Larry Blackwood

Larry Blackwood is an American photographer who has spent forty years “exploring self-expression through photography”. Though he spent most of his adult life working in other professional fields, he lately has switched back to spending all of his time working on his photography. He has been featured in numerous photography collections and magazines, including Lenswork in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015.

           His Lenswork collection in 2008 called Elevation, and is a series of photographs featuring farm buildings and silos. What was interesting about this collection was the texture and contrast that created interest in what could have been boring and featureless pictures. Silos and farm buildings are usually generic, varying very little from silo to silo. Despite this apparent obstacle in originality, Blackwood was able to emphasize these minor difference and highlight them to create a wide variety of pictures. He did this by mostly focusing on lines and curves, but particularly shadows. Buildings and architecture that might have otherwise been overlooked are transformed to become stunning. Another interesting feature of the buildings that he highlights is the contrast of curves and straight lines. Usually the curves come from the silos, and the straight lines and angles come from the barns. This combination causes the eye to travel across the photograph smoothly in some parts and more rigidly in others. Another interesting feature are the shadows. In many pictures, half of the interest and fascination that this collection creates is made by the shadows. Some of the shadows come from the buildings themselves, and some from additions to them, like rickety old staircases. The stark contrast of the shadows and the harsh lights are sharp divisions between light and dark.

I was inspired by Blackwood to pursue architecture photography, not only for an assignment, but also for my personal project. I hope to apply his skills of control and texture in my own photographs. Beyond the simple subject of silos, Larry Blackwood captures a stunning contrast of light and dark, new and old, the best of times and the worst of times.  

http://larryblackwood.com/

Architecture

       Coming back to school from winter break, we were loaded with three assignments due in quick succession. First, microphotography. Second, the first installment of our personal project. Third, architecture and landscape. Going into this, I didn’t really have an idea of what constituted as ‘architecture’, because all the collections of professional architectural photographs I’d seen were so different from one another. In addition, I was pretty sure I wanted to do architecture for my personal project, so I knew I had to get used to taking these kind of pictures quickly. 

       I went out on a Saturday morning with my father to take pictures. We went first to the Royal Chulan hotel, which is near my house. I quickly realized that I wasn’t getting the kind of pictures I wanted there, so we took the second roll of film to some old, abandoned buildings near the KL Tower. The buildings were old and dilapidated, and overrun by trees and plants on the insides. However, they were being cleared out by a construction crew, which created some interesting photographs. In one house, there were walls covered in graffiti, which also created interest. Compared to my first roll of film, I was very happy with many of the photographs I finished with. 

       The biggest challenge when printing these pictures was bringing out the details in the shadows. One photograph had a massive and nearly black shadow on it. Really by accident, I dodged the shadow, and ended up with quite a bit of detail brought out, but luckily without it being unnatural looking. Another picture had two dark windows. After dodging them a little bit, some detail was brought out. However, had I dodged them more, they would have looked grey and unnatural. 

Microphotography

       Our first assignment for the semester was microphotography, which is the same as we did last year. Different than last year, however, was that we did this project in pairs. My partner was Tara Goel. An interesting and challenging aspect of this assignment was collaborating with another person when they have a different photographic style then yourself. Tara preferred to focus on the pattern and detail on large leaves, while I preferred to see an entire flower or bulb in detail. When two people have different artistic choices, it can be difficult to compromise, but we worked through it. 

       In regard to the photographs themselves, a challenge was getting the contrast correct. In some of the pictures, there were very dark areas and very light areas, which made it difficult to print at times. I wanted to keep that contrast without having it distract from the overall detail and pattern of the leaves themselves. An interesting aspect of the leaves pictures was the lines that drew the eye across the photograph, leading them indifferent directions. The texture was also incredible.

Personal Project: St. Joseph's Cathedral

         Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam with my basketball team. Though the flight is only three and a half hours long, the differences between Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi are dramatic. First and foremost, it was extremely cold, ranging from 12 °C-6 °C! Coming from a city that was averaging around 35 °C at the time, it was a welcome change. Another difference between Vietnam and Kuala Lumpur was the architecture, layout, and development of the city itself. From my experience, Kuala Lumpur is striving to make itself a thoroughly modern metropolis, replacing old buildings with towering skyscrapers. While that may not necessarily be a bad thing, it does lessen the easy access to culture and authentic street-life. In Hanoi, they have preserved this way of life, though purposefully or through necessity I am not sure. 

         During our free time over the weekend, we walked throughout different districts of the city, the most interesting of which was the Old Quarter. This semester, I have chosen architecture as my personal project, mainly because of the wide variety of architectural styles that are accessible to me, as well as because I wanted to do something vasty different than my last personal project, which was street. Hanoi provided a perfect opportunity to try out architecture photography.

         This small collection of photographs was taken at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in the Old Quarter. From the information I gathered, the cathedral emphasized the trinity, which was visibly present everywhere, from its facade, to its windows, arches. it was built in 1886 by the French colonial government, and seemingly resembles its Parisian predecessor, Notre Dame. What really captured by attention was the symmetry of the building itself, the beautiful arches, as well as the distinct shape of the windows and staircases.