I am excited to be hosting the new artist challenge.
I am a New Zealander so I wanted for you to get acquainted with a New Zealand Photographer and I have chosen Laurence Aberhart, (b. 1949- ) one of our most renown and accomplished.
Laurence Aberhart will give you a glimpse of New Zealand in the last few decades of the twentieth century, but this is no Middle Earth- Lord of the Rings style , nor 100% Pure New Zealand.
His subject matter is mostly landscape, memorials , vernacular architecture and interiors. These are mostly devoid of people, although when he felt he was being typecast he did a series of portraits you can find if you dig . There is also some museology ( ie. Museum exhibits) He said he wanted often to capture things that were threatened and indeed a lot of them have gone now.
He was a contemporary of and influenced by the Painter Colin McCahon, especially in the use of intense blacks and stark forms .
Aberhart's best known work is called Prisoners Dream and consists of five panels, the centre being his most iconic image of Mt Taranaki in the moonlight. This was an accidental five hour exposure , apparently he fell asleep and assumed it ruined, but fortunately decided to develop it instead of throwing it out.
He is featured in this 15 minute youtube video talking about his work, his cameras and technique
“…Broody, lyrical, meditational, Aberhart's camera distils the essence of a landscape…trapping the spirit of the place with ferocious intensity. The genius of these photographs lies in the detail which conveys the story often more eloquently than words. .. images that gently lead the eye into their depths, blending beauty, wry wit and textures into a seductive whole.”
bold The rules are to study the genre (Google will help you here) and then :
Take a photograph recreating a particular work as closely as possible to the original or photograph something in a style that is reminiscent of his work- mood, light, composition, colour. Or you could just take a concept from his work and make it your own.
Tag your photos ac-aberhart
the contest will run until Sunday 24th March
( let me know if that covers everything or not)
ENJOY!
I love all of his landscape and graveyard shots, when I was a teenager I loved to go to the cemetery and take photographs so today I packed up and went for it. Fun day at the graveyard. Sounds kind of weird...... but heres one.
@kali66
an example for you
here's a black and white to go with the one with the golden tones :o)
finally got a landscape shot for the challenge :)