Megan Laursen

Ms. Bull
June 15th, 2015

PHOTOGRAPHY EXAM AWQ3M1

PART ONE: PHOTOGRAPHER RESEARCH
BARBARA COLE
What style is their photography (fine art,
documentary, editorial or news, portrait,
commercial, or other)?
Barbara Coles photographic style involves
elements of portraiture within her fine art
techniques, capturing unique and obscuring angles
of her models utilizing extraordinary forms and
contrasting figures along with unique texture and
movement within her pieces. This, in turn, conjures
an effect that nearly looks as if it was painted.
What was their career path? How did they get where they are now?
Coles career debuted from her early teenage years, as she worked as a model for several
years before dropping out of school after the completion of her Grade 12 year. Her occupation
truly took a turning point, however, when she was promoted from a secretary of the Toronto Sun
to its fashion editor soon after beginning her position within the corporation in 1972. At the early
age of 19, Cole was learning an abundance of photographic techniques in a fast-paced, hectic
environment, observing the darkroom techniques of fellow photographers. Soon afterwards, she
was making her own way in creating fashion spreads, writing articles, and shooting runways
across the globe. In 1985 after working for the Toronto sun for ten years Torontos Jane Corkin
Gallery debuted her first photographic display.
What do you think contributed to their success as a photographer?
I believe that Coles preparation within not only the modeling industry but also the Toronto
Suns fashion sector not only granted her an understanding of human anatomy, figure and form,
but also allowed her to study photographic techniques in portraiture and to gain an understanding
of photographic elements utilized within her works such as shutter speed and aperture, framing,
leading lines, asymmetrical balance, etc.

What is/was their technique are their photos manipulated, composites, staged,
strictly as shot?
Coles technique combines elements of portraiture, movement, and texture in order to
create painted shots revolving around the theme of figure transformation. Her focus often
encompasses artificial lighting and an above viewpoint in order to eliminate depth in the
perspective of her photos. She also places a large focus on clouds, reflections, plastic sheets, and
figures enclosed within cloth in order to conjure a raw image that imitates a painting without
digital manipulation. In recent years, however, Cole has captured unconventional movements in
figure through the utilization of water.
What do you think they want to say with their photographs?
I feel that throughout her photographic works, Cole intends to present a form of
expressionism in her abstraction of human features and form in order to depict the purest element
of human emotion. Through distorting humanitys reality through natural elements within the
world, Cole expresses that our very humanity and perception is heavily intertwined with our
environmental factors, conjuring a new angle on beauty and emotions diversity.
What is it about their work that appeals/doesn't appeal to you personally?
Coles artworks appeal to me greatly, as they present a captivating distortion of subject
matter despite her use of dull, often monochrome or analogous colouring. Through the utilization
of shutter speed and aperture settings, Cole presents a variety of photographic techniques such as
rule of thirds, leading lines, framing, depth of field, asymmetrical balance, etc. in order to depict
her message quite clearly and to present a unique, revolutionary angle on photographic
composition, human emotion and beautys ideals in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

LOUIE PALU
What style is their photography (fine art,
documentary, editorial or news, portrait, commercial,
or other)?
Louie Palus photographic style revolves around the
documentary genre, incorporating elements of portraiture
into his pieces in order to create an emotional connection
with the photographs viewers and to depict human
condition.
What was their career path? How did they get
where they are now?
Palus career debuted with several pieces on social,
economic, and political issues. Soon after graduating from
the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 1991, he moved onto studying within his
field in New York City upon being granted a summer scholarship. His primary piece, Cage Call:
Life and Death in the Hard Rock Mining Belt, was co-written with Charlie Angus and acted as
his official photographic debut. Soon afterwards, Palu moved onto holding a position as a staff
photographer at the Globe and Mail from 2001-2007, followed by his capture of the war in
Kandahar, Afghanistan from 2006-2010 and the US-Mexico drug war from 2011-2012. Today, he
has held over 21 exhibitions for his works and has earned over 13 awards.
What do you think contributed to their success as a photographer?
I believe that Palus passion was derived from his childhood. His mother, a former
assembly-line seamstress, and his father, a stonemason, grew up within the era of World War II
and were witnesses to the horrors of its violence. With stories of poverty, family roots, and
trauma insinuated into his mind as a child, Palu gained a passion for photographing raw images
of social political issues, creating successful works revolving around the moral concept of human
rights.
What is/was their technique are their photos manipulated, composites, staged,
strictly as shot?
Palus technique incorporates simplistic photographic methods in order to capture effective,
raw and unaltered images, presenting imagery of human emotion within violent and
unfavourable circumstances utilizing photographic techniques such as depth of field, leading
lines, framing, asymmetrical balance, viewpoint from above, viewpoint from below, etc.,
encompassing texture in not only objects but the detail of a human face in order to capture
human emotion further. Often, Palus photographs present low-key elements.

