Works Cited:
Robinson, Tom. Tom Robinson Photography. 27 Oct. 2009.
http://www.tomrobinsonphotography.com/.
Robinson, Tom. "About Tom Robinson Photography." Flickr.com. Oct. 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/people/tomrobinsonphotography/.
Tom Robinson is an independent photographer who has spent the last year travelling to different locations around the world, documenting his different experiences with photographs. I found his work via the Firefox application, StumbleUpon, while looking for ideas of what to use for the blog presentation. When I first started looking at his photos, I was a little standoffish because of the giant dead bird displayed as his opening photograph on the home page, but as I viewed more and more of his work I grew to really like his style. The colors, focus, lighting, and subjects of the photographs are impeccable.
His techniques, as he explains, “I very rarely crop photos. I love horizontal lines in photos ie. horizon lines, buildings etc. I love composing photos with a lot of sky and a bit of ground (or vice versa). I rarely use a flash. I often under expose by 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop to preserve highlights” (Robinson). He even discusses the simplicity of editing the photos, “I don't go mad when post processing my photos, it's usually just levels, saturation, white balance and vignetting” (Robinson). After reading this, it really affected the impressiveness of his photos, because it really is revealing the true beauty of nature, rather than Photoshopping it a hundred times to make something average appear bright and beautiful.
I wasn't quite sure if I was going to present his work to the class until I saw the “Feet First” section of his website. I basically fell in love with this part of his portfolio because not only does it show every place they've been to in a magnificent shot, but it also shows their feet (and the changes they go through – like shoes and nail polish) as they experience each location. As I scrolled down through each one of the photos in the other sections, the natural beauty of the world and the different cultures became quite clear to me. However, this section seemed to speak to me even more because when you're looking at photos of different subjects, you seem to forget that the photographer was ever really there, experiencing it. I liked the Feet First section because it added that taste of the experience to the art themselves as if it tells the story of their adventure. The best part of my viewing experience was in the end, after looking at all these photographs and after wondering who that second pair of feet belonged to, there's a picture at the bottom of the page of Tom Robinson and his girlfriend taking a picture of their feet!
I would definitely consider his photographs to be art because they are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also took a lot of thought, time, money, and experience to make them what they are. He explains in his profile on Flickr, how much time it took to decide on which camera to bring, alone. I think the context of each photograph definitely added to my aesthetic experience, as proven by the Feet First section. As for placing it in one of the quartets, I had a lot of trouble, because I could place it in all four. I think it's obviously Mimetic because the photographs imitate the actual location, Instrumental because it has the power to inspire its viewers (to travel or take-up photography), and Emotionalist because each photo seems to evoke different emotions from its viewers, and Formalist because of the actual technical alignments and subjects of the photographs.
All in all, his work really got me excited about studying abroad next year, and inspired me to start documenting all the places I visit along the way. It also made me admire the perfection of his photographs and started getting me thinking about taking Photography as an elective. Do you like his work as much as I did? Why or why not? Did it inspire you? What quartet do you think it reflects the most?
This is one of my favorite pieces photography that I have seen. I would never think that putting my feet in a bunch of pictures would make such an impact on the quality of the work, that's also why I am not an artist. Good find.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, I really like this photographer! I enjoy the fact that he included himself in the photos of each place he went, it is something I would never think to do. I take a lot of pictures, just for fun, and think photographer is definitely art. I always thought being a photographer would be a really fun job! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteBonnie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked this artwork. I think we often forget the fact that photography can be considered art because many of us take pictures all the time. And in doing so, we don't really think about the aspects of art (like lighting and space). But to see these pictures reminds me that photographers are such artists because they spend time thinking about what they will create and how they will do it. I really love the feet pictures and find that so awesome that he would do that in every place they went. I really love the sunset one in particular =)