James Grundy

James Grundy is a portrait and street photographer from Australia. All of his photography is black and white. I decided to pick this photographer to write about as I find his work unique and like how he photographs action shots to tell stories. I also like the way the elements of contrast and depth are clearly shown in his photography. 

I like how this image is slightly out of focus and the skaters are in motion as it establishes movement and makes the scene more realistic. The fact we cannot see their faces creates a sense of mystery but allows us to focus on the surroundings. I also like how they only take up a small amount of  the frame, as again we can focus on other parts of the image, for example the clear depth. The road, trees, and lamposts help to clearly show depth. We can see that the road gets thinner the further into the distance it gets, and the white lines on the road get closer together. The trees also get smaller the further into the distance they are and the lights from the lamposts become closer together and more out of focus, establishing depth. The skater that is further ahead looks smaller than the one nearest the camera which again shows depth. The lampost light significantly stands out against the plain black sky, and creates a dark silhouette shadow under one of the skaters with a clear outline. The black and white effect helps to bring out the tones in the road in order to show texture, and in the trees in order to show form.

One of the reasons I like this image is because of the sense of adventure that it creates. The image is very contrasting. The people in the image create silhouettes as they contrast against the white sky, and the outline of them is very clear. The wire fence also contrasts against the white sky, creating a pattern over the image, making it more appealing. The image also shows depth, as the lines separating the wooden floorboards get closer together as they travel into the distance, and the fence looks as if it is getting smaller. My favourite aspect of this image is the sense of journey and adventure created by the reckless silhouettes entering the 'no entry' zone, as we do not know where it leads. As well as a sense of adventure, the picture also creates a sense of mystery as we are unable to see the peoples faces, and the facial features are important for revealing a persons feeling and emotions.

 

This is a very contrasting image as it consists of shadows and highlights. The first thing I noticed about it was the clear silhouette of a person. This creates a sense of mystery as we cannot see any features of this person. The outline of this can be seen very clearly due to the significant contrast between it and the lighter background. I also noticed that the formal element of depth is clearly shown as the train track gets thinner the further into the distance it travels. The way the image is black and white works very effectively in this case as the contrasts between inside the tunnel and out of it.

 

This image is very contrasting. Because of this significant contrast, although they are small, the silhouette of the person and the balloons are very clear. Depth is also clearly shown as the rows of trees look smaller and closer together the further into the distance they are. I like the way this image is very minimalistic as it is very effective. The lack of colour creates a slight eerie feel reinforced by the sense of mystery created as we cannot see the person in detail. The treetops create a rough texture which adds interest to the image.

After looking at the work of James Grundy I feel inspired to explore with minimalistic photography as this is not something I have tried out so far. I think this will emphasise contrasting order to create a clear focal point in an image. I also want to practice with depth photography in more detail in order to create some really effective images. I could do this by photographing rows of trees like in the bottom image, fences or roads. I will experiment more with black and white in my work where I want to emphasise the contrast of my images.

 

Looking in more detail at James' work I noticed that there is quite a variation of images for example portraits and street photography, and though it is all black and white which some people may not enjoy, I still appreciate and enjoy this photographers work. I especially enjoy his action shots as a sense of mystery and adventure are created which I really like in photography. This is a feature I would like to include in my own photography at some point.