Photographer: Karen Vikke
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5 Characteristics of Karen Vikke‘s Photographs
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Minimalist (Iphone)
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Architectural elements
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Geometric lines
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Simple materials
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Vibrant colors
Describe the Work of the Artist
Karen Vikke is a famous minimalist architectural photographer. Karen Vikke’s works often include features such as deliberate geometric shapes, structural repetition, line symmetry, and simple materials. Her style consists of simple, uncluttered compositions which make superb use of geometric lines and vibrant colors. Minimalist works include geometric or repeating patterns, contrast in lines and texture, and emphasized depth and distance.
The Reason I chose Karen Vikke
Karen Vikke’s photographs caught my attention because she uses very simple materials and vertical lines symmetry. The materials and techniques Karen Vikke used also inspired me; she used multiple techniques in her photographs, such as colors, patterns and geometric lines. Each of her photographs contains a certain pattern or style which is use of structural repetition. I found the simplicity in the her photographs was very interesting. Usually when you think of abstract photography, you might think of dynamic camera movement and abstract photos. However, Karen Vikke uses unique elements and creative perspective which I chose Karen Vikke’s works as my inspiration.
Evaluation(An image of Karen Vikke)
•Why did you choose this image in particular?
I chose this photo because it has geometric patterns (repetition) and vivid color, especially pink. Also, I found unique features unlike other abstract photographs.
•What do you find surprising or unusual about this photograph?
This photo consists many repetition of structural and shadow of few parts of buildings. Those buildings are unusual and surprising for me because there are a perfectly scattered direction of sculptures, which is very elaborate. Moreover, I also like the simple background which is just a clear sky with no clouds at all. It seems like a perfectly symmetrical building including those shadows.
•Look carefully and choose ONE of the Formal Elements that you think is important in the photograph (E.g. Focus, Light, Line, Repetition, Shape, Texture, Value/Tone).
I think the most significant formal element used in this photo is line and used of repetition.
•Describe why you think it is important.
I discovered that “line” is a significant formal element in this photo. Because lines (which also represent those buildings) in this photo are all constant. The vertical lines in every part of the buildings creates overall balance of this photograph. The horizontal lines are straight from the left to the right of this photograph. Line is an important element in this photograph because lines can divide multiple areas into different shapes and space, which can create an unique design and provide specific directions.
•What do you like about the style? Be specific and explain your answer.
I like the style of Karen Vikke’s photography. Karen Vikke’s works often provide simple elements and background to approach the style of architecture photography. The use of colors are also very interesting because they often provide creative geometric patterns in her photographs also make her work more creative and provides many different perspective of the object. I like how she focus more frequently on bold architectural details. She often uses landmark buildings and urban elements in her photographs, and a simple background. Those unique and detailed elements used in her works made me interested in her photographs.
Quotation from Karen Vikke
“Lines are important in many urban scenes and also make the subject, be it a building, a wall or whatever, to stand out by removing any “noice” from the picture.” – Karen Vikke
This is part of Karen Vikke’s interview by Andy Butler. I chose this quote because my vision is very similar to her vision as well. This quote employs the importance of lines in her picture. I think “line” is a significant element to Karen Vikke, because she take pictures with her iPhone which means she prefers uncomplicated technics in photograph. For instance, I also like how she mentions removing “noice” from the picture, which I could explain as removing complicated and unnecessary elements in her photography.
Contact Sheet
(I am not sure but some pictures are repeated for some reason)
As I mentioned above, Karen Vikke consists of simple, uncluttered compositions, and vibrant colors which brings a simple but also organized experience to the reader. The pictures below are my Yellow Tags (20pictures) that I took are from school buildings and Shine Hills buildings. In addition, she takes pictures using the square mode of iPhone, so I also took all the pictures with my iPhone, too. Another key to remember is that photo of that her photos contain a lot of human elements in an interesting way. Often time human element are not the main object or element, but buildings or backgrounds are often the main object she wants.
Yellow Tags
The pictures below are my Green Tags (9 pictures) that I think consists a lot of her style. Inspriation of my green photos are from style of Karen Vikke. Since Karen Vikke is a fine art and commercial architecture photographer, I took my photos focusing on geometric patterns and different backgrounds divided in half. Green tags mostly include structures such as buildings and construction, which provides unique perspective to the audience. My photos include features from buildings, human element, simple background. The thing that I’ve been paying a lot of attention to when I’m photographing: taking a completely different background that’s split exactly in half, whether it’s horizontal or vertical. Plus, emphasizing simplicity as much as possible, because I consider that is the most significant and the most obvious characteristic of her photograph.
Green Tags
Red Tags
