Photographer Feature 2

http://www.hakanphotography.com/

Akif Hakan Celebi is a photographer I found on an artist site years ago, going simple by Hakan.  Hakan focuses mostly on fashion photography and artistic nudes.  What caught my eye about his work was the way he is able to perfectly capture a distinct mood with every photo.  These photos are more artistic in nature, and they tend to be very beautiful.

Hakan travels around the world and contacts models to shoot, both for professional and personal works, but he originally comes from Turkey.  His editing is exceptional, and he desaturates, saturates, or split-tones a photo to get the perfect mood.  His framing is often unconventional, but it is always with a purpose.  Most of his models are female, but there a few males.

I particularly enjoy his fashion photography.  Even though some of the outfits are ludicrous, the way he photographs them makes them all look beautiful and fun to wear.  He can even make them seem perfectly in place at a busy walkway, as if he is transforming the model and her clothes into a beautiful statue in the middle of a street.

His approach also makes the models look flawless.  Their skin has no pores and they look like dolls.  His work makes it look like you are looking into a fantasy world!

Photographer Feature 1

http://www.clayenos.com/
Clay Enos is a portrait photographer.  I first found out about his work while researching costume design on the Watchmen movie, as he was the official photographer the film.   I liked it so much that I bought portrait book.  These portraits were all in black and white with lots of contrast, showing every pore and wrinkle on the actors.  He was able to capture his subjects in a very natural way that did not feel at all posed.

In addition to the photos for the Watchmen film, he also shot for the production of Suckerpunch.  Clay has photographed celebrities such as Kid Rock and Avril Lavigne.  He also shoots spontaneous portraits on the streets of New York and in the city nightlife.  He calls himself spontaneous and edgy, and he says that he “refuses to be pigeonholed into any one category of photography.”  He is currently travelling to shoot a series on food production that sans for Las Vegas to South America.

A look at the rest of his work shows many portraits with an honest, open feel.  They are both in black and white and color, and they give a frank view of the subject.  Things like freckles are not edited out but brought out to give each photo a unique, personal feel.  He also has photos from his travels of both people and locations, beautiful and rundown.  Even the presentation of the locations from a field to a poor city to a classroom feel like blunt, accurate portrayals with skewing of perspective or glamorization.