Megan Dorin
Assessment Three
Critical & Contextual Awareness
Throughout my projects one to eight I have undertaken research, investigating techniques
and contexts of work created by professional examples in a wide range of media.
The first professional example I have chosen is Michael Kenna, who is an English
Photographer best known for his black & white landscapes. I chose to write about this
certain part of research I did as I have a big passion for photography and Michael Kenna’s
work really inspired me towards project four, which is the project I researched about him
on. Project Four was to take a series of photographs that tell a story about the town of
Shrewsbury or the story of my life based around Shrewsbury. At this time I chose Michael
Kenna because his work revolved around buildings and landscapes which is what my main
idea also revolved around in this project.
The style of Michael Kenna’s work is of black and white photography in a long exposure
style, which I really like because black and white photography is one of my favourite styles
of photography. I found Michael Kenna’s work to be very impressive as many his style of
photography links to a lot of things I like, such as the nature aspects. I think that there is
some sort of meaning behind his photographs, I believe that the meaning of many pieces of
his work is to enhance his love for nature. To me, the photographs that I have looked at of
Michael Kenna’s seem to be very dream-like, the style of them makes me feel as though the
aim of them was to portray images from dreams. While researching Michael Kenna I took
some of my own test photographs in black and white as I was very inspired by his work.
Below are a few examples:
Megan Dorin
Many of the photos Michael Kenna takes are of places he admires or loves, which is another
reason why I chose to research him. His work suited my project really well as Shrewsbury is
a place I love. Although I didn’t use the black and white photos in my own project I still
found interest in trying out different styles of photography. My three favourite photographs
from Michael Kenna’s portfolio are below:
These three photos are my favourites out of all of Michael’s work because not only is the
concept different in each one but so is the style of black and white effect used. The first
photos is one of my favourites because it creates an illusion from the angle of how the
photo is taken, which on Michael’s part I think is very clever and not easy to do. The black
and white effect in this photo is rather white and create a brighter more positive feeling to
the photo. Whereas the black and white effect in the second photo is darker and therefore
creates a more negative effect. I loved this photo because, to me, it portrays a mysterious
message, which I cannot quite figure out; so for me this is one of my favourite photos of his.
Another reason I chose the second photo as one of my favourites is because I like the way
Michael has manipulated the lighting to create shadows and reflections on the water, which
again is difficult to do. The third photograph I have chosen as one of my favourites because
it reminds me again of the dreams, the way the fog creates a blur in the photo reminds me
of something we see in dreams. Together the simplicity of Michael’s work makes me like it
even more, as there are no busy aspects to it and I am easily able to create a message from
the photographs, which with some photographers you are not able to do easily as their
work is too busy. I think the reason behind Michael Kenna’s photography to why he created
what he did, is because he wants to show the beauty and simplicity of the nature around
him and in his admired places, but in a different way to other photographers.
For my second piece of research I also chose a photographer from project four, as this has
been my favourite project to date because I love photography and was able to explore
different styles. I chose Ian Egner for my second piece of research as I loved the way he used
lighting in his photography. Ian Egner has been a professional photographer for over 8 years
and has had work published in newspapers, magazines and on many blogs; which I
personally think is very impressive and shows his enthusiasm. I chose, in project four, to
Megan Dorin
research Ian Egner because he specialises in nature, travel and landscape photography
(among other things). So for that certain project his work influenced my ideas greatly as my
ideas fitted in well with the style of photography Ian specialises in. My main reason I chose
Ian Egner was not only because his style of work fitted in well with my idea for my project
but also because I loved the way he manipulated lighting for his photography, this is what
he is best known for. Below are, again, my three favourite photos from Ian Egner’s work:
These photos are my favourite because they show the most use of light manipulation and
look very interesting to me. The first photo I chose because I like the way the sky and water
looks very blue, this photo makes me feel like the aim to it was more positive than negative,
as the lighting in it is very bright. I chose the second photo because I loved the way the
shadows created an omnious appearance, I feel like this photo would be something found in
a romantic movie of some sort, due to the way the lighting hits the water and how the swan
stands out above eveything else. The third photo is another of my favourites because it is so
simple yet looks very well done and has a lot of possible messages/stories behind it. My
favourite thing about the third photo is how the shadows on the mountains in front create
the effect that they appear almost, Photoshopped, onto the original photo. The way Ian has
used the lighting in this specific photo is, I think, very clever because to me it makes me feel
as though there are mulitple messages that could be desiphered from this photograph, even
though the photo is very simple. Just like Michael Kenna I think the reason why Ian Egner
created the work he did is because he wanted to show the beauty in nature, but instead
show it in, literally, a different light to how people usually see nature. I think he wanted to
show the environment and the nature around him differently to allow people to see a
different side of it all. Ian’s work has been constructed this way because people will find his
work visually pleasing and also will look into the messages behind the images.