known for creating surreal images such as the image in the middle. Uelsmann started his career teaching photography in Florida but as he developed a connection with different styles of art, he used his photographic base to "cross-fertilize" and project concepts with an expansion past photography. His surreal concepts are integrated in his work that appears as the merging of multiple images to inspire viewers with his talent in photomontage and darkroom techniques. I personally appreciated the natural merging of his images as his images appear seamless and normal until I noticed little details of combined images. Ultimately, I admire his techniques of combining images that may not necessarily be seen together otherwise, which can send a message to a viewer.

[|Laura Letinsky:]


Letinsky is a modern photo master who is well-known for her contemporary still life portraits of spaces that appear to have been interacted with by people. She is currently a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago and has manipulated still life scenes as well as flat imagery to convey the gap between what is perceived as real and what is not. Letinsky's concepts that allude to illusion and human presence are often captured with unkempt scenes, rather than perfect, clean lines. In her image on the far right, I admire how it appears as though objects are floating, the crinkles of the tablecloth, and the dripping of the candle wax. These imperfect elements contribute to a scene that captures human interaction and an almost surreal scape that is beyond gravity.

Project Proposal:
With respect to the above photographers, I will compose a series of images that reflect an attention to detail. I will gather textures with some usage of macro-photography and awareness of the spaces that I live in everyday to illustrate my concept best. My concept will be narrowing on the objects and subjects that help compose my daily living but haven't gotten much attention prior to now, so I am aiming to capture the little glories and simple subjects of everyday life. I have not exactly practiced with photography that is closer-up to the subject and I want to branch out. On a similar note, the element of design that I want to incorporate into some images is balance as I haven't created many images with balance incorporated in it. With this project, I will use Photoshop to enhance the lighting of my images so even if I have varying subjects I can adjust and filter light to have a similar impression on the viewer, such as with experimenting with color tint. Ultimately, I want to harness photography to draw attention to the little textures and closer-up images of subjects that would likely not be appreciated in the rush of daily life, or potentially include plants or imperfect aspects in my images.