A great way to create mood and atmosphere in photography, is to capture evidence of human presence, particularly in urban areas. Here I will discuss four photographers who capture atmospheric evidence photography and have inspired my work in this course - Matthew Merrett, Craig Scott, Sarah Pickering and Brandon P Davis.
As I’m doing photography that has a strong mood and atmosphere for my exam question, I will travel to places where I can find evidence of human activity as this often creates atmospheric photography as can be seen in my research below, The ideal locations would be those that have been neglected and abandoned, so that I can capture the deserted scenes and leave the audience to wonder what events took place in these area and raise all kinds of similar questions created by the strong atmosphere. Techniques that I have experimented with in my coursework, and which I will work with in this topic to create more atmospheric images are those such as selective colour, overlaying images, text-over-image and triptych photography.
Matthew Merrett
This evidence photographer Matthew Merrett uses great composition techniques to bring new life to abandoned buildings such as schools, hospitals, homes etc through photography. These places that were once treated well and full of people now left in ruin and abandoned. This is the type of style that evidence photography explores to create interesting images.
Craig Scott
This is my second research photographer who I will gather inspiration from when working on urban decay photography, Craig Scott. This photographer uses interesting photography techniques and angles to show neglected areas in a new perspective. The unique way in which this photographer perfectly captures the element of loneliness to create an isolated feeling inspired me to want to create similar work.
The settings in which he shoots resemble those of a post-apocalyptic scenario where life as we know it has been forgotten and areas that were once thriving with activity have been abandoned.
Sarah Pickering
Sarah Pickering is an evidence photographer who captures the essence of loneliness and solitude in her pictures of empty places. This photographer solely takes pictures of scenes that contain no signs of life to create the unique vacant feel, this resembles a strange apocalyptic situation were all life has suddenly ceased to exist.
Brandon P Davis
This photographer is an American evidence photographer who has traveled to many places across the country such as Detroit Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania etc in search of abandoned buildings such as these examples to capture through photography. This photographer takes us inside in neglected places, shows us the decay of ruined buildings with dirt, waste and plant regrowth through buildings that have been laid to waste.