My intention for this set of photographs is to take black and white photos of ‘living moments’ the simplicity of life that makes moments special and remembered. The inspiration for this project is from Gianni Berengo Gardin, who is an Italian photographer born in 1930. His works are black and white and with very simple meanings that give a feeling of reminiscing past memories, which I like. Even though Gardin works with analog cameras mostly, for this project I will use the normal film camera but follow the black-and-white concept and contrast. I also think the concept is perfect to achieve in the hutongs which is where I will be taking my set.
Some of Gianni Berengo Gardin’s work:
In the first photo, Gianni uses a lot of reflection as seen in the amount of windows and mirrors in the photo. By using this he frames the photo really well and with the reflection on the back of the man’s suit in the center, it balances the photograph really well. The balance between black and white can be seen in the use of light as well as in contrast. The balance of black and white can be seen coherently throughout Gianni’s works as shown below. The third photo is a great example, as the girl in the white is in high exposure in front of a black fence while there is a group of men in black at the back with their heads shown in front of the highly exposed sky that is white. It’s almost as if you could split the photo horizontally with white at the top and black on the bottom with a main subject that is the opposite tot eh background colour in both.
