Bernd Schaefers

Characteristics of Shaefer’s photos:

1. Black and white color scheme
2. Most humans in the photos are silhouettes or blurred out. No facial features or colors.
3. Frequent use of light and shadow to emphasize the focus, as there is no color in the images, contrast is very important in Schaefers’ works.
4. Humans are often small in Shaefer’s photos but are the main focus of his works.
5. Schaefers captures the texture of surroundings in his photos (as seen in photos 8 and 10)

Despite the black-and-white color scheme, which often exerts a sense of grimness and seriousness, this image feels lively, innocent, and delightful.

I chose this image to analyze because it is pretty different from Schaefers’ other photos yet it works very well. Usually in his works, people are small silhouettes. However, in this photo, he captures the shadows of people instead.

Aside from the surprising style, the positioning of the camera in this photo also intrigues me. The physical bodies of the children in this photo are not included, and the dark colors of the grass obscure where the shadows are actually coming from. The position of the camera almost makes the photo feel like the audience is one of the children frolicking on the grass fields.

The blurred edges of light and shadow, the large tree children are playing under, and the anonymous shadows of the children, at first glance, this photo looked like a childhood memory.

I really like how Schaefers uses shadows and silhouettes in his image. Whether from silhouettes or shadows, when you only see the shape of a person, it makes the story of the image stronger and more relatable. With silhouettes and shadows, you don’t need to look at their facial features, their skin color, or the color of their clothes, the audience is immersed in only the action and stance of the person, strengthening the message of the photo.

Moreover, the anonymity of shadows and silhouettes makes it so the shape could be anyone. Like in the shadow of children photo, the shadow could be your childhood self.  So, depending on their life experiences, certain photos that contain silhouettes and shadows could be much more touching for a certain audience than for others.

I would like to adapt this style to my own photography by taking pictures of the shadows of people or their silhouettes. This also removes the need for me to go up and talk to people, which I really appreciate. I might not be able to find places with strong contrasting tones where a pure black-and-white color scheme would work, so I might not adapt the black-and-white color scheme.

Additionally, I would like to notice the texture of my surroundings while taking pictures. I don’t have much experience capturing textures so I may not make it the focus of my photos, but I at least want to try taking pictures of textures as it is a characteristics of Schaefers’ work.