Today Complex released its list of the 25 Photographers to watch out for in 2013. It pointed out a few trends, collage being one, and another being nature in photography. Namely two photographers were a sign of this new interest, Ryan Foerster and Matthew Brandt.
Ryan Foerster's interest in nature seems to be how it exhibits the unstoppable passing of time. Whether it be the obvious degradation yet beauty of compost, or simply how the light catches an object- something which never lasts too long and is can never happen to exact precision again. That is, unless it is captured. It's ironic that snap shots of reality can deliberate the force of time, but one of the beauties of photography is capturing a memory exactly as it was, yet more so, exactly how you want it to be remembered, exactly how you saw it.
Canadian-born Foerster became known for his nudes and despite changing his subject, his new work has the same soft-focused, bleary-eyed effect of his earlier work, all adding to the ethereal quality of his photography.
Foerster takes his interest in decay and nature to new levels in the development stage, often putting photo-sensitive paper outdoors to let the sun do what it will, while adding dirt, leaves, food scraps and corroded mirrors to experiment effects. It's an interesting technique that he shared with Matthew Brandt, whose Lakes and Reservoirs body of work featured shots of various lakes and reservoirs which were developed by soaking C-prints of the photographs in water collected from the chosen body of water.
This interest in using the physical subject matter in processing photographs was first put to the test when he shot a friend's portrait and used her tears to re-create the very early 19th century practice of salted paper prints. In fact, his interest in experimentation stems from his studies of traditional development techniques during the birth of photography where everything was, not so intentionally, 'trial and error'. The photograph developed with tears turned out extremely small as each image relied on how much bodily fluid each subject could offer. The shot below, not so poetically, was developed with the sitter's more plentiful mucus..
Brandt also uses everyday products from the home, such as lemonade, sugar sprinkles and gummy bears to test on new development techniques. For Taste Tests in Colour, he shot Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park, he used all these 'ingredients' to various effect, on multiple layers of silk screen made from handmade edible ink. The impressive image below is silkscreen on paper with teal, yellow, pink and chocolate cake icing.
In a time where concept and digital effects often over-power hands-on and traditional techniques, it's nice to see a new wave of photographers experimenting. And with results like those above, it's no wonder.
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