New Photographers - Simon Norfolk

This is one of the many photographs from the series 'Afghanistan: Chronotopia' which is one of my favourite series from Simon Norfolk. This is because of three reasons, one being how hard hitting his photographs are, two his meaning behind this series and thirdly his love for large format cameras. This series for me is incredible thanks to the meaning behind it, Norfolk takes something from art as early as the Renaissance and give it a modern twist using a very political, social and economical matter that is common in today’s world. That is the war on terrorism and the invasion of Afghanistan. He takes the view of beauty and romance behind the painting of ruins from the Renaissance era and uses this to show this key event in the modern world, by turning this ideological view upside down. The ruin before you has not been excavated to show the old world in all its glory but instead shows the modern world in its most periling and destructive form. The ruins of what would have been the hub of laughter and bliss is now just a skeleton in a bleak landscape. This is thanks to almost 30 years on constant conflict in this once beautiful country. The only salvation for the modern world in this photograph is the lone balloon seller, which thanks to international help is allowed to sell something that was banned from the streets of this country for many years. These two juxtapose really well together to create one of my favourite photographs of the last ten years.

http://www.simonnorfolk.com/

New Photographers - Erik Refner

As it is the Fifa World Cup at the moment I thought I would post a sports photographer I came across a few months back. This is one of the photographs from his series 'Copenhagen Marathon, Finish Line'. What I like about this series is how Erik Refner has captured the moment in which the marathon runner has finally finished the race. The participant would have had to be mentally and physically be able to complete the marathon, as running for a lengthy time is not just about being fit enough to run, the person has to be able to maintain a steady pace, while breathing the right way to enable the body to get enough air to run for so many miles and finally the will to finish. Once the runner is over the line all of that is gone, the person is hit with relief, contentment and joy of finishing but they are still out of breath, in pain and tired. With all these emotions and feelings running though their bodies it creates a hard hitting photograph of the ups and downs of sports and I feel Refner has captured this perfectly, by bringing the runner out using hard light against the dull greys background you only see the person and their feelings.

I saw this photograph in a book that I brought a few months back, its called 'Photo Box' which has around 250 photographers and their photographs on its pages. This book is well worth buying if you are starting any course where you need to know photographers, or if you want to extend your photographic knowledge.

http://www.erikrefner.com/