Liam Drury's ART 240 Blog

 Robert Mapplethorpe's still life photos are mostly done using very dramatic lighting, and I would argue most of the time singularly focused on one object, or maybe a couple at most. His backgrounds are simple, or have nothing at all to them, and are often very dramatic, and very direct. This piece, titled Tarantula was done using what looks like a direct light shining directly at the tarantula, seemingly coming to a close the further back it goes. It looks as if it was taken from a dark room as a door way opens slightly, letting in a bit of light. Mapplethorpe probably used a similar technique to get his lighting this way, of course here it's done artificially, blocking off two sides of the light, making a sort of doorway like structure in front of the light. Not the best way to describe it I suppose but I see how he did it. It seems rather direct too rather than shining on top of the subject the way the shadows go directly behind the spider instead of being under it. This mak...

Philip Lorca-Dicorcia's work is heavily involved in street photography, mostly used to imitate or exaggerate the effects of natural light in a certain image. His technique seems to involve heavy use of strobes, as well as gels in order to create colored lighting. Often times his lighting is very faint, making it look natural rather than being very direct and abrasive like that of most portrait photographers.  In this piece titled Brent Booth, Lorca-Dicorcia uses a late night scene as his backdrop, and sets up Booth at a table with a classical looking pepsi carton alongside an old wagon, giving the photo vintage vibes. The blueish light shining on booth isn't super direct, and is a blueish tone as if to convey he sits under a streetlamp, or a large fast food sign, or maybe he sits outside of an establishment with wide open windows and the lights on inside. The point is, he looks like he sits somewhere just based on the way the light hits him. The lights solely point out the peps...