Rut Blees Luxemburg is a photographer I have wanted to look at more detail for a while, I feel there is a lot I can take from her work that would improve the work I like to shoot. Luxemburg's project, London Is a serious of images taken around London at night all shot under various artificial light. A lot my work recently has been shot under artificial light and seeing Luxemburg's work makes me want to go somewhere more built up and try and 'steal' some of Luxemburg's techniques.
The first image I will look at is of Caliban towers, firstly what drew me to this image was three striking tower blocks in the fame,. I really like shape they create and Luxembourg has used the rule of three to make them balanced on the frame. Luxemburg must have used a wide angle lens for this image as you can see most of the buildings in the frame as well as the leaves from a tree at the top of the frame; it was a shot with a small aperture to make sure that all three of the buildings were sharp. The image has been taken at night and lit with what looks like artificial, tungsten street lights. I think this works well for this photo as I associate that light with the hustle and bustle of the city yet there are no people or crowds in this photo which makes me think that these building make up the city just as much as the people do. The image has both pure white and black which makes some contrast but due to a lot of the white elements in the image being coloured in the warm, yellow light you lose some of it. You mainly see the contrast around the windows and lights of the tower block, this is something I have learned that you have to deal with when shooting at night using harsh/ direct artificial light and also an aesthetic that I quite like now. This also means that Luxemburg has shot this image on the more under exposed side of things, this makes sure those direct lights shining into the lens don't become too obtrusive and overpowering. She is shooting up towards the top of these buildings, at quite a gradient which allows you to see the top of the building and the leaves along the top of the frame and has positioned the 'centre' building slightly right of the middle. This would've been done to get the outside two buildings to look natural and balanced in the frame. The subjects are in the background of this image so all context is in front of the buildings, you can see other smaller buildings that appear around building on the character of the city and helps the viewer know that it was in a city without being told.
The next image I went to look at is a photo looking down from an apartment block to the car park and pavement below. I like this image because it is quite abstract and has lots of smaller details that I think helps tell the story of this big city at night whilst keeping it void of any actual people. Luxemburg took this photo with a wide lens and a mid aperture as a lot of this photo is sharp but not all. It is taken in a mixture of artificial light, which appears to be fluorescent and tungsten which is why it has a slight orangey green tint. I really like the colour in this image as it tells the story of a city that never sleeps. There is a range of tones in this image due to the way it has been lit, the shadows are basically black due to the light coming from one direction; there are also a lot of highlights in this image which contrasts well despite not being super white which o think adds more atmosphere and character into the photo.The way this image is framed is abstract and unusual, Luxemburg is shooting down towards the ground, you see the apartment blocks going around the right, top, and left side of the frame with the centre and bottom being the carpark and pavement. The angle she is looking down from seems unnatural like she's floating in mid air and allows you to see the detail in the windows which I think adds a lot to the image. By including so much of the building in the position she has, the negative space created a trapeze like shape towards the bottom right, middle which helps draw your eye down the building and too all these little cars parked below.
I was drawn to this photo because of the simplicity of it, it shows some extreme barbed wire on top of a wall. It is lit with that same mix of tungsten and fluorescent light which keeps this image relevant to the story despite not showing any buildings. It has been shot a lot more tight with a more standard/tele lens and was more than likely shot wide open in order to get as much detail as possible in the low light. There is no background to the image which adds to the simplicity of it as well as eliminates the need to stop the lens down to get background details sharp. Luxemburg is positioned underneath, looking up at the top of a wall, this insinuates feelings of being trapped in like once you enter this city you won't ever leave. Despite having shadows and highlights this image does not have a lot of contrast, the previous two images had direct sources of light visible in the frame which added a lot of contrast however due to this being lit from something outside the frame it loses a lot of that punchiness.
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