JinFeng Xu 3 photographers

Amani Willett

Amani Willett is a New York photographer, he received his MFA in Photography, Video from the School of Visual Arts. He is currently live in New York with his family. He published monograph "Disquiet" on 2013

I checked out one of his book "Disquiet". The photograph in the book really caught my eyes. I see the loneliness every single of his picture. There is this weird lonely feeling he creates in his image, every image has the subject that gives you the feeling. But more importantly is the lighting he used in the photograph, he use the natural light the most, almost all of his photograph has one light source that is important to the image, and surrounding to that light source is dark. So, most of his picture is surround by the dark, and there is one light source that makes the whole image different. The subject he choose is also really interesting, an old man's hand, a baby, basket of rose, a stair. Every different subject has that loneliness feeling. It's very natural, you don't feel any staging in his photograph.

He really like to use the natural light, dark room is dark room, he didn't trying to make model look bright on the face with other light source. I think it's really beautiful that he used all those light so well, it looks very natural and that extreme loneliness feeling he creates is what makes his photograph so special.

Laura L. Letinsky

She is a Canadian photographer, she has a BFA from the University of Manitoba, and an MFA from Yale University. she is born in 1962. The book I checked out is "After All" that she published in 2010.

I check out this book is because the style is extremely clear, and stands out. It makes people memorize the work, and that's really good so people can remember it. 

All the photograph in this book is staged up with table, wall, and elements as subject. 

First, let's start with background she used. It's WHITE WALL, the background is an extremely white wall, like there is no any distraction, no extra elements, just a plan clean white wall.

Second, an white table. an extremely white table, like there is no distraction again, just plain clean white table, and with white cover sometimes. 

Third is the subject she put on the table to photograph, there are things like left over food, an cup, trash bag,  used water bottles, an eaten apple. So mostly, just the trash you make everyday in your life. When it's been put on the white table and with white background. You don't see them as trash in the first place, and the visual satisfying it creates make you want to look more of this staged photographs. she also played with the light and shadows, most of it is natural lights, which it creates the beautiful shadows on the whole image, because it's all white, the shadow has more meaning to the photograph. her photo is elegant, she makes the trash become something that is really beautiful.  Everything looks really settle in her image. How she set up the subject is what her image all about, the weight each subject has is really really comfortable. There is that randomly visual satisfying in her image.

Thomas Wågström

He is a Sweden photographer born in 1955. I checked out one of his book called "Necks".

The reason I checked out this book is because this book is just stands out like no others.  I never thought of photographing people's neck like this. In this book, it's a collection of people's neck photographs. This is a amazing idea, because when we thought about doing a portraits, we always looking for their facial expressions, and faces. That is something in front of them, but the neck is something that is at the back of your head. That is something you probably never see it in your life time, but other people might see it all the time. Also without the face, the neck is still can be identified. It still shows the meaning of the photographs.different people with different hair style, different ears, and the softness of the skin from different gender and age. with out the face, we can still all those things. This is just amazing idea. It makes me wondering what their face might look like, what if they turned around. He mostly use the natural light to shine on the neck, make's the neck stands out on the image.  The neck takes almost all the space in the image. It's just pure focusing on the neck of the person.

I really like this collection because it has that weird feeling, it gives you the imaginations. the idea is really brilliant.