My street project has been heavily influenced by the work of Arto Saari, a well known skate photographer who takes lots of high contrast black and white images. I have chosen to look at Saaris work because I like the way he plays the exposure to create interesting and striking images. I also think he does a good job of showing the community of skateboarding at these 'street spots' as they can often be used more regularly than a skatepark by some people.
The first photo I am looking at of Saari's is a wide angle shot in bright natural light with a shallow depth of field. It is very bright and contrasty and shows a group of skateboarders watching a skater do a trick inside a large drainage pipe. On the left of the frame you see three skaters sat down, leading diagonally towards the centre. The person closest to the centre is filming the skater doing the trick who is at the centre of the frame. The person doing the trick in the centre is framed by the circular drain as its so much darker in there, which highlights the skater against the dark pipe. On the right of the draw you see another three skaters, two are standing and the other sitting in a triangle formation. This composition works well due to the rule of three, you see three people either side of the skater not only filling the negative space, but acting as visual leading lines to draw your eye to the centre. By shooting wide and with a shallow depth of field Saari has created a bigger story whilst still keeping your attention on the skater doing the trick.
The next photo is an image taken with a wide angle lens with an aperture around f4, it is black and white and has some contrast due to the sun being so bright in the background. Saari has shot from low down looking up and you four skateboarders coming down a hill in the middle of the road, the skaters are positioned diagonally across the frame. The focus is on the second skater from the front who is the most central and the other three become more soft, the closest skater to the lens isn't fully visible like the others and fills the darker part of the background with something more interesting. The line that the skaters create across the frame leads to a visually interesting and easy to read image whilst the car in the background gives you the context that its a road and not just a path. Saari has used natural light in this image by blowing out he bright background to bring detail into the shadows and the skaters, this also creates nice contrast due to being backlit. This is a technique I would like to use for my project as I have been practicing shooting backlit subjects and liking the results.
This image is a lot less about the skater and has more focus on the environment he is in, shooting from far back and with a wide angle lens you see skater doing a trick on a rail of a bridge with high-rise city building in the background. The image has been exposed so that you can see detail in the city without completely blacking out the shadows, this creates a nice effect where you see a silhouette with a bit of detail still. The skater is positioned small and on the right of the frame and the buildings on the right which are a lot bigger, at the top and bottom of the frame you see the bridge which frames the skater and buildings in a letterbox across the centre of the frame, it also adds context in the foreground by showing what is the other side of the bridge where the skater could fall off to.
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