Trent Parke
Trent Parke is an Australian photographer who is well known for his black and white photographs capturing the landscape and the people within it. He has many successful projects, one of those being his twilight portraits of is hometown. This project is of particular interest to me as I want to pursue the use of lighting to create a a different feeling towards the buildings. The light in his images shows off the beauty of the buildings emerging from the shadows, and often allows the focus onto other aspects of the landscape.
I find this image to be particularly beautiful due to the details it holds, the longer you look at it the more you notice such as the girl sat in the sunlight or the formation of the clouds. The shadows of the image hide the dull details and make the other aspects stand out against the background, creating a striking image.
His other projects such as Dream/Life use black and white photography to document the behaviours and activities carried out by the local people. The colouring along with the angles and the style of the images help to create a feeling of documentation of the place and shows a deeper sense of identity within the community.
The use of shadows in his images help to both highlight and obscure details that would have a much different appearance if the images were shot in colour with a higher exposure. I particularly like the image above as the raindrops help to create a sense of what it would feel like to be stood on the street in that moment. This is what I want to achieve in my images, I want to convey the feelings and identity of a place through the use of lighting and inclusion of people within my images.
