Photos I Enjoy - Rachael Quick

This is a photo I took during my first semester at AFO. It is titled "Breaking Through." I have a fascination with things that are destroyed or decaying, then photographing them to either look beautiful or interesting. It's very difficult for me to say it is my favourite photo that I've ever taken, but right now I really like it. My favourites tend to change.

This photo is called "Trying To Be..." by Oleksandr Hnatenko from September 2005. I found this photo randomly when I was about 14, browsing the internet. I fell in love instantly and over time, this photographer has become my favourite photographer. His photos either bring some sort of emotion out of me, or are extremely aesthetically interesting to me.

Taylor

I have a giant coffee table book of Vanity Fair portraits at home, and this photograph by Annie Leibovitz is in it. It always stuck out to me because it's hard to pick out exactly what makes it so great.
I don't really have a favorite photograph that I've taken, but I do really like this one. I spent a good chunk of a winter afternoon stalking these little birds that refuse to sit still. I took it a few years ago and it was one of the first photographs that I remember really having to work for.

Still Wet

Still Wet by Jerry N. Uelsmann

This is one of my favorite photographs by one of my favorite photographers. I find this photograph to be extremely interesting. The figure to the left is what initially caught my eye. The woman looks abandoned and lost which almost relates to the picture i posted perviously. After looking at the figure the eye moves to the atmosphere to the right, which shows a drama as well.

Nate Compton

Mine

Taken at Jockey's Ridge State Park, North Carolina. Most of those people are my family, frolicking. I attempted to convey both their relation to the landscape and some sense of a group unit.

Michael Kenna

"Hillside Fence, Study 2" Hokkaido, Japan

Self-Portrait

This is a photo I took of myself my freshman year. Ironically I feel this way too often, however when I look at the picture I feel good about myself because I love the photograph. The lighting is dramatic which is a style I try to emphasize in some of my work and overall the photo describes me perfectly.

Jasmine Thompson

I was really torn between two photos when trying to pick my favorite, but I picked this one because it makes me happy every time I look at it. Especially when I remember how much fun I had laying in the middle of the road and hoping not to get hit by a car.

Photographer: Tono Stano "Sense"

This is a photograph by Sally Mann called Damaged Child. She's one of the first photographers I really got into, and I love her style. I feel like she's all about capturing a moment and keping it forever.

This is a photo I took of my sister while at the beach last year. It was later in the afternoon, just after high tide and the water had gotten stuck on the beach. My sister was the only one on the beach and she was dancing and splashing around. She was totally uninhibited and I just thought it was a really beautiful moment.

Ernest

This is one of my first pictures with a DSLR and it so happens to be a pic of my first DSLR camera lens. It was like an un-boxing and my first spin with the new cam. My first cam was a Pentax K-x and I used my friend who has the same camera to take a pic of my lens with a Chick-fil-A bag.

Jamie Chung is a relatively new photographer but I really like his work and this picture captures your eye beyond the share shock of it. It's Torry Holt a NFL wide receiver and he's good despite the fingers.

They say it's worth a thousand words.

alien. - 2011

This is from this past summer when I decided to explore the old warehouses in my town. Being my last summer home, I figured I could take one last opportunity to photograph it. While I was looking in on an old "candy" house [presumably for an old show or something...I hope], I happened upon these honeysuckles. I think it would be my favourite for three reasons: I really love high-contrast photography. I had never seen honeysuckle growing from such a small bush, and there is no digital enhancement, which was something different for me. The number of photos I have which have not been edited to my liking could probably be limited to the fingers on one hand.

Yohji Yamamoto, The Red Bustle by Nick Knight, 1986.

- Shanaz Bowman.

Arielle Massa

This photo was taken from my concentration of Olde City in Philadelphia.

This is a photo taken from Sally Mann's show, The Flesh and the Spirit. The show actually came to the VMFA last year. My surface teacher was the one who showed me Sally Mann and every since then, I have been seriously moved by her work.

I find it really difficult to pick out one specific image that I call my favorite. This comes damn close though. Untitled.
The image below is a photo from Alexey Titarenko's City of Shadows series.

"Coney Island" is a photo that I took opening weekend of Astroland Amusement Park in Brooklyn.

The photo above is an untitled photo taken by photographer Markus Hartel, who is a New York Street Photographer.

A Few Favorites - Jane Sun

"Busy" - 2011
My best friend and I were dogsitting her family's dogs this past summer while they went on vacation. As part of some treat packages we made for the dogs and their owners, I took portraits of the dogs. The turnout of all the portraits pleasantly surprised me, since I never got too into portraiture.
This is "Busy." I found this portrait especially beautiful since her personality is right there, plainly on her face, in her eyes, and in her pose/posture. It makes me feel happy, making me miss and remember her. Deciding to keep this picture in black and white was an obvious decision once I had put the filter on; Of all the portraits, I was most pleased with the contrast between her and the grass.



"Saigon Execution" - Eddie Adams - 1968
It was a toss-up among this image, his iconic image of a woman crying out over a dead man's body during the Kent State massacre, and Philippe Halsman's "Dali Atomicus."
This image has struck me, scarred me, and stuck with me for years. The history behind it, the expression on the victim's face, the executioner's nonchalant attitude all come together and bring out a feeling of sheer terror in me. Just knowing what was to come and knowing that this happened, still happens, and will happen instill so many feelings in my gut. This, to me, is one of the most powerful images I have ever seen.

Tawny Davis

Peruvian Shop (2010)

-I took this when I was studying abroad in Peru last summer. We were on the bus leaving Moray, and as I was looking out the bus window we passed this woman on the side of the road selling typical peruvian items, so I took out my camera a snapped this. Every time i look at it, it reminds me of being there in the mountains of Peru, how simplistic everything was, their everyday life was so beautiful, just being there, I miss it a lot.

Afghan Girl
Photographer: Steve McCurry

This photo was taken by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry in 1984 - it was on the magazine's cover the next year. The girl pictured, was one of the students at the refugee camp. She was about 12 at the time. Her facial expression and piercing eyes symbolize the dignity and resilience of her people. I love this photo, every time I look at this photo she puts me in a trance, and all I can do is look into her eyes, its like you can see right into her soul.

Ryan McGinley, 2004 Olympic Swimmers

I find it hard to pick only one photograph and name it my utmost favorite; but I remember seeing this photo at the "30 years of the New York Times" exhibition during the Rencontres d'Arles 2011 festival, thinking I could look at it for hours. So i guess that's a hint?

Home, 2010

This picture was probably one of the first portraits I had ever attempted to do. I really liked how it'd turned out, yet I can't help and wonder if liked it more for the aesthetics (although the yellow is a bit strong) or for personal attachment.

I don't know about all time favorite but here's one I took this summer that I find myself returning to.

Deciding what my favorite photo is gave me an idea for an answer to the "what do you care about" question. I am in love with Sally Mann's portraits of her family. I realize that I am fascinated with childhood. I enjoyed shooting the girls above more than any other subject before. I'll have to think more about why I feel that way though... Anyway here is a Sally Mann portrait from her "Family Pictures" series.

helen's handful

(top)"seville, spain 1933" by henri cartier-bresson.

(bottom) "men at work", © may 2010.

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