On Wednesdays, we look at artist statements and discuss the best vocabulary to describe different styles of artwork. Today’s artist is wedding and fine art photographer Carlos Hernandez of Portland, U.S. His portfolio website was listed as one of the 25 best by colormelon.com in October, 2017.
This is his artist statement from the About page of his portfolio website:
I am a Fine Art Film Wedding Photographer based out of Portland Oregon. I am so blessed to be a part of the most memorable moments in so many people’s lives. I am moved by sincerity, gestures of purity, and the disappearing value of the tangible. My desire as an artist is to create photos that are full of life and express beauty in an honest way. For this reason, I choose to photograph your wedding in an organic nature mixing film and digital photography. This allows me to slow down and turn my eye to detail in order to document moments that are meaningful. I graduated from college as a civil engineer in 2007. Soon after, I became a licensed professional engineer, where I learned the importance of detail, precision, and organization. I have worked as a photographer since 2012 and I incorporated those additional skill sets to my workflow. All of the couples I get to work with really enjoy that I have that previous training.
In the first two sentences, he introduces himself and expresses his feelings about his work. Let’s look at the vocabulary he uses next to describe his work.
I am moved by sincerity, gestures of purity, and the disappearing value of the tangible.
In this sentence, he talks about his inspiration as a wedding photographer. When he refers to gestures of purity, I think he means doing something with pure intentions. I think the disappearing value of the tangible means that an event or interaction has meaning in the moment, but then the moment is gone and is no longer tangible. Therefore, the memory of that moment carries more value because it disappears and you cannot get it back.
My desire as an artist is to create photos that are full of life and express beauty in an honest way. For this reason, I choose to photograph your wedding in an organic nature mixing film and digital photography. This allows me to slow down and turn my eye to detail in order to document moments that are meaningful.
In these sentences, he talks about his process. He describes his reasons for using both film and digital photography together in his work. Why do you think this process helps him to slow down? He says that it allows him to turn his eye to detail, which means to notice and capture the details, instead of only focusing on the big, busy parts of the wedding. Looking at the photos above, do you think he creates photos that are full of life and express beauty in an honest way, as he describes them? Can you explain your opinion?
At the end, he talks about his previous career as an engineer, and how it has influenced his work as a photographer. Do you think that this extra information is helpful, or distracting? Would his statement be better without it? Personally, I think putting it at the end is a bad choice. It leaves the reader thinking about his past instead of his current work.
What do you think of these images and the artist statement? Do you agree with my comments? Do you have questions about the vocabulary? Do you want to suggest a piece or artist for me to discuss next week? Leave a comment below!
I’ve chosen 5 words or phrases for you to focus on today. They are in bold. If you don’t know them, look up the meaning, synonyms, antonyms, and other forms of these words. You can find links to Merriam-Webster dictionary sites at the bottom of this page.
To see the original page on the artist’s portfolio website, click the link below:
http://www.carloshernandez.co/about/