Artist research ~ Trent Parke ~ Light and Shadow.

TRENT PARKE.

“Photography is a discovery of life which makes you look at things you’ve never looked at before. It’s about discovering yourself and your place in the world.” ~ Trent Parke.

 

 

Trent Parke was born in 1971. He was raised in Newcastle, New South Wales.

He began experimenting with his mothers Pentax Spotmatic, with using the family laundry room as his darkroom.

He began taking photographs when he was 12 years old and today he is the only Australian photographer to be represented by Magnum.

He works, primarily, as a street photographer.

 

Trent Parke works in context, perspective and timing. Due to him working as a street photographer, he catches small moments, the timing of the decisive moment.

Throughout many of his images, it is clear to see that he has planned the right time of day due to the sun flares and the shadows being so strong, in contrast to the whites of the concrete/sky. Some of his images are somewhat surreal as it makes the viewers wonder what the shadows are caused by, or what they are like.

 

Throughout his images in light and shadow that I have been looking at, named “Dream/Life”, he captures the beautiful city of Sydney, and brings out quite a dark and mysterious undertone, grabbing the attention through his black and white images.

Something that I wanted to take away from Trent Parke’s work was the way that he uses and captures light. The light is what makes his images come together.

“Parke is able to masterfully play with light to craft his images to look like his signature monochrome images: deep contrast and brilliant light.”

 

Shooting in both rain and sun, he creates long and sharp shadows, creating surreal images with using a flash.

Something that this photographer always does is take pictures, he believes that going out and shooting a lot will bring good images.

 

 

“I went each evening, for about 15 minutes, when the light came in between two buildings. It happens only at a certain time of the year: you’ve just got that little window of opportunity. I was relying so much on chance” “I stood there probably three or four times a week for about a month. I used an old Nikon press camera that you could pull the top off and look straight down into, because I was shooting from a tiny tripod that was only about 8cm high”

 

 

“I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical” ~ Trent Parke.

 

 

“I’m always trying to channel those personal emotions into my work. That is very different from a lot of documentary photographers who want to depict the city more objectively. For me it is very personal – it’s about what is inside me. I don’t think about what other people will make of it. I shoot for myself.”

 

Trent Parke’s work is very different and interesting in depth and it was rather striking for me. I truly think the idea of the decisive moment is very interesting, going out, just like this photographer does on the street, and creates something by using light and shadow is very creative and so I wanted to do this, I wanted to create images in the moment, with light and shadow. I decided to go around the streets of Chester and around my hometown to see what I could find, as it is all about timing and the moment. I found some interesting reflections and shadows from buildings and people and I am happy with my results.