For project 2, my chosen photographer is Wolfgang Tillmans. I will be ‘mimicking’ his photographs through technique and subject matter, inspired particularly by his photo series ‘Neue Welt’. Neue Welt is a diverse series of photos by Wolfgang Tillmans released by Taschen in 2012. According the Tillmans, he approached this photos ‘hoping to find subject matter that in some way or other speaks about the time I’m in’. The photos are hugely varied, ranging from landscapes, to portraits, still life and abstract shots, but to me they illustrate the beauty, diversity and fragility in the world. This is a fairly overwhelming meaning and series to attempt to imitate, but I find the photos in Neue Welt really powerful and thought-provoking, and Tillmans perspective on life very inspiring.
Regarding the technical procedures, I am still deciding whether to shoot my photos on a digital or analogue camera, because tillman’s career originally used only analogue cameras, and I love the look of those photos so much, however Neue Welt is shot entirely digitally. I’m doing some test shots for this project today, and will take use both my digital and analogue camera, so hopefully that will help me get an idea of which direction I’d like to take. I thought that using a film camera could be a nice nod to Tillmans early work, which is how I originally came to know and love his photography. I think most of my photos will be shot with natural/available light, as I’m not interested in shooting any photos in a studio.
These are some of the test shots I took today for this project
I took them very quickly and without much planning, but I’m happy with them as test shots because i think the portrait mimics Tillmans use of light in some of his portraits. Tillmans often seems to capture small moments as well as the frivolity of youth, particularly in his earlier work, and i think the other photo has some sense of that. I also took a bunch of photos on my analogue camera, but they wont be developed until tomorrow at the earliest. Originally I was planning on shooting this project on analogue, but after seeing these photos I’m undecided. whilst I love the aesthetics of film photography, I don’t like the risks that are involved with it: your photos might not look anything like you hope/expect they will, and you can’t know for sure until days after you take them.
I’m interested in doing still life/landscape photography as well for this project, and this photo I took a few months ago in Berlin is somewhat along the lines of the type of photos I’d be attempting to take for this project
Its subject matter is fairly boring, but I remember that I was transfixed by the light in our apartment at the time, and I thought it made these scene quite attractive and worth photographing. This photo I took in France is also one that reminds me of the photos I want to take for this project
It was taken the day after the Bastille Day attack, and shows Nice in the background. I think Tillmans does a wonderful job of capturing human nature and quiet moments of human kindness, and that’s a subject matter/theme that I would like to feature in my photos for this project.