Personal Statement: Drex Brooks, www.drexbrooks.com
The photographer I chose was Drex Brooks. He is mostly a landscape photographer but not in the traditional way. Mr. Brooks takes photos of historically significant places in their present state, these location include reservations, battlefields, massacres and more obscure things such as floods, nuclear power plants and a tree that survived the Oklahoma City bombing site. His photos convey the bleakness of histories lost and his old works were all black and white. In his early work he shot landscapes with out any people in the frame but tried to portray a type of humanity that comes with the expansions of populations. In my work I wanted to try to reproduce Mr. Brooks color palette of his earlier work and the feeling of bleakness and lack of humanity. The picture I shot was on the coast of Florida as hurricane Sandy was passing by. This allowed me to have an interesting take on his work by instead of having humanity creeping in on nature I could instead have nature cleansing itself of humanity. Usually crowded beaches my shots show desolate beaches and blowing winds devastating man made landscapes. I chose black and white because I wanted to try to mimic the gray simplicity of Drex Brooks photos.
I love these photos... I don't know why they appeal to me so much because this is not the type of photo that normally catches my interest. You have done a fantastic job shooting these images. I love the way they are framed, so lonely and troubled. The black and white adds to this effect as well. I love the selective focus in your beautiful close up wave shot. Your lifeguard house picture is absolutely perfect and is my personal favorite. It is perfectly framed, beautifully focused, and intensely captivating. The one with the waves and beach in great too. I love that you chose to take it portrait rather than landscape. I would not have thought to do that, but think that it works very well. I would hang it up in my house if i could. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI love these SO much. Especially the second and fifth images. The quality of the greys is gorgeous and I really like how there are no whites in any of them. They feel so ominous and when I look at them I know something's coming and it's sort of terrifying. I love the way the third one is composed and how the shades of grey are sectioned off and how they vary between light and dark. Out of everyone's photos for this assignment, yours are among my favorites!
ReplyDeleteI think that these image are powerful. I am impressed that you were willing to go out in a hurricane and take pictures, which is one of the reasons these images are so great. I like the choice of black and white because it reinforces the emptiness that your images portray. I'm sure the colors from the hurricane were powerful as well but I feel like that would have given the images too much going on. Your choice to photograph objects and places that the viewer expects to see people in as empty gives the emotion of fear. It makes you anxious about what is going on because the lack of people is "wrong". I think you did a great job, and it is obvious that you put a lot into your images.
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