If I had to choose one photographer, and just one, that would be Michael Kenna without a doubt
He's been a great influence for me. And I love his work. I'm a fan boy
Actually, I own several of his books. Like this is the latest one I believe, Holga
Forms of Japan. I have another one here... a 20-year retrospective
we can talk about Michael Kenna and his
books and his work more in a different video if you guys want to
But today I wanted to talk about something else, because even though Michael Kenna is my favorite photographer ever
If I had to choose one image and just one it wouldn't be one of his
actually, it'd be one that Bill Brand made back in 1947
in the Isle of Skye. I love this image
I saw it for the first time some 3 years ago, it blew my mind and it's captivated me
since then and inspired me a lot
actually, I like to think that that image inspires my whole photography because that is what I'm aiming to create every
time I grab a camera and get out there, something like he created with that image. So this is the image
I don't remember the title is just the name of the place
But this is a book that I picked up a couple years ago because I saw the image in the cover
It's by Bill Brandt, I believe, he selected the images
They are not his images in here, it's just that one
It has images from other photographers like Ansel Adams and they are pretty cool
I think that you can tell a lot of a photographer not only by their work but also by the the work that they like
So it's kind of cool to have
an insight in the work that Bill Brandt liked when he when he was alive, besides the work that he was creating
but let's talk about the image itself
there is something about it that is hard to explain
the lack of details in these mountains
I'm not sure if this is a long exposure or not, but there are no details of the water here
there are no details of the clouds, they're kind of diffused and blurry
I don't know if that was the day that was like this, overcast, or if it was as I said a long exposure
But if it wasn't this is a situation where I could use a long exposure, to actually blur the water
To actually blur out the water and to do the same with the sky, and then those deep blacks in the mountains with no details
the only thing that you can see here you can
kind of guess it's like a little cabin here, or house or
some kind of structure on the bottom right
This image has many of the elements that I like to use in my own
images like as I said the lack of details in the shadows, in my opinion it lets the viewer
play with their imagination
about what there could be here in these shadows, also the low
dynamic range, as you can see the blacks are kind of deep but the whites are not very bright
Bill Brandt some of his other landscapes are that way too, something that I like as well
It's all about creating mystery, it's more about
asking questions instead of answering questions, you know when you see a typical landscape photograph, there is nothing that you can
that you wonder about that landscape
You see everything that there is, it's in there, and everything is super sharp and you can see everything from foreground to background
everything is in focus, that is your typical landscape photo
that's what you usually want to capture when you do that
but Bill brand was doing something completely different here and instead of
trying to capture the scene the way it was, he was trying to create something different, something that had
some of his vision but also
left room for the imagination of the viewer and this is something that is, today
I can't stop looking at this image while other landscape images out there
I just get bored of them after looking at them for a few seconds, but this is my favorite image ever
by far. It inspires my photography a lot
because I use many of the elements that are present here
I just wanted to share with you one source of inspiration, a big one, that I have that is this image by Bill Brandt and
I'd love to know if you have a favorite image
and if you can share it with us in the comments, the name and the photographer, that'd be awesome
But for now, this is all.
Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next one