Keld Helmer-Petersen
Keld Helmer-Petersen started photography in 1937, and rose to fame with his abstract colour photographs in the 1940s and 1950s. He went to the institute of design in Chicago, and studied the photographer Harry Callahan, among others. He was the photographer for life magazine for many years, and spent a lot of time travelling around the world. His photography was unusual at the Time, as colour photography was seen as an amateur format, with most documentary and fine art photographer using Black and White. This made his photographs stand out more, emphasising their abstract nature. In his book Black Light, he moved away from his usual abstract colour photographs, to high contrast Black and White photographs. In these photographs, only the outline of the object/ structure can be seen, as all the midtowns have been taken out. This means the photographs are very minimal, and there is no detail in the highlights or shadows. Due to digital photography not being invented when the photo book was Made, all the photographs were edited by him in the darkroom.
16 most successful photographs
I believe that these 16 images are the most successful, as they best capture the style of Keld Helmer-Petersen. This series was created in order to mimic the style of Keld Helmer-Petersen, which is a very unique style, combining the outline of industrial objects and structures, with a very high contrast look, which was developed in the darkroom, after the photographs where taken. These photographs can now be edited in a post processing software, such as Photoshop. Whilst taking these images, I thought a lot about making the lines and subject in them as simple as possible, this was ignorer to make them easily distinguishable when I edit them on photoshop, and remove the mid tones. The rating of these images are mostly very simple, with the subject taking ups large area of the frame, making them work better when edited.
Keld Helmer-Petersen
What materials are used?
Keld Helmer-Petersen uses black and white film to take his photographs.
How were his images made?
His photographs were taken on black and white film, and were then edited in a darkroom, to achieve the high contrast look.
Keld Helmer-Petersen's books 'Black Noise' and 'Back to Black' are both high contrast Black and White books, where the midtowns have been removed from the photographs. This was unusual, not only as it was more abstract than many other photographers work at the time, but also because he was known for his colour photographs, which he started taking in the 1930s and 40s. These two books see a departure from his signature style, leaning towards a more industrial style of photography. These two book are more straight forward in presenting his subjects, making them subtle, yet also very obvious at the same time, creating a barrier between the viewer and the artist, as Keld Helmer-Petersen knows who the subject is right away, whereas the audience has to look at the photographs for longer before figuring out what it portrays.
Keld Helmer-Petersen uses black and white film to take his photographs.
How were his images made?
His photographs were taken on black and white film, and were then edited in a darkroom, to achieve the high contrast look.
Keld Helmer-Petersen's books 'Black Noise' and 'Back to Black' are both high contrast Black and White books, where the midtowns have been removed from the photographs. This was unusual, not only as it was more abstract than many other photographers work at the time, but also because he was known for his colour photographs, which he started taking in the 1930s and 40s. These two books see a departure from his signature style, leaning towards a more industrial style of photography. These two book are more straight forward in presenting his subjects, making them subtle, yet also very obvious at the same time, creating a barrier between the viewer and the artist, as Keld Helmer-Petersen knows who the subject is right away, whereas the audience has to look at the photographs for longer before figuring out what it portrays.
After editing the Keld Helmer-Petersen photographs, I can conclude that his style of photographs work best when the images do not have a lot of shadows, as due to no mid tones, it can be very difficult to tell what the image is portraying.