PEI QIU

I am strongly inspired by three artists—Sally Mann, Julia Margaret Cameron and Henri Cartier-Bresson. First, they all have taken picture about human active. Most of their works related to the environment, and they are all black and white. 

Sally Mann is an American photographer, best known for her large black-and-white photographs-at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death. She is my favorite photographer. I really like her works “At Twelve” series. Every picture in this series was focus on people’s face. Also, these picture are all black-and-white with very strong contrast and balanced composition, I think Mann is really good at using nature light and nature environment background.

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographer with Arthurian and other legendary or heroic themes. Comparing with Sally Mann, Julia Margaret Cameron’s works are totally different. Her works are really soft-focus. I could not even see the outline or shape of the object in the picture clearly. However, every picture she took is like a poem or myth. “From her housemaid to Alfred Tennyson, the indomitable Victorian wrestled everybody into her studio, dressing them up as characters from Shakespeare and the Bible”  (Julia Margaret Cameron: soft-focus photographer with an iron will). I didn't use her style, but her ideal was great. It made me think about what kind of dress is most fashion now, and how to combine it with our daily life.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer considered the master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. When Henri Cartier-Bresson talk about “The Decisive Moment” He said sometimes it would be spontaneous but others times he had to be patient and wait for it. Regardless he was very methodological when he would go out and shoot, and would only keep his images if every element of his image (people, background, framing, and composition) were perfect. I believe he was waiting for an appropriate facial expression and body gesture to make a “decisive moment”.  

I was concentrating on model’s facial expression and body gesture, looking for the connection between model and environment or background, waiting for my “the decisive moment”.