Photographer 2 - Iain Crawford

Photographer 2 - Iain Crawford:

Iain Crawford grew up in Africa and Malaysia and found a passion for photography at a young age. He lived and worked in New York  before moving back to London where he is now based. The main aim of his photography is to capture images that have strong graphical and textural aspects, yet he makes sure he keeps the emotional and personal aspects to each of his photographs. 

I have picked this photographer because of his take on beauty photography. He breaks up natural photography by adding small original aspects of face paints to make the image his own. Yet he is still able to keep the natural aspect prominent. I have also chosen him because of the fact that he doesn't just stick to natural photography and also creates a aspect of abstract beauty. Here he use bright colours as well as original ways of saying the makeup and styling the photograph. 

Iain Crawford is a influence to me because of his way of incorporating natural and abstract beauty photography. I have found while looking at his work, that empty backgrounds are key and help to make the focus on the model. I also like the way that he is able to show personality and emotion with his images, which is something that i would like to achieve with my photography. 

The images above and below are an example of how Crawford uses a small amount of face paint to away from the idea of completely natural but not completely abstract. I think that this idea is eye-catching as it changes the concept of natural photography. The whole set up of the images are left basic as well as the makeup that is worn.  This idea is something that i hadn't of thought of and have only considered since studying this photographer. 

The image above is a example of natural photography. The background of the image is plain so that the only thing for you to look at. This makes the image more personal without there being any distractions. You look at the makeup in a different way because of the side view meaning you can't look at the whole face. The hair in this image is also left quiet natural and not over done making the whole image be relaxed. 

This is an example of his more abstract work. The whole look is a lot more dramatic and dark making it feel at lot more tense. This is done through the clothing in the image with it all being black and flowing. the clothing takes up the majority of the frame, but the face can still be seen. The makeup on the face appears to be quite dark and dramatic shown through the shadows of the choice of lighting.