Essay

Matt Wisniewski and David Bailey are both photographers of different time periods but with very different pieces of work and approaches. In this essay I will look at the background and at the similarities and differences of both their work.

Matt Wisniewski was born in 1990 in the Philadelphia but now is based in New York. He is most known for his surreal photography where he blends fashion photography and nature photography and creates new interesting, surreal photography pieces. Using nature and portraiture Matt Wisniewski has created unique fashion shoots which are both elegant and interesting. I really like the use of nature in fashion photography because I think it gives the series a unique look compared to other fashion photography. The way the nature image has been introduced into the fashion image is really interesting and works really well. I think fashion and nature go really well together because most fashion shapes and textures can be found in nature and they both help to express who we are.The two images look like they were made to fit into each other. For example, in the image below her neck is used as a stream of water. Her neck has replaced the real stream, that brings in nature to the fashion image.

“Natural elements tend to be a little simpler and fit together a bit more obviously with the portraits than urban elements.”
Quote from: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/02/02/dreamscapes-matt-wisniewskis-digital-collages/#end 

David Bailey is a famous English photographer who was born in 1938 in London. In 1957 he served with the Royal Air Force in Malaysia and after became a photographic assistant at the John French studio. After he become contracted as a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine. He is well known for his black and white portraiture where he uses very harsh lighting which creates dense shadows. The increased contract of his images creates a more minimalist look to his images and this makes the main features stand out. In many of his images the models skin has a very similar tone to the background and this creates more of a contrast to the darker tones in the portrait. In many of his images the harsh light helps to highlight the shape of the models jaw line which creates harsh lines and shapes. 

Both Matt Wisniewski and David Bailey mainly do portraiture work but both have a very different approach.  David Bailey crates clean, high contrast that are bold and striking to the eye whereas Matt Wisniewski creates more complex looking images because of the use of two or more images. Both Photographers are well known for there work but more different things. They both look at mainly fashion portraiture but both have different outcomes of there work. 

There are a couple of occasions where David bailey has revisited some of his older work and reconstructed them, for example the black and white image of Michael Caine. David Bailey re-shot this image with Jude Law. The light in this image coming from the left side of the image and this creates a dark strong shadow on the right side of Jude Law’s face. His is looking at the camera lens, which makes it look like he is looking at the viewer, and this draws the viewer into the image. The image has also been taken looking slightly down which makes Jude Laws head appear bigger then his body. 

Looking at the two photographers, they have many similarities but also many differences. Matt Wisniewski's work is very serial and