I've decided to change my photographer I as really liked her work and she really inspired me.
Joanna Kustra is a London based photographer
who specializes in beauty, fashion, portrait and kids photography. Her
adventure with photography began at the age of 22 and in a short time from a
hobby developed into a true passion and a way of living. She a self-taught
photographer, from the very beginning fascinated with people, portraits and
fashion photography.
When I saw Joanna’s work for the
first time I was amazed by her painterly style and I quickly realized that this
work really fits my aesthetic preferences. I am fascinated by her use of
colours and light. Influenced by her work I decided to get my first flash head with
beauty dish and to organize own little studio in my room. Currently I am at the
stage of experimenting with different light setups and shooting against variety
of different backgrounds. Lately I have understood that good portrait can be
only taken once we comprehend how the important the light is and how massive
impact is has on the overall appearance of an image. I’ve not had a chance to
gain a much of an experience in this field yet but I feel that working with
light has already became my passion. I’m going to carry on with developing my
photographic lighting skills and maybe someday I will find my own style which
will represent me as a photographer.
I think that my current activity
(working in my own home-made studio) quite fits the brief we have been given
for this module. I thought that I could produce a series of six portraits
containing visual and thematic cohesion and which in some way will visually
emulate Joanna’s work.
One of the main aspects of
approaching Joanna’s work will be the process of post=production. I’m sure it
is also a key element of Kustra’s work which makes it memorable and
recognizable. I’ve been interested in retouching and photo manipulation for a
quite long time and I think I can tell that I am familiar with Photoshop and
all its’ tools and features. I’ve been always interested in work mad by
contemporary photographer such as Jill Greenberg or American photographer Dave
Hill. Their work is based on the lately very well-known HDR technique (high
dynamic range). I can’t really tell the
reason why I always edit my photographs. Maybe it’s because of lack of
experience and I’ve never taken a shot which wouldn’t require any editing or
maybe I’m just never satisfied with the quality and faithfulness of tones and
colours which digital camera provide, or maybe it’s just both. Nevertheless, I
really enjoy photo-editing and and it’s really relaxing activity after every
photo-shoot.
All my ideas and further development
of the project will be frequently uploaded on my blog.
