Marcel Christ (1969-Present)
Personal Background
Marcel Christ was born in Amsterdam. He studied to become a chemical engineer at the Academy of Photography in Amsterdam. He graduated with honors. Afterward, he began taking advertising photos for well-known companies like Sony, Nokia, Nike, Samsung, New Balance, and Coca Cola. He spends his time between New York, Paris, London, and Amsterdam.
Style
There is a lot of movement in his work. He has many photos of action or the aftermath of action. In addition, there are a lot of colors in his photos. He takes many photos of what appear to be explosions of colors and dyes mixing together. Though he often uses dark backgrounds, his photos have lots of light illuminating the focuses of the photos.
Philosophy
He mostly does commissioned work. He has taken advertising photos for many companies. In his non-commissioned work, he combines his study of photography with his study of chemical engineering. This makes fascinating photos that are dynamic and lively. He gives life to inanimate objects and captures individual moments in time.
Influences
He has been influenced in his work by his background in chemical engineering. His work often includes interesting and colorful chemical reactions. He likes to "explore the boundaries of the special effects and techniques he's using. In addition, he takes photos because of his interest in unpredictability. However, though he tries to capture the surprise of the reactions of the objects he uses in his photos, he carefully controls all factors of the environment in his studio. He calls this "controlling coincidence".
Compare and Contrast 1
In Christ's photo, he used a different type of flower than I did, his does not have shadows, and he was able to make the shreds much smaller and finer. As a professional photographer, his obviously look more professional in terms of subject and technique, but I think that my photo turned out decently well.
Compare and Contrast 2
With the photos of bubbles, there are again a few differences. I had a difficult time getting my camera to focus on the small bubbles. In addition, Christ's photo is brighter and as more of a color difference. However, I like how the light reflects in the left half of my photo, and it looks similar to Christ's.
Compare and Contrast 3
In Christ's photo, both the knife blade and the material it is cutting through seem very clean, with different and interesting lighting on each part of the photo. In my photo, the knife I used had a few blemishes on its blade, and though I tried to recreate the lighting, there wasn't really a place that I could find with the exact right lighting.
Personal Artist Statement
Marcel Christ's photos make use of lighting very well. I tried to find interesting lightings for my photographs to imitate his. In addition, there is a lot of movement in his photos. I tried to capture a sense of movement in my photos, too. He is a very skilled photographer, and it was difficult to attempt to recreate all of his techniques, including his balancing, emphasis, and forms. However, I think that I was able to remain mostly true to the photos while also adding some elements to make the photos more personal to me.
Sources
http://www.marcelchrist.com
http://www.julianmeijer.com/marcel-christ/marcel-christ-biography/
http://marcelchrist.com/blog/about/
http://www.julianmeijer.com/marcel-christ/marcel-christ-biography/
http://marcelchrist.com/blog/about/