Abbey Reddington- The Wade Brothers

David Lyndsey Wade and his brother Lyndon Wad, have received worldwide reclaim for their work ranging from McDonalds to Maxim Magazine. I stumbled upon the work by accident and wasn't as much fascinated by the quality of the work, but more the ambiguity of it. I flipped form images that promoted athleticism (Gatorade,) to fashion models clothed in my favorite designers (Alice and Olivia,) to even documenting a battlefield explosion titled "Baghdad in the U.K." Although a lot of the brothers work is kind of commercial, it's not complete visual garbage, in fact they manage to take an artistic stance on commercial photography. That alone, gives reason to be recognized.

The images are crisp and all share a bluish tone. The one thing I would critique with the brothers work, is that some of the images could have been shifted to get a more satisfying composition. Something that baffles me is how two people could work together to get one complete image. That is the main reason I chose to look further into the work. I am fascinated how artists can incorporate their ideas into one product, successfully.

Tim Walker- Shannon Roulet

Tim Walker is a british fashion photographer. He is also involved in film and dabbles in that and isn't afraid to use motion in his photographs. He takes a lot of portraits of famous people and always puts them in weird wardrobes/props, etc.
I think his work is very consistant and I like what he chooses to do with background and scenery. I feel like a lot of his peices are fantasy and almost horror inspired and I think this adds a really nice layer to them. His work is dark while also being whimsical and each photo conveys a very strong emotion.

I thought this posted of sunday but i guess my computer fudged up?

http://timwalkerphotography.com/portraits.php

Alex Kreher: Sofie Knijff - Translations

Belgian-born photographer Sofie Knijff has spent the last three years traveling the world making portraits of children and asking them one question: what do you want to be when you grow up?

She returned with beautiful portraits of rural children around the world.

With no limits, these children started to dream big and dress up as their dream profession. Knijff photographed each child in front of a similar, monotone backdrop which allows the children to separate themselves from their current world and leave the possibility open that this might actually become true.

Paired with photos of empty places that these children grow up in, on gets the inside / outside view and it is hard not to wonder what will become of childhood dreams and expectations.

http://www.sofieknijff.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=54

Ellen Von Unwerth -Virginia

Ellen Von Unwerth started her career as a model, before she moved behind the camera. Ellen’s work centralizes itself around fashion culture and aesthetic; heavily effecting her technique. All of her shots are glamorous: lit with harsh light and high contrast. Unwerth’s work is a delightful blend of editorial and theater. Her images set themselves apart in the fashion world with a story, emotion, and idea behind each striking image.

A theme that stretches across the board of Ellen’s work is the hyper-sexualization of females. Ellen seems to alternate back and forth between the conforming “sexy” photos that are commonly found in the fashion world, and pictures that use blatant sexuality to call the objectification of women in fashion into question.

Taylor Stevenson: Rob Greer

Greer uses fine art nude photography celebrates the human form and uses the contrasting nature of light and darkness to accentuate the positive in every subject–regardless of height, weight, gender, or body shape. With this approach, he strives to reveal the beauty he sees in everyone. As you view this body of images, it’s important to note that his fine art style is typically more forgiving than the images styled from the duplicated poses. The reboot of the original session was done as a form of documentation; those poses aren't intended to beautify features as is sometimes my seem in nude photography. 

Gene Kim: Myoung Ho Lee

Receiving his BFA, MFA, and Ph.D from the famed Joong-Ang University in the department of photography, South Korean artist Myoung Ho Lee puts another twist to our concept of what "art" is.  A tree is simply a tree, but when a canvas is laid behind it, one simply forgets that it's a part of nature and admires the tree as if in a gallery.  The isolated figure stands out against the backdrop, further bringing out the shape and contrasting it against the background.

The distance and the framing of each photo is just about identical, as Lee chose to place the horizon just a little below the midpoint, while the branches of the trees come up and even out the balance within the frame.  For example, in the first photo, while the sky is mildly blue and gray, the green in the leaves of the tree reflects the green of the grass, setting a subtle weight shift while maintaining a balance.

http://www.yossimilo.com/artists/myou_ho_lee/

Cig Harvey - Liesa Collins

Cig Harvey is an England-born photographer now based out of Maine. She was an assistant professor at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University for ten years but then took a gap to do more things for herself. Her photography has been exhibited all over the world. She has been known to bring optimism to all that she does and her visual storytelling has caught the eyes of a wide audience. She teaches workshops and performs speeches all over the world.  She primarily shoots medium format with a Hasselblad 503 and sticks with emotional scenarios with portraits of youth and herself paired with stylized composition. Her colors are always very vibrant and complimentary. 

Cig Harvey shoots the way she does because she likes to make pictures and create environments that bring her a sense of happiness. She used to participate in a lot of self-portraiture, but over the last seven years she has gone from that onto other subjects. One could conclude that she has found what she needed in herself to not have to photograph it anymore. Storytelling has always been an inspirational to her within her photography and the subject matter and color concern are devices in that storytelling. 

Haruhiko Kawaguchi - Natalie Kohlhepp

Haruhiko Kawaguchi's series "Fresh Love" is so fascinating to me. She takes some of the most unique photographs of couples that she meets in nightclubs in Tokyo. On a white kitchen floor she places the couples into  clear plastic bags meant to hold cushions, blankets, ect., and vacuums out the air. She has maybe 20 seconds to take the image before her subjects need to breath again.The end result are these amazing photographs of couples made to look like pieces of meat that you can buy at the grocery store. 

I think these are completely scary and fascinating. I don't believe that I could do something like this, or even be a subject for Haruhiko Kawaguchi; I would be far too scared of messing up and accidentally hurting/killing someone or being suffocated myself. I feel that her images bring that very visceral fear to her viewers and that is part of what makes her work so strong. 

Sarah Retchin: James Mollison

Mollison is a photographer who studied documentary photography, and is really passionate about the books he produces, but he also does commissioned and commercial work.

He currently lives in Italy. One of his first projects he started was a collection called “James and Other Apes,” in which he photographed dozens of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans while using the aesthetic of the passport photograph. Something I found interesting about this project was that he decided not to use a long lens, and instead wanted to be more intimate with each primate, as he was struck by their facial similarity to our own and wanted to treat them with such respect. I seem to think of portraiture as more of an anthropological genre, but it’s clear that animals have just as much of an ability to express unique facial gestures as we do.
Another project he recently worked on is called “Where Children Sleep,” and it portrays various stories of children around the world, told through portraits and pictures of their bedrooms. Despite the collection including some photos of “needy children in the developing world,” he wanted it to be more about children from all types of situations and how each of their bedrooms reflect who they are.

“My projects are always series of images, and I think that individual pictures in a way don’t matter that much. It’s when you see a group of images that a passion emerges.”

I watched a portion of this interview of him, and it’s pretty interesting, so I’d recommend checking it out: http://www.vice.com/picture-perfect/james-mollison