Adrian Steirn is an Australian photographer and filmmaker. His photography usually includes contexts and words in its lens and pictures. In an interview, he mentioned, “I identify less with a particular style than I do with storytelling. If a photograph tells a great story, it doesn’t matter if it’s fine art, reportage, portraiture or any other genre.” His picture style mostly uses monochrome lenses to shoot, and although this kind of lens technique might lack colors, it can express the emotions in the pictures very well. This style of photo can convey the deep meaning of the photo that the photographer wants to say to the audience. Adrian’s photographs attracted me to their compositions and ideas, and they also inspired me a lot about how to convey emotions through my own pictures. I think there are many kinds of powers inside his pictures created by the main subjects’ movements, eyes, and facial expressions, and that’s why I prefer to shoot like him.

This one picture is the most inspiring one for me, it gives me a bunch of ideas and thoughts. The main subject in this picture is an old Asian man, and he is holding a mirror. His face is reflected through the mirror, and looking at himself (or the photographer) with a serious expression. In this photo, only his face inside the mirror is clear and stays in the focus, and the rest of the space is blurry. So, when you look at this picture, the first thing you can see is the man’s face in the mirror. Because the lights are coming from the left side, which makes the wrinkles on his face very clear, I think the photographer wants to use this focus to show his time and also his rich life experience. The photographer only used white and black in this picture, this could perfectly match his serious face and give the audience a serious feeling about this picture. In my opinion, the photographer used these elements to predict the wisdom and majesty of an elder and also inferred the past of time of humans.

Picture Cite: Adrian Steirn https://www.adriansteirn.com/. (n.d.). https://www.adriansteirn.com/index

Interview Cite: Adrian Steirn | International Photography AwardsTM. (n.d.). https://www.photoawards.com/adrian-steirn/