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Perceptive Vision - Developing a Personal Style

Creating Style

When we look at other acknowledged photographer’s work we often see there is an aspect that they carry through all of their images like a signature – we might call this personal style.

An analysis of Bill Henson’s photographs reveals a specific subject matter and type of lighting, a certain type of perspective and image design. Besides subject material and lighting, he uses specific film and processes that also unify his work. He often works in the night. His images explore the subject of adolescence. The use of chiaroscuro lighting is common throughout his works which carry a painterly quality. Figures sit on dark backgrounds, whites have a cool blue cast. The faces of the subjects are often blurred or partly shadowed and positioned not directly towards the audience, the landscape is most often a setting to place his figures in.

By contrast, when we look at Ken Duncan’s work we see a different signature. A different type of lighting, a different type of perspective and image design - he uses the panoramic format as a signature, dusk or dawn light, moving water is blurred, the horizon is often across the top or lower third line, the colour is often highly saturated.

The most unutilized means of developing a personal style in photography is to claim a specific technique. Lawrence Aberhart for instance only uses an 8x10 camera with black and white film and makes gold toned silver gelatin prints. David Hockney was associated with joiner images, David Leventhal with blurred out of focus images of miniature models, Mark Klett with Polaroid Neg/ pos film, Sandy Skoglund with unique constructed environments wit a series of limited colours etc.

Give your work a signature - As well as subject matter, look at building something repetitive and identifiable into the work. This might be selective depth of field where only certain aspects of the subject are in sharp focus, it might be the isolation of certain colours, perhaps a certain quality of light, a particular way of framing the subject.

In the diVISION series I juxtaposed two frames of the same subject to create a distinct visual style of framing the subject.

Engaging in creative dialogue

While you can have a continuing dialoged in your own work from project to project - many artists use their work as a means of engaging in a dialogue with other artists. This does not mean copying their work, but deliberately referencing it and extending the dialogue in a meaningful and personal manner. There are various ways this can happen - with your contemporaries who you have a personal relationship with - if we look at cubism - Cubism was one of the most influential movements in modern art. Cubist artists introduced radically new approaches to space, form, and dimension. The movement revolutionized painting in the 1900's, and paved the way for abstract art and other forms of modern art.

Pablo Picasso of Spain and Georges Braque of France founded the cubism movement in 1907. Cubism flourished in Europe and other parts of the world until 1914. Other significant cubist artists included Juan Gris, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, Jean Metzinger, and Marcel Duchamp.

We see another example in straight photography with the linked ring - In May 1892, a few months after the disastrous Photographic Society Council meeting which had culminated in a series of resignations, Robinson founded the Linked Ring, a brotherhood consisting of a group of photographers based in London, pledged to enhance photography as a fine art. Famous members of this brotherhood (which was by invitation only - one could not apply for it) included Frank Sutcliffe, Frederick Evans, Paul Martin, and Alfred Stieglitz. From this Straight photography was born.

As contemporary artists we can make reference to the works and ideas of these artists but because it is an age past - we engage in a dialogue on a different level.

Contact other artists working in your field - let them know about your work. Try to set a up a dialogue with them.