Patty Maher

I have been following Patty Maher on flickr for a few years now, and her work is consistently impressive. From what I know, it is all self portraiture, and she is always the lone subject in her work.

When I think of self portraits, I think of Patty's work. It is simplistic but extremely complex in its meaning (I assume). Her work is what helps me experiment with more conceptual yet surprisingly straightforward self portraiture. She almost never reveals her face in any of her photographs, which is another aspect I think is interesting especially in self portraits.

Amy Haslehurst

For the following blog post, as well as the next 4 to come, I will be discussing local photographers I have been keeping up with on flickr. This week, I want to dive into Amy Haslehurst's work. I dont know much of her background or what I would even describe her style as, but it is beautiful none the less. 

Most of my photography career has been spent trying to capture surrealist portraiture, and Amy does this almost effortlessly. Her photos are a mix of dreamy and fairy-like, as well as not straying too far from reality. This is extremely hard to achieve, in my opinion, but Amy makes it work. 

The locations of her photos are spectacular, but not unattainable. The colors are vibrant and eye-catching, but not over the top. Her work is some of the most inspirational to me, and I hope she keeps producing even more beautiful images in the future.

Elinor Carucci

Throughout the last few years of photo classes, I have been exposed to countless photographers. Although I have not been fond of all of them, there is one in particular that has always stuck out the most - Elinor Carucci. This may be because I find almost every other photographer I have studied in my documentary-heavy classes dreadfully uninteresting, or it may be because I genuinely enjoy looking at the imagery she creates.

Elinor's style of photography is not one that other Anericans in my classes have found the easiest to look at, what with the photos dedicated to the struggles of having a period or even photos of her being with her family - nude.

I think I enjoy her work not despite all of the above, but because of all of the above. Photography that challenges the norm and what some would consider "comfortable" is photography that will stand the test of time. It will be seen as so challenging that it is constanrly referred back to in order to measure just how far we have come and how much our opinions have shifted.