What do you think they want to say with their photographs?

I feel that throughout his photographic works, Palu intends to depict footage of human
emotion and injustices across the globe in order to spread awareness on violence, poverty and
conflict associated with the human condition in not only war torn areas but also locations where
events compromising human rights occur. Through this depiction, Palu evokes great empathy
and emotions of sympathy within the viewers as censorship is not present in his imagery,
presenting what acts as a call to action to viewers worldwide to provide human rights and
justice to those in need.

What is it about their work that appeals/doesn't appeal to you personally?

Palus artworks appeal to me greatly, as his subject matter is often very prominent, defined,
and powerful. His utilization of the low key photographic technique or dull, nearly
monochromatic colour schemes do not dampen the effectiveness of his imagery, as it guides the
focus towards elements of texture, human expression, and the fine details of human condition.
His photographs present a dark, eerie aura, reinforcing his message along with his several
photographic techniques which render any altering unnecessary. Palus choices of composition
also provide an aesthetically pleasing yet disturbing atmosphere surrounding his photographs.
_____________________________________________________________________________

PART TWO: PHOTOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

ATELOPHOBIA 05/12/15
In photographing this piece, I chose this subject in order to emphasize the psychological
factor surrounding the concept of phobias. Within todays society, the modern ideology of
perfection is instilled and reinforced upon human beings, especially women, throughout their
lifetime in a harsh and discriminatory manner. My subject matter was intended to depict this to a
more extreme extent, as the model is literally painting a picture of what perfection is upon a
figure she fears is imperfect, represented through the asymmetrical shadows surrounding the
photographs left side and a canvas positioned directly behind the mannequin. This piece is
typical of my photographic style in my clear focus on leading lines, asymmetrical balance, and
work with a model to portray an element of emotion within my piece. However, I had only
worked with the high-key technique once before photographing this subject matter, providing it
with a unique element in contrast to my typical photographs. In order to photograph this piece, I
set up both yellow and white artificial lighting sources utilizing a large lamp and a projector,
shining them both on the model in order to gain great contrast in highlights and shadows a
representation of how what is perfect and what is imperfect can seem fairly black and white

to one with atelophobia. I then white-balanced the image utilizing a grey card, and set my
exposure triangle to f/5.0, shutter speed 1/40, and an ISO of 200 in order to capture the image in
an artificially bright, white manner. These settings were unique in contrast to my typical
exposure triangle of f/9|f/11|f/5.6, shutter speed 1/60, and ISO 100|400, but were directly
modified in order to adapt to the environment and atmosphere of my work. I feel that my
photograph is quite successful as it combined several photographic techniques, aspects of human
emotion, and photo editing techniques such as levels, brightness and contrast, dodge and burn
and black and white in combination with colour in order to portray a strong representation of the
fear of imperfection in a way that is not only relatable to societal views but in a way that is also
representative of perfections trivial and extreme factors. If I were to re-take this photograph,
however, I would have modified its angle so that the walls corner was completely in the centre
of the photograph, depicting an increasingly pristine, perfect atmosphere surrounding the
model.