There isn't a lot of information about Justin Grant available online. He began photographing in 2002 after borrowing his brother's camera to photograph his two kids. He shot 5 rolls of film that day and was so taken back by his results that he decided to pursue photography. He is completely self-taught. He now travels the world capturing commercial advertising images for multiple photography companies.
His use of light is very striking with all of his imagery. He captures a lot of fitness and beauty photography and I believe you can see that in a lot of his other work. The focus of body motion and photographing it in a attractive manner is something some people just never grasp. He also moves between color and black and white images. I think his use of black and white strongly contribute to the overall feel of those images.
I was originally drawn to his work because of his work with fitness figures. I know a professional weight lifter that I have been planning on capturing for sometime now and was searching for photographer who have done it before. That is when I stumbled across Justin's work. His use of lighting in his interior shots are absolutely stunning. I am also captured by the way he stages his subjects. Even though they are clearly in a fitness setting and represent a fitness lifestyle, the images still come off as a beauty shot.
The lighting on these is exquisite. I have really mixed feelings about these kinds of beauty shots - on the one hand, I'm happy to see photographs that showcase strong women. On the other hand, these images still seem to be staged with the male gaze very much in mind (especially the handstand one). In other words, I fear that they still tend to objectify women, just a different shape of women than we are used to seeing. It's a real conundrum for me, especially when I can also appreciate the formal aspects of the work as I can with these images. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThese are magnificent. I absolutely love the lighting of the subjects and gender role reversal. These totally are breaking the barrier of subjective gender roles and challenging that idea. I personally feel so motivated looking at these. Strong beautiful woman. Discrediting the idea that weight lifting will make you look like a man and adopting a new sort of independence. These speak volumes. The portraits are stunning. The lighting and depth of the subjects/models.
ReplyDeleteHis style and lighting are beautiful, capturing the beautiful physique of women and using black and white makes them that much more powerful. Kind of ties into sports photography as well.
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