research post

Research of photographers

Main artists

Dale M Reid ~ Reid is a contemporary fine art photographer based in Toronto, Canada. Her work is inspired by studying other photographers and has been compared to Ansel Adams as well as contemporary photographers. When creating her work she uses black and white film and more traditional methods. I feel that Reid's flower portfolio is relevant to my work because she photographs flowers using an black and white medium and still manages to capture every little detail of the floral arrangements, i aspire to use her kind of approach in my work as a form of experimentation by using coloured film or using lighting to capture the silhouettes of the flowers similar to Reid's work.



i chose this particular image of Reid's because it was one that caught my eye, this was because sunflowers are particularly known as being bright and bold flowers but with the use of the black and white, the colours are almost muted, which makes this picture so beautiful. Sunflowers are usually connotative with happiness and joy, like the colour yellow, but because the image is in black and white, it mutes the yellow colours and suggests a change of mood.

i chose this image of Reid's as she uses the blank spaces well yet doesn't fill all the spaces, resulting in an image that isn't overcrowded or too much in one frame the flowers are also simplistic yet beautiful. Roses are commonly associated with love and passion so the image of roses like this could reflect on the artists passion for photography and flowers but the use of black and white imagery also blanks out the colours of the flowers which could be associated with a loss of love or the loss of a loved one.

i like this image by Reid because of its simplicity and how the framing of the flower is used so well with the space given and how the centre of the flower lines up perfectly with the centre of the image. The use of a singular flower like this instead of more, like the image before, could relate to the feeling of loneliness and being almost singled out from the crowd, like this flower would've been singled out from a bunch

This floral image is different to the previous images i have selected, it is more of a close up focusing on the pistil of the flower - the centre of the flower- which in this case is a primrose. The use of a closer look to the flower really highlights the intricate details of the petals and pistil Reid's images really highlight the true beauty of botany and takes a more intricate approach to floral photography

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Harold Feinstein ~ Feinstein was an american fine art photographer, when he passed away in June, 2015, the New York Times declared him: “One of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience.”. He started his career young, at the age of 15, and within a few years Edward Steichen purchased some of his work for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Feinstein about his flowers work "In the late 90′s I began to experiment with digital photography and became one of the first to use a scanner as a camera. This resulted in seven books of large format colour photographs and the Smithsonian Computerworld Award for digital photography in 2000."



I chose these images by Feinstein as its symmetrical and well refined and also reflects my love of biology as it is almost a cross section of a flower, this one in particular is a tulip(right) and the other a pansy (left). These images were taken with a scanner, not a camera which i see as a form of experimentation of getting a close up image without and shine off the flower or shadows and really broadcasts the flowers beauty and doesn't draw the viewer away from it. To me these images are simple yet beautiful and really shows that even the most basic pictures can hold so much beauty and grace.

i chose this image by Feinstein as it is almost an illusion as natural if flowers were upright like this the would grow straight up but due to his use of a scanner as a camera,  he has the ability to create almost illusions as to a viewer, this image would seem impossible to construct without using wires, but as the flowers are essentially laid on a printer, Feinstein has the ability to manipulate them, i also adore how sharp and detailed the image is which sometimes cannot be achieved through studio photography.

this image is one of my favourites by Feinstein's as it is almost a birds eye view of the flower. With this image you can actually tell its been taken with a scanner because of the fold on the flower petals, despite this the image is unique and the scanner used captures so much detail and easily eliminates the background to make the flower the sole focus point of the image.

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Imogen Cunningham ~ Born in 1883 in Oregon, America, Cunningham had a 70 year career in photography, I feel that Cunningham's flower portfolio is relevant to my work because she photographs flowers using an black and white medium and still manages to capture every little detail of the floral arrangements, i aspire to use her kind of approach in my work as a form of experimentation by using computer edits using Photoshop.

i chose this particular image of Cunningham's because it was one that caught my eye, this was because the flowers are particularly known as being colourful and bright but with the use of the black and white, the colours are almost muted, which makes this picture so beautiful. As the flowers carry so much detail and fills the image but because the image is in black and white, it mutes the colours and suggests a sombre mood

i chose these images by Cunningham as it has contrasting tones and gives two different viewpoints to one plant, the light and the dark, both with incredible levels of depth and tone, this image is so powerful due to the simplicity of it as it clearly hasn't been heavily edited, other than the black and white element 

Additional artists

Anna Atkins ~ Born in 1799 in Kent, Atkins was an English botanist who developed camera-less photography as a medium for recording images of plants.  She knew both the pioneer photographer William Henry Fox Talbot, and Sir John Herschel who invented the cyanotype printing method. The very striking cyan blue colour is caused by a mix of ammonium ion citrate and potassium ferricyanide - in a process developed by the astronomer and scientist Sir John Herschel. The images produced are now commonly known as "blueprints".

Karl Blossfeldt ~ Photographed plants in close-up.  Trained as a sculptor but was also very interested in plants and a keen amateur botanist and used photography as a teaching tool to demonstrate the differences in botanical forms. He developed cameras which allowed him to photograph both plants and the texture of their surfaces in unprecedented magnified detail (x 30)

Imogen Cunningham ~ Born in 1883 in Oregon, America, Cunningham had a 70 year career in photography, I feel that Cunningham's flower portfolio is relevant to my work because she photographs flowers using an black and white medium and still manages to capture every little detail of the floral arrangements, I aspire to use her kind of approach in my work as a form of experimentation by using computer edits using Photoshop.

Dr. Dain L. Tasker ~ Dr Tasker's records of flowers made using the X-Ray process - radiographs - stemmed from his knowledge of x-Rays and his developing interest in photography. He recorded record numerous varieties of flowers with the x-ray process.  The images he generated as a result are some of the most striking and unique in the history of making records of flowers. They render subtle tones and describe the internal structure of the plant and flower extremely well.

Henry Fox Talbot ~ Born in 1800 Scottish scientist, Henry Fox Talbot developed the first negative to positive photographic process, in the mid 1840’s, from which multiple prints could be made from one negative.

Sabato Visconti ~ Visconti is a media artist and photographer based  Western Massachusetts. He was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and raised in Miami. His work seeks to reconfigure traditional understanding of photography and digital media, by interrogating how hegemonic structures distort and influence individual subjects. Sabato began experimenting with glitch processes in 2011. Since then, his work with digital media has been exhibited throughout the world, including spaces like Tate Britain, his work has also appeared in TIME, Vogue,WIRED and The New York Times.


 Nina Mingioni ~ Mingioni's work is inspired by dramatic light and shadows, people’s faces and stories, lines and small details. She said that 'Photography gives her the chance to live in the moment. While taking Nina away from the daily grind, it opens her eyes with the gorgeous light, detail, emotion, and beauty of all that surrounds her'. Her work with flowers focuses on the finer details and always has a specific focus point.