Part 1: Photgrapher
1. Personal Background:
Name of Artist: Henry Hargreaves
Dates of Artist’s Life: Born 1979
Henry Hargreaves grew up and went to school in Christchurch, New Zealand. He worked in fashion in the early 2000’s. Always wanted to be the guy behind the camera. Used to work in the food industry; always infatuated with people’s orders, he thought it said something about their character. His process is that if ideas are funny or keep coming back to him, then he will try and execute them.
2. Style:
His work has a strong sense of balance. Especially with his shape pictures; his photography can be very symmetrical. Most of his pictures are simply just food laid out in weird and unassuming places that come together to create something different. The food adds a lot of texture to his work. He adds a strong and vibrate background to a lot of his pieces. Some of his pieces have a more stylistic background representing what the subject means.
3. Philosophy:
A lot of his work is for magazines and food articles. So stylizing it in that fashion, he gives people something to think about and to fill their eyes. He says that he wants his work to make people laugh. He says that he works with a lot of people because he believes that people who are able to complimate and challenge your ideas make you a better artist. He also likes to make personal projects that add to his portfolio and sometimes make a humorous political statement
4. Influences:
They are mostly influenced by the people that they collaborate with. People like: Nicole Heffron, Charlotte Omnes, etc. He has said before that these people are able to get the best out of him through challenging and complimenting his work. He has also said that being able to get out of his comfort zone with these people, has allowed unexpected surprises and new stuff learned. He has also influenced me because of his different look at still life photography. Focusing on not just the foreground, but also how the background can add meaning to the foreground.
Name of Artist: Henry Hargreaves
Dates of Artist’s Life: Born 1979
Henry Hargreaves grew up and went to school in Christchurch, New Zealand. He worked in fashion in the early 2000’s. Always wanted to be the guy behind the camera. Used to work in the food industry; always infatuated with people’s orders, he thought it said something about their character. His process is that if ideas are funny or keep coming back to him, then he will try and execute them.
2. Style:
His work has a strong sense of balance. Especially with his shape pictures; his photography can be very symmetrical. Most of his pictures are simply just food laid out in weird and unassuming places that come together to create something different. The food adds a lot of texture to his work. He adds a strong and vibrate background to a lot of his pieces. Some of his pieces have a more stylistic background representing what the subject means.
3. Philosophy:
A lot of his work is for magazines and food articles. So stylizing it in that fashion, he gives people something to think about and to fill their eyes. He says that he wants his work to make people laugh. He says that he works with a lot of people because he believes that people who are able to complimate and challenge your ideas make you a better artist. He also likes to make personal projects that add to his portfolio and sometimes make a humorous political statement
4. Influences:
They are mostly influenced by the people that they collaborate with. People like: Nicole Heffron, Charlotte Omnes, etc. He has said before that these people are able to get the best out of him through challenging and complimenting his work. He has also said that being able to get out of his comfort zone with these people, has allowed unexpected surprises and new stuff learned. He has also influenced me because of his different look at still life photography. Focusing on not just the foreground, but also how the background can add meaning to the foreground.
Part 2: Photos
(Mine to the left, Hargreaves to the right)
Graham Cracker in the SunlightObviously the orignal picture was taken during fall so I couldn't actually get the beautiful leaves that the picture had. But, I did try to get the light coming through the trees to add my own spin to the photo. I don't actually have a ton of potato chips, so I just used a granola bar (which I don't think looks that different from the original). Overall, this one didn't turn out too bad, and I sort of like it.
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Unnamed - https://www.instagram.com/henry_hargreaves_photo/ |
Battered Paper AirplaneThe most difficult part of this one was making the paper airplane. As you can see it isn't as sleek (or yellow) as Hargreaves's photo. But one thing that did turn out nice was the background. It's not as textured as the actual photo, but I think I still gave it a similar texture.
Spread Out BananaThe most difficult part about this one was trying to get the bananas in the right perspective. If I were to redo it I would get more of a higher angle shot and had the lighting spread out evenly on the banana. But I think the picture resembles the original one fairly well.
Cottage PeachThe problem with theis one is the fact that I didn't have any pineapples; so I just used peaches instead. Another difficulty was getting the perspective right, but I think I was close enough. Overall, I think this one was the one that resembled the original the best, especially the drop shadow.
Toilet PaperNow this one... The lighting on the original photo is so well done that it is difficult to recreate it. I didn't have any pink/blue lighting, so the colors had to be edited into photoshop. I don't like how my picture is almost transperant looking but it was the only way I could've gotten the blue beaming through the paper that the original had. In the end, I think this one resembles the original the least.
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Unnamed
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Artist Statement
For this report I wanted to capture the strangeness of Henry Hargreaves's photos. And trying to emulate these photos has improved my respect for him as the images are very hard to replicate. Due to the fact that replicating them wasn't easy, I tried to add a little bit of a different look on them. For some of the images I had to substitute things I didn't have or didn't have access to. Overall, the story I hope to tell (and maybe Hargreaves as well) is to not take life to seriously and try to have a sense of humor about the things you see.