Jan Pypers

http://www.janpypers.be

Jan Pypers is a Belgium freelance photographer, who I discovered on Trendland. I think it's important to take inspiration from all areas of the art world and design industry, I think it's good to appreciate them because in some way or another they can inspire your own practice.

There are two main elements skillfully stage-managed by Pypers: dreams and paranoia. The hare is seen hidden on conspicuous corners, to casually sitting on a windowsill; this character drifts from one extreme to the other effortlessly, always casual and calm. The female character is the opposite, bringing obvious drama to the forefront. The surrealism of the hare with the paranoia of the dame in distress.

http://trendland.com/the-mysterious-hare/

This one is my favourite piece, the composition and lighting is simply hypnotic, it sets up for a really mysterious scene and makes the viewer ask so many questions about what the hare is doing. The scenes he has captured in the Hare series are so surreal it makes you question whether or not they are photographs, I think this is what makes this series stand out to his others because they are so captivating and intriguing.

He does class himself as a fine art photographer and sells them as prints, what I often find difficult with fine artists no matter the medium, there often is a lot of lengthy analysis into them and the meanings behind the work which is often nonsense. I don't think I need to do that here, Trendland already commented on the themes of the surreal hare, and the dame in distress. I think in this series yeah the Hare is surreal but the dame never looks like she's in distress, I think if I was to talk about it I'd say it'd have more to do with him being someone who isn't comfortable in his own skin/hair but he's found someone to love but he's too afraid to approach. I think it would make an amazing short film, in films you have directors of photography, that work with the camera and lighting crew to make a certain look of a film and I think this guy would make an amazing Director of Photography.

 

Romain Laurent. French Photographer

http://www.romain-laurent.com/

Romain Laurent is a photographer and director based in New York City. From fresh, energetic portraits to high-concept ideas, Romain does it all.  He was born and raised in the French Alps, where he nutured a love of extreme skiing, and studied product design at the Ensaama National School of Applied Arts and photography at Gobelins in Paris.

Romain's Gif series of One Loop a week caught my eye with the simplicity and effectiveness of each piece. I like the isolation of motion, this is something that's very common is very visual aesthetic hand drawn animation, it makes the movement the focal point, and also makes less to draw in animation. It's weird to see it in photography because you don't expect everything else to be so unnaturally still. I think there's a beauty in these Gif's, they are very cleanly made, I think the ball spins a bit too fast in the last one, and in the flying arms it's a little jerky, when the hand flicks back up. But that's me being very nit picky. I kind of like how, they haven't been made to tell a story or a narrative of any kind, but to me they come across like they were just made to show off. I quite like that a little bit though. (if you look at the full series there's quite a few of dance movements, skateboarders doing tricks etc.)

I decided to look more into his work after stumbling across his Gif's, (quite literally on stumbleupon.com) and discovered he's also a director, of shorts. Here's the first one I watched for a music video, I'm not sure I was a big fan of the song but I really like how the camera constantly spins around, and there's so much movement across the screen, again to be a bit nit picky it can be a bit shaky but it is really hypnotic. I think the shakiness is only emphasised when the sounds off (I might of just turned it off). It really reminded me of what Yoni wanted to achieve last year.




I much preferred this video. I love how simple the idea is of the man changing clothes, but then the clothes stay in position whilst he walks away, I thought it just oozed coolness. I also really like the lighting and colour palette. I think these are things that as animation students we tend to glaze past quite quickly but in film you get time to emphasise that because the actors do most of the motion for you.  I think we need more coolness in animation, maybe we need to focus more on these types of things to get it.

Alexander Khokhlov, Photography

Alexander Khokhlov and Veronica Ershova is a photographers duo world renowned for it’s creative projects. Unconventional ideas and daring approach to common shootings are their calling card.

2D or not 2D?

Most talked-about series Weird Beauty and 2D or not 2D were created in collaboration with famous russian make-up artist Valeriya Kutsan. Mix of face art, photography and post-production allowed to create optical illusions. 2D or not 2D series were included in Designcollector’s top-10 of Russian projects in 2013.

Optical illusion photography is something that has always mesmerized me, it blurs the lines between art direction and real life, I think it could push animation, because as animators we always say what's the point in doing this animated when it could be done in live action, if that's the case then there is no point. By looking at optical illusion photography you can see what aesthetics would be capable in live action. I also think that they always have really nice compositions and lighting techniques that could inspire my work.

I think it's interesting that this couple did an exhibition that was amazingly colourful and then there next was Weird Beauty was striking in comparison in Black and White. The diversity of their photography style even though they specialise in portrait pieces pushes itself as will continue to do so.

Weird Beauty

In this collection of photo's (bare in mind, I only chose a few from each selection there is an overwhelming number to look at, all visually striking), the lightening face is the most captivating to me. It's so cool how flat the lightening bolt looks.

I think it's important to recognise at this stage that it has come about from a collaboration with a top makeup artist, and I think as photographer's they could of pushed themselves more. I appreciate that they were really trying to push the emphasis on the make-up but from a photography point of view, I much prefer the compositions in the series White Garden.

White Garden

I feel like by this selection of work as photographers it's really matured. I like the space around the focal point. I only think they could of done more in the art side, the white paint on the bodies looks a bit patchy. Their could have been more detail in the flowers. I like it because it explores fantasy themes and it's real life but it's a bit magical. I wonder what the male equivalent of White Garden would be, Black City?


http://www.alexanderkhokhlov.com/