Who is your photographer?
For my photographer I chose Martin Wong.
When and where did your artist live (or are they living)?
My artist is currently living and lives in Northern California
What is your photographer’s main subject matter? (people, places, objects, ideas….)
The photographers main subjects are people in wooded areas.
What kind of work do they do (documentary, film, portraiture, fine art….) and/or who does he/she work for? (a magazine, a store, an advertising agency….)
Martin Wong works for himself and works with various models in different costumes and scenes.
Why did you choose this artist? (What do you like about his/her work?)
I chose this artist because I enjoyed his work with models in long flowing dresses with smoke, I also liked his edited photos with levitation and photoshopped pictures.
For my photographer I chose Martin Wong.
When and where did your artist live (or are they living)?
My artist is currently living and lives in Northern California
What is your photographer’s main subject matter? (people, places, objects, ideas….)
The photographers main subjects are people in wooded areas.
What kind of work do they do (documentary, film, portraiture, fine art….) and/or who does he/she work for? (a magazine, a store, an advertising agency….)
Martin Wong works for himself and works with various models in different costumes and scenes.
Why did you choose this artist? (What do you like about his/her work?)
I chose this artist because I enjoyed his work with models in long flowing dresses with smoke, I also liked his edited photos with levitation and photoshopped pictures.
Interview with Martin Wong
I had the opportunity to interview my photographer. It was an amazing experience to meet and talk to someone I look up to. I asked him various questions about how he became a photographer, what he likes to see in other photographers and what types of tips he would like to give to new photographers like our class. Martin was exposed to art at a young age, due to his father being a graphic designer and someone who made a living off drawing. He had access to photoshop on his home computer and would take pictures off the internet and edit them to see what he could do with photoshop. He moved from Hong Kong to California where he continued toying with photoshop all throughout high school. When he went to college he bought a camera and started taking and editing his own pictures, the school even paid him to take pictures. After college he became a freelance photographer. He photographs people, landscapes, and products which he gets paid for by the clients or sells himself. As of right now his main source of income is photography. Martin likes to see other photographers techniques and take them to use for himself and then continues to tweak these techniques to better his own work. His tip to photographers is to look at others work and try to recreate it, just like this project, continue to recreate work until you find what you enjoy doing the most. Martin's favorite thing to photograph is surreal scenes and models, he enjoys throwing ideas back and forth between him, the model, and the client. His favorite thing about being a photographer is being able to tell a story without saying a word. He tells his stories through his photos and loves that it eliminates all language barriers and leaves the photo for the viewer to interpret.
My Photo Emulation
For my photo emulation I tried to recreate Martins work with smoke, which was harder than I originally thought it was going to be. First I had to order various things off amazon including the smoke and to add my own personal spin, a gas mask. I asked my friend to model for me and when the weather was good and the stuff came in we went out to shoot. We first started at an abandoned factory, which is only the foundation now. I thought it would be the perfect place for this shoot because it is covered in graffiti and has a sort of apocalypse vibe to it. We shot some candids and used the smoke. A few days later we went back to take more candids and try different techniques. The other location I shot at was a beach on my aunts property. It had a nice view of the water and a picnic table. After all the photos was taken came the hard part of cutting down the list of ones we both liked and editing them. I started with some of the candids, editing the color levels and changing some things to black and white and keeping some in color. I did not want to do to much to the smoke because it was the main part of this projects so I only edited some levels and fixed a few distracting parts of some photos.