Reflections Photography - Researching Photographers linked to Traces

In order to develop my Traces idea (what people leave behind) further as this is my strongest idea I am now going to research Photographer that I have found and others which have been suggested to me in tutorials. This will allow me to gain a better understanding of how I can create my images.

Karen Storr:

I came across Karen Storr's work when I was trying to find visual aids for my initial ideas however I never really researched into her traces work of why she does it. Here are some of the images which I liked of her's...

I like how she takes very simplistically composed pictures of things which most people wouldn't stop and look twice at and some how she makes them visually interesting to us. She takes images of these man made marks but they always have an element of decay which is meant to represent how nature takes over through time. I think it says makes a stamen on man made objects VS nature and how nature will always win eventually. I am interested in this work as well from the perspective of how she makes it interesting to view. I feel like it is because of the vibrant colours which attract your eyes in and then because a lot of her images are close ups you then begin to observe more things in detail like the interesting textures which create quite pleasing patterns. This has made me think that when capturing my images of traces I feel like close ups will be more ascetically pleasing.

Keith Arnatt:

I was told to look into his work especially focusing on the collection called 'Notes from Jo' because it could be another interesting direction to go in for my traces project. I like the simplistic concept behind his work because all he has done is photograph and present of these notes that his wife use to leave for him. Here are some of them...

He did this project after his wife had sadly passed away which means that suddenly these notes go from being very basic to now having a deeper meaning behind them because there sentimental value has risen considerably. He has also taken them all out of context which makes the messages themselves surreal to outside audiences. It almost isolates the messages which in themselves makes them a spectacle to the audiences. I like this interesting way of exploring traces and taking things out of context which make me think I might try and find some notes to take pictures of which will be found notes taken out of context which will hopefully give off the same strong feeling that his images do.

William Eggleston:

I was also told to look at Eggleston's work because of photography skills in terms of how he captures emotive images. I have looked at his landscape work before d really enjoyed it because if the way he created an atmosphere particularly through colour and composition. I looked through his other work and found some images which could relate to my project quite nicely. Here they are...

These images attracted me because they focus in on food and one of my location ideas for traces was a cafe or restaurant to take pictures of peoples leftovers. I found that again the element which stood out the most for me here was his use of colour. It seems like he has saturated the colours further so that they seem even more vibrant to draw your attention in. I live how the red ketchup bottle in the bottom image is where you eye is medially pulled to. It makes me think that if I manage to take some photos on location in a cafe or restaurant maybe I could try editing them to saturate the colours even them this same vibrant appeal. I also think again it helps turn everyday mundane objects into something quite beautiful.

This research and observation has helped me think lot more into my traces idea and how I can tackle this idea in a really nicely composed photographic way but also with meaning capturing the traces people leave behind.