Stefan Ruiz is a master at portrait photography he is able to capture incredible images of people that keeps the eye continuously stuck on the subject itself. The picture below to the left is a great example of that because of the simple background it moves me immediately to the subject and because the background is also light blue and then her shorts are a darker shade of blue it again brings my eyes to her because the contrast between her and everything else is so brilliant and then her start is absolutely astounding I feel like she is looking right at me and I am with her right now, it also reminds me of the "mom look" and connects her to my mother. However, because of her pink bows it gives me this idea that she is still living in the days of her youth which she had to miss out on. But this is just one example of the many pictures that Ruiz has shot.
His eye for color reminds me a lot of Saul Leiter's work. The picture below to be exact brought his photograph to mind. (The top is Ruiz the Bottom is Leiters) I think its the way they are both able to single out color and still capture impressive colors and still make it about the person being photograph blows my mind. They both are very simple in their work, and when I say that to the viewer it seems incredibly simple then when you start to look at the photograph you can see the intentionality and the purposeful decisions made.
Ruiz work is what I want to be working towards. After Our final critique I feel like I have found my groove of making portraits. After looking at his work I want to make sure that I am focusing on the simplistic aspect of my photographs as well as color. For a really long time I have had a problem with making a portrait and being like oh yeah that's what I want to do, I felt like I wanted to do something more, I know its dumb, but I am in this season where I really like making portraits and I am going to work really hard on them because it's something that I enjoy and I know wI can put a lot of effort into them right and learn so much!
It's not dumb that you feel like you want to take portraits because I feel the same way too. But I am taking that love I have for it and am trying to push it. So I can't wait to see the rest of your work!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's dumb, either - your passion for portraiture translates into the hard work necessary to make really good work (which is to say, your portraits rock because you obviously work really hard at them!). The photo of "Fran Healy of New York" reminds me a lot of the portrait you took of the kid with the storage facility behind him (the one with all the wonderful red in it) - you are already working with color in interesting ways, and I think that once you start paying more attention to it, your work is really going to rise to a new level.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's dumb, either - your passion for portraiture translates into the hard work necessary to make really good work (which is to say, your portraits rock because you obviously work really hard at them!). The photo of "Fran Healy of New York" reminds me a lot of the portrait you took of the kid with the storage facility behind him (the one with all the wonderful red in it) - you are already working with color in interesting ways, and I think that once you start paying more attention to it, your work is really going to rise to a new level.
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