I am already a fan of Micheal Kenna. I love black and white photography and think that his images are breathtaking. He can make his subjects appear to be unreal, as though they were drawn to perfection.
This image is a perfect example. Michael is a true professional at creating such a dramatic shot through something so natural. He uses a low camera angle and keeps the horizon below centre, so as to not take all focus from the sandbanks in the bottom of the image but the highlight the sky and make it a prominent feature. Using the black and white effect truly makes this image. If taken in colour, I could assume the whispy white clouds were rolling in over the sand on a hot day with a pure blue sky. However, by shooting this black and white and possibly over exposing slightly, the effect of the overall image changes a drastically and we have these vibrant white almost fierce looking clouds on a black sky creating a huge dramatic sky over the almost silky looking sands of the sand dunes
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As well as dramatic skies, Michael can also create completely calm water images where water appears glass or mirror like. This image highlights this. Gone are the dramatic skies, but instead we have a perfectly still image where the sky and water are so still and clear, the trees could be a still life arrangement set up on a mirror. The horizon is positioned slightly below centre to enhance the distance from the subject and create more depth to the image.
The crisp and sharpness of his images create a truly striking overall result. I really like how he uses a vignette on an image to highlight a lone subject and his use of black and white to highlight a variety of textures, as mentioned already, clouds, water, spray of water and smoke from power stations. All these things could possibly be overlooked in an image,if noticeable at all and Michael uses black and white to enhance these and make them a big part of the overall image.
Looking through his gallery archive, I stopped on this Lone Tree image. This image is so simple from subject to composition but the usage of black and white really makes the tree the main focus against the whiteness of the snow and the pale background. Looking through my own photo library, I found this image:
Not the same, but the same idea. My image is nowhere on the same level as that of Michael Kenna and my image was taken on my camera phone, back when I was starting out so not the best quality either, however I have used processing techniques to enhance the image. By adding a vignette, as Michael does on some of his images, It really does help to draw attention more to the tree by framing it if you like. I cropped a big chunk off the outside of the image and created more of a panoramic here, again to focus more on the tree as it now fills the frame.
I also came across this image during my research. Another Single lone tree image, pretty similar to that of Michael Kenna. This photographer, Philipp Klinger, has a very similar style, using the black and white effect to create a more theatrical sky and using a low horizon position to emphasize the sky as well as to keep some focus on the tree.
Looking through more of Philipp's work, he has a vast subject range, from landscapes to architecture and the main point to focus on is his great use of colour. Looking through his photostream, he likes vibrancy and uses a lot of diagonal lines through his images. Diagonal lines are great and good composition. He likes to use diagonal from the frame so that the main focus is drawn to the centre of the image but personally I think that using the same 'template' can make your images very 'samey' no matter what your subject is. This is all down to personal taste though and this is the style of the photographer's eye so it's not something to be criticized.
On the subject of lines, I also came across the work of Joel Tjintjelaar. I know there is a huge pattern forming here, but I really do like black and white landscape photography. Joel's images have exactly the same quality for me as Micheal Kenna. The ability to create such calm and serenity though and image is amazing and his images are also incredibly striking. Joel can also create some remarkable skies, but he doesn't seem to emphasize on them too often. He lets the tones of the black and white effect show the viewer the difference between the sky and the cloud instead of using the effect to highlight them.
Looking through his photostream, he likes to use a lot of lines and curves through his images too, and his camera angles really make powerful lines through his images. The camera angle in this image really makes the shot, simply drawing focus to the amazing curves of the architecture to make an image.
I started out looking for some influential photographers and I can honestly say I found some. I was already a fan of Michael Kenna's work but it's amazing to think that there are other photographers out there with the same qualities. It may seem strange for someone who loves music photography to be so interested in landscape photography, but I started out taking landscape images and and I guess that I should really think to take more landscape shots myself. If this research has showed me anything, it's not to overlook the smallest of details in an image. Composition overall is hugely important and you need to take the time to think about our overall image and the final outcome when composing and even when processing the image.
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