Ben Gold

Ben Gold

Gold's work predominantly includes the theme and sense of a journey in terms of the way he takes his photographs as well as where. He tends to use the technique of taking pictures whilst on a journey himself, capturing a variety of views from the front window of his car while including the rear view mirror in the shot. This provides another perspective and imagine in the same shot which can imply a sense of a route, showing where he is going to travel and also where he has already been. Gold also photographs people in very busy urban areas like city centre and depicts the subjects moving or going on a journey themselves. 

Why I chose this photographer:

I chose to study this photographer as I feel that he effectively illustrates a journey in various ways by using different techniques. I like the way he uses cars and their interior mirrors in order to depict multiple images.

This is one of my favourite images of Golds due to the technique of including more than one image which can cause a range of interpretations. He has taken the photograph looking out of the front with the interior mirror cut off to the left of the composition. This