Katie Hedderman: January 2014

I found Jim Maginn's traditional music inspired collection 'The Light of Other Days' to give an insight into Irish musicians and their own personal stories through his use of black and white photography.
What I like most about Maginn's photography is his ability to clearly show the emotions of his characters in each photograph. Each photograph is in black and white which allows for them all to look somewhat similar.

The photograph that struck me most was that of musician Tommy Keenan holding his fiddle. With the black background I found the musician to stand out and catch my attention more than any other photos. What I find interesting about this photograph is his expression which is blank, with him neither smiling nor frowning.
The way in which he holds his fiddle allows us to think he is preparing to play. This would explain his blank expression as he looks to be intensely concentrated on what he is about to do.

'Musician Tommy Keenan' by Jim Maginn

1. How many photographs are taken in a year?At the time this documentary was released in 2007 it was estimated that 80 billion photographs were taken each year, with that figure rising to 880 billion in 2013.

2. How does Gregory Crewdson work?
Gregory Crewdson works with a production crew using cinematic lighting and actors to pose for his photographs. Although he does not physically take the photograph he is the director of his photography. He has said that he only cares about the image and not about taking it.

3. Which prints command the highest price & what are they called?
The prints that command the highest price are know as vintage prints. These are made closest to the time the photographer took the image.

4. How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Walls photography?
4. Ben Lewis sees Jeff Wall's photography as taking photography back to the style of the 19th century when everything was constructed for a meaning. He also commented on how Wall's photography was mainly concerned with racial stereotyping.

5. How many photographs did Andreas Gursky produce and what scale (size) are they?
Andreas Gursky produces on average two photographs every year and they tend to be of a large scale.

6. How are Seydou Keita's images different to regular images in the media?
The main thing that was different in his photography was his use of props for the people he photographed. Also the fact that he was an unknown artist for such a long time made him different from other photographers. The fact that his photography focused on people was also different.