In this workshop we learnt how about flash, how to use a flash gun, different artists that use it and the effects that it can have on your images.
Artists that I liked from the flash presentation:
Weegee
Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City and pioneered this very specific style of street photography. I really enjoy how alive and vibrant these photos feel, despite the lack of colour. As well, the harshness of the flash makes them feel quite vulgar which I also really like - showing a different side the American dream/flashy silver screen version of USA that was being promoted across the world at the time.
Andy Warhol
I'm really intrigued by these polaroids by Warhol. The use of makeup, styling and flash makes the images feel very graphic, much like Warhol's prints but also takes away some of the personality of the subjects, they seem quite doll like and too impersonal in my opinion. However, I think it's really interesting to see different uses of flash, and how it can really alter the way a portrait it taken.
Alex Prager
I really like the storytelling within Prager's work, I found them so entertaining to look at as they feel like snapshots from a film or performance. I also really like the colour palette and styling of her shots, they're very reminiscent of 1960s fashion and film and have a very warm and bright feeling to them. As well, Prager uses flash in a very different way to the artists above. She uses it a lot more subtly and to pick out certain focal points in her images, which is a technique that I'd really like to try myself.
My own flash experiments:
Below are my own experiments with flash. I actually really enjoyed playing around the flash gun, it made me much more aware of exposure and I actually really like the impact it had on the portraits I was taking them, making them feel a lot more dynamic and more in focus than the background, which I know is a rather traditional from of portrait photography, but is a style I have never tried before. It took me a while to get my head around using the different settings on both the flash gun and my camera, but I actually rather like the outcomes and would definitely like to use the flash gun again, definitely in the style of some of the artists above too.
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