Appreciation Piece towards three chosen practitioners

For my final major project I am looking at continuing into children’s photography in a studio
and possibly documentary style approach so I wanted to try and base my chosen
practitioners around this to further my research into the project.
Firstly I have been looking at the work of photographer Magdalena Berny, Berny born in
1976 is a Polish photographer and she taught herself photography, she works with children,
families and portraiture. She has her own unique style and some of her works have been
published within the press.

One of her images above is from her B&W gallery, what I like about this image is how she
really connects with her subject, I feel I am beginning to do this in my own work but this
pushes me on to want to enhance that trait more so. The child looking directly into the
camera giving off a very strong look and a little attitude too, her right hand on the waist and
left shoulder positioned in line with the jaw completely adds to the atmosphere she is giving
off. Berny’s images seem much more intimate to me than just a standard photograph of a
child.
From further looking a her work she has a few different galleries created on the website,
Berny has a B&W gallery, Blues, Reds, Greens, Browns, Pastels and Light and shade, I really
like the themes of colour she has created and I feel this adds to her unique style. In the
browns section she has used models with dark, rich or chestnut hair. In greens she uses
nature and the colours of the bushes and grass etc. The theme flow beautifully throughout
each gallery and also give a very professional approach.
She has created many visual stories,

One of which called summertime where she has documented children ranging from daily
activities to the banal, seeing this is giving me ideas for where I could possibly create a visual
story within my own work.
The second practitioner that took my interest was Dorothea Lange born in 1895 California,
Lange was a documentary photographer who photographed displaced farmers during the
great depression which then led her to more documentary and journalistic photography in
her later life. In many of Lange’s images she has captured Mother’s and children, mostly in
poor conditions and working migrants who Lange actually lived with for some time.

The lady in the photo’s is hungry and desperate, her expression Is strong and telling and
Lange has captured her in a way that portrays the lady is feeling very helpless, Lange is
highlighting a cause for concern here and a strong message that people shouldn’t be living
in these conditions. The children in the photo look tired and also helpless but very loving
towards their Mother. Dorothea’s work inspires me because of the documentary approach
she has taken, I feel that I may like to explore documentary further in my own work and I
feel that the way she has captured this moment in time along with the expression and
meaning really makes the whole image. I feel that sometimes having black and white images
can change the way the photo is put across, to me it feels more depressive and dark with
these images, I think If they had been in colour it could change the mood slightly.
Lange travelled around the world and sold her photographs to earn money, she stayed in
San Francisco once her money ran out and found herself a job in a photography studio.

The third photographer I have taken inspiration from in Alain Laboile, Laboile photographs
his six children in the south west of France, he documents their day to day life within the
nature and the home, they make dens, climb trees, dress up, play with water, collect insects
and spend time with animals.
What I like about Laboile’s work is how they show the children playing freely, they are left to
enjoy their childhood and don’t seem restricted, he has documented them playing in nature
and being able to get covered in the mud. Image 1 the children pretending to play in the car
as if they are all off on their own little adventure, the child in the far left picking her nose
showing that Laboile isn’t scared to show the more unclean side of things. In image 2 is
brilliant and an angle I’m not familiar with where he has captured the feet directly on as the
person has taken a leap into the water, I think the angle is great. Image 3 the child seems to
be expressing the same look as the cat, it’s almost quite humorous, their eyes and mouth
giving a look of “I don’t take any messing from anyone”, even their posture seems to be
similar, it’s as if they are a team guarding the house from unwanted visitors. Image 4 the
child’s feet covered in mud, completely in touch with nature, and again I like the
composition of the image. Laboile’s work inspires me because I have done projects on
children and nature and it has got me thinking about combining them more so together in a
documentary way. I am also wondering if I could document some images but then also try
to recreate them in the studio so I am able to use both in my work. I feel that I will look
more closely at Laboile’s work in the near future to further some ideas.