Artist Analysis : Steffi Klenz
After deciding upon a theme to focus on for “my community” I went on to research artists that worked in a similar style to what I wanted to capture. From this I was most inspired by Steffi Klenz’s series of photographs “Nonsuch”. The photographic series presents a feel of estrangement in its depiction of an abandoned town, free of people, litter and personal details. This is done through Klenz capturing on the “model” town, representing a new urban development in a more “ideal civic society’ view.
I feel that by avoiding capturing people in any of her photographs Steffi Klenz is trying to portray an urban space free of human presence, this is an element I want to carry on in my own photographs as a “community” is based around people whether its through common interests, where they live , beliefs or interests, however, by removing people from an area shows how new developments and improvements in urban areas do not necessarily bring people together as one community.
The lighting is also a key element Klenz focus’s on in her photographs. The unnatural lighting creates a very mundane colour scheme with the soft brightness subtly enhancing the tone. I feel this element symbolises how an urban development free of people, removes all dramatic emotions and elements, creating a lifeless photograph.
The strongest element would be the composition each photograph is specifically spaced and balanced helping to emphasis the artificial perception of a perfect and ideal model town.
Overall I would like to develop my photographs into the style of Steffi Klenz’s work , capturing an ideal urban space in my own community by disregarding human presence and focusing on architecture.
I feel that by avoiding capturing people in any of her photographs Steffi Klenz is trying to portray an urban space free of human presence, this is an element I want to carry on in my own photographs as a “community” is based around people whether its through common interests, where they live , beliefs or interests, however, by removing people from an area shows how new developments and improvements in urban areas do not necessarily bring people together as one community.
The lighting is also a key element Klenz focus’s on in her photographs. The unnatural lighting creates a very mundane colour scheme with the soft brightness subtly enhancing the tone. I feel this element symbolises how an urban development free of people, removes all dramatic emotions and elements, creating a lifeless photograph.
The strongest element would be the composition each photograph is specifically spaced and balanced helping to emphasis the artificial perception of a perfect and ideal model town.
Overall I would like to develop my photographs into the style of Steffi Klenz’s work , capturing an ideal urban space in my own community by disregarding human presence and focusing on architecture.
After researching Sfteffi Klenz I went on to capture my own photographs with the same intent of capturing an ideal urban space. I chose to capture a variety of different estates that all had very similar architecture as I feel the lack of originality and the sense of repetition through out the community creates an unrealistic ideal perception of the area as every photograph is free from personal detail.
I focused on removing all colour from the sky and the background to create a very mundane setting, this emphasis’s the rich tones of the buildings and creates an overall perfect contrast between the tones of the greenery and the architecture. Composition was a very important element when taking these photographs, I wanted to stick to a central to create a strong symmetrical and balanced composition, again emphasising the idea of idealistic urban area.
I focused on removing all colour from the sky and the background to create a very mundane setting, this emphasis’s the rich tones of the buildings and creates an overall perfect contrast between the tones of the greenery and the architecture. Composition was a very important element when taking these photographs, I wanted to stick to a central to create a strong symmetrical and balanced composition, again emphasising the idea of idealistic urban area.
