JACK BARNOSKY:
Jack Barnosky was born and raised in South Philadelphia and left to move away from his family to go to California in 1971, returning with a BPA in Photography. He went on to study and teach photography in Indiana, building up a large portfolio of work while he was there, photographing everything he laid his eyes on. Jack Barnosky earned an MFA in Photography in Indiana University and went on to experiment with new technology to create the contemporary images he produces to this day.
Interviewer: Your photographs—why black and white?
Jack Barnosky: Nothing—I mean nothing—is more beautiful than a well made B&W photograph. Originally I just wanted to make beautiful photographs with the whole darkroom process. This ended about 12 years ago when film and paper makers began changing their emulsion formulas. All of a sudden, and I mean literally overnight, the whole process no longer worked. It was the day the darkroom died. I tried every alternative process you can name but could not get, on paper, the image that was in my head. It was quite frustrating. Three years ago I began digitizing my negatives and slowly the digital photography world began to show itself to me. Now I am virtually all digital. It’s like having to learn to read all over again. And guess what? There really is color out there and I’m using it.
BLINDS:
Jack Barnosky:
At first glance you would think that this image was of an extremely old and abandoned house that has been neglected for years on end with no attention to the cosmetic damage that has been caused. However, this image was produced in Photoshop using various layers to build up this dirty, neglected look to the image: the addition of the natural damage just gives the edge that makes it look very rustic and urban.
There are two slightly darker patches on the center of the windows which immediately draws the viewers attention to these areas, allowing them to become the focal point of the image. These patches are slightly clearer then the other parts of the windows, suggesting that someone has wiped small parts of the window to look out of. This would signify to the viewer that although the window looks neglected and forgotten, the open blind and the partially wiped window suggests that somebody has been making use of this house recently. A creepy and eerie atmosphere is obvious from looking at this image: a mixture of the dirty and scratched glass with the open and dirty blind means that there are some factors that would signify the room is in use even though the isolated room is clearly forgotten. Jack Barnosky was very clever when he took this image, ensuring that he created that powerful mood at the same time as creating a beautiful image. I like the urban decay side of isolation, representing how different the forgotten and abandoned things are and isolating them from everything else. In my personal project I aim to incorporate these techniques into my own work and to produce some images that show urban decay and isolation, experimenting with digital and traditional methods of layering and creation of the finished images. |
TREES:
Jack Barnosky:
Both of these images come from a series of photographs that Jack Barnosky has produced based around the isolation of trees in their natural home. The images have been produced in black and white to set off the contrasts and to make the vivid images you see here: layered with a torn, and worn down looking layer to give the rough and old look to the finished images. Personally I really like the effect that Jack Barnosky has put into his images and I intend to learn how to give this effect to my own images and produce similar outcomes.
If you analyse this image according to the 'Rule of Thirds' then you will notice that the tree falls along the left hand side of the image across the natural line your eye follows when looking at a photograph. This instantly makes the tree the center of focus in the image and allows Jack Barnosky to start telling the story behind the image. You will notice that the tree is standing alone except for a meager fence that stands below the tree. The viewer instantly sees the tree isolated from everything around it, enabling them to sympathize with the tree as if it were a person. Jack Barnosky has then gone on to position himself in the exact position so that the sun is right behind the tree and it forms a glowing halo to further make this the focal point of the image, directing the viewers eye straight to this tree. |
This image is very similar to the image on the left: there is a tree, standing proud but basically alone in the frame, isolated from everything around it. However, in this image there is another tree to the left of the main subject and a house to the right of the main subject. The viewer is still left feeling as if the tree is isolated due to the blurred and unfocused things in the background: the lack of detail means that the objects become in-animate and not important to the image.
Jack Barnosky has used the same positioning of the sun behind the tree to highlight this as the main focal point of the image just like he did in the image on the left. This is a very clever way of creating a main focus without following the 'Rule of Thirds' because you can then place your focal point anywhere in the frame and the viewers eye would still be immediately drawn to it. I aim to take this technique and incorporate it into my own photography to experiment with the ways I control the focal points of my images. I think both of these images are beautiful: the use of the frames around the edges of the image make the photograph itself stand out and the use of layered textures make it seem as if this image was produced in the dark room years ago but it was actually digitally produced. This is something I would love to experiment with in my personal project, building up various ideas to help develop my ideas. |
All of the images on this page were taken from Jack Barnosky's own website: http://www.jackbarnosky.com/