Photography: Travis Shinn

INTRO

Travis Shinn's work first caught my eyes in an issue of Guitar World Magazine. He has done many shoots with a lot of famous musicians, and his work has appeared in numerous music magazines like Scratch, Rolling Stones, but does he most of his work for Revolver and Guitar World.

CAPTURING PERSONALITY

What makes his photographs meaningful is his ability to bring out the personality of the person or group he is shooting. He does this very well despite the difficulty of doing so without the use of words or movement. What I've noticed is that in a lot of his photos, although they are posed, they feel natural and never out of character. Either he knows his subjects well enough to set up what he feels is the perfect shoot or he just allows them to be more of themselves during the shoot, or perhaps a combination of the two, whatever his method, it works well and the end result is stunning.

To elaborate, this is his photo of musician/actor Diddy. The image shows a kind of laid back type attitude but it doesn't quite feel like a laziness its more of a confident, clam relax pose and the monochrome adds a sense of classiness to it. It feels right, and he doesn't seem out of place or out of character

PLAIN BACKGROUND PORTRAITS

Quite a few of his photos are simple plain or white backgrounds which would mean that he needs to rely on other aspects of photography like lighting and color as well a poses of the subjects to create a nice image.

For example the ones below:

As you can see even without a backdrop to help tell a story or help draw the eye, Travis does a good job keeping the viewer interested and understanding his point. To get more in depth, a good example is his photo of guitarist Slash, now the background isn't white like the above but its still pretty plain .

Its a simple pose nothing flashy, just Slash standing there with a guitar in his hands, yet it's still interesting. For one the setting is odd its just an empty room made of woodchip walls, and since it's empty the man focus is still Slash. What makes this photo though, is the lighting which is possibly why this location was used. It's a one directional light pointed at Slash, but small enclosed area helps bounce the light around creating a nice effect, and resulting in a nice image.

THEME PHOTOSHOOTS

There's also a few theme photo shoots that Travis does. The theme seems relevant to the subject/subjects being photographed, meaning they never feel out of place it somehow feels right. This time he has the added help of costumes and backdrops and props to give a sense of environment and he uses this well, just the right amount without going overboard resulting in cluttered scene. The people are still the man focus as they should be, and his use of lighting and colour seem very thought out and again relevant to the scene.c Examples below:

Now I'm not very familiar with the musicians above but after seeing these images I get a sense of their personality and style of music.

SCENERY

A lot of his other work non-musician related material is also worth a look. They say every picture tells a story and that seems to be the case here as well. Whether it's photo with people or just of the scenery.

The images above are all monochrome and implies a more sad tone combine that with the theme of loneliness, (the single house in the woods, the lone chair at the beach, the one tree by the side of the road and the single stream in the field) and you get a sense of a story. Change one thing as little as the colour and the whole story can change too, so Travis does a good job of tying all his elements together to express his vision.

CONCLUSION

Overall Travis Shins work's are very well done. He knows well enough what he wants to represent and express in an image, how to create it and then capture his vision and share it with others. From the first time I saw some of his work till now I'm still a fan.

Here are some more of his work:

WORKS CITED

All images are taken from Travis Shinn's official site at www.travisshinn.com

Assignment 4 - Virtual Essay

The photographer I have chosen is David Lindsey Wade.  He has a certain style that is just pleasing to the eye. His photos are very raw and his use of light is very well utilized,  it's able to highlight what's important and make it stand out.  The poses are also well done, they capture the mood of the image and character of the subject. 

Here are a few of his photographs taken from his official website: http://www.davidlindseywade.com/ 

 

Like with any other form of art it is easy to spot similarities in other photographs taken by other photographers.

One image that pops to mind is the promotional poster used for the WWE payper view, Royal Rumble, back in 2009, which I found similar to the image directly below it.

WWE Royal Rumble 2009 

http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/history/2009/

Image by David Lindsey Wade.

What I find similar between these two images is the dark color palette. There is a lot of greys and blues used which gives it a darker, scarier, more serious tone. The overall theme of chaos and anarchy is also similar, there are bodies all over the place, the people all have angry, determined expressions on their faces. The people also appear to have a litle bit of a shine to them due to the lighting. The backgrond is very plain and unintresting but it doesn't need to be anything else. When looking at each it's easy to get the same overall feeling, because of the close similarities.

Some other images that remind me of David Lindsey Wade photos are the ones below. One is a photo taken from a concert and the other is the album cover for Pearl Jam's album Ten, the last one is an image by David Lindsey Wade, that they are similar to.

Raised Hands http://www.apathyisboring.com/en/the_facts/news/4452

Pearl Jam "ten" album cover http://pearljam.com/music/releases/studio%20album/ten

 

Image of Hands raised Taken By David Lindsey Wade

 

 

In teams of looks there are differences, like the colour and the directions of the hands, for example in the concert image the hands are straight up, in the Pearl Jam image the hands all meet in the middle and in the Wade picture the hands lean towards the middle. Concept wise all these images are the same.  The camera is place above the heads of everyone in the image, as if to say the people in which the hands belong to are not important. The hands in the concert image and the Wade image are a silhouette due to the very dark setting and the one direction light shining from behind, which helps ad mystery and also makes the hands predominant.

Below is a poster for the movie The Dark Knight, and an image of the current US President , Barack Obama , which I found similar to the two below them, taken by David Lindsey Wade. 

Poster for the movie "The Dark Knight" http://www.allmoviephoto.com/photo/2008_the_dark_knight_poster_007_big.html

Picture Of U.S President Barack Obama http://greenspaces.in/blog/2009/01/

Image of boxer Floyd Mayweather taken by David Lindsey Wade

Image by David Lindsey Wade

 

The similarity lies in the black background with one directional light hitting the subjects, with the exception of the Obama image which has two directional lights. The light is able to highlight part of the figure and leave the rest in shadows which creates a mysterious feel and gives the subject of the image the same sense of mystery. Since the background is black the glow of light comes across really strong, thus making the subject more noticeable and predominant, and really draws the eyes to them.

The similarities of the images below are obvious. Top one is a destop wallpaper for computers the bottom is by David Lindsey Wade.

Busy Highway http://www.hd-wallpapers.com/wide/photography/landscapes/

Car going down a road, taken by David Lindsey Wade

They both show cars going down a road, but instead of seeing still cars all you see are the headlights and backlight in a beam that runs down the road, this created by using a technique called light painting.  Seeing as how light painting works better in dark setting both images are taken at later times in the day, around dusk. Light painting and espcially using it for cars on roads is very common and similar images can be found online easily, but Wade is able to create a different feel, in his photo it seems more peaceful, and relaxed, where as the other one come off as more busy and hectic. It just goes to show that one technique can be used to create many different feelings.

Below is the poster for the movie The Road and an old promotional image for WWE taken by David Lindsey Wade.

The Road movie poster  http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1642761728/tt0898367

Former WWE superstar Batista, taken by David Lindsey Wade

 

At first glance The warm colour palette stands out. The use of brown, orange and grey are common between both images. When looking closer the similarities of the subjects start to show. They both look dirty and gritty like they've been through a battle or a demanding journey of some sort, this is also shown through their facial expressions. There is also a glow which appears directly behind both subjects, possibly representing a glimmer of hope in the world of despair that these people appear to be in. Or it could be revealing, or representing  these characters as the saviours or heroes.

 

With all these similarities it's still hard to say who influenced who. The similarities in all the images above are more simple techniques that are common amongst artist. Such as using dark colours express fear, and mystery.  David Lindsey Wade takes these well known techniques and applies his little twist to it, and combine them, thus making it his own, and that is usually how styles are created.