Photographs from Africa

andrew green

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taken on an m5 with a summicron 50mm, 500cm with an 80mm, or sinar f with a 150 on portra 160nc. i'd love to hear your thoughts.
 
They illustrate two things. One, that direct sunlight is sometimes to be avoided. Two, that dark complexions need special treatment.
 
They're not especially strong photographs by themselves, they don't exude a story. There's no cohesive theme to the photos that you've presented.
 
Love the second photo. Beautiful lighting, strong mood I think as well. The anonymity of it is very haunting to me.

Ignore what these other blokes are saying. Keep doing everything your doing. All I would say is always look at images. Whether photographic, illustrative, or anything.

All 'great' art is grounded in historical context in some form or another. So just keep your eyes, brain, and heart open. In fact fill them with the work of every famous historical photographer, painter, artist, etc that you can find.

But all in all, I like the images. The third doesnt do much for me, just because it's a cliche type of image and the final just doesnt seem to have a strong enough dynamic; however, the first (and obviously second image) could have some very powerful statement in a larger body of work.

keep itu p.
 
wow, tough room.

andrew, you have a hasselblad, a leica and a sinar all with you in africa? holy cow, you're carrying around some nice gear.

the third image i like. the skin tone and details in his face draw me in.

the last image has some interesting light and i like the way it hits the blonde haired guy and the lady's green pullover. the guy in the background is distracting and i would love to have seen her reaction to the pin-prick.

do you live in africa? are you in africa for work? with an organization? on assignment?

keep shooting and keep posting.

- chris
 
haha thanks chris. it was a relatively safe part of Africa though. i've been there (Lusaka, Zambia) about 5 times and hope to move there someday after i figure out what i'd like to do with my life. its a nice place though.


in response to the other comments: Link me some photojournalists that DO 'exhude a story' and 'create a cohesive theme' as well have a great deal of emotion. some of my favorite photojournalists would be bruce davidson and a raymond depardon (did a lot of work in assylums. he was featured in aperture forever ago which is how i know him), but i'd love to see how better photographers communicate these emotions and create stories through their work. any links would be awesome!

being 100% honest, however, i know that my work is far too influenced by the aesthetic of william eggleston and i am trying to create my own 'aesthetic' if you will and become a bit more original. so that is what i have been struggling with/working on in recent photographs. these are from the beginning of june.

also, the last photograph is of a girl being tested for aids.
 
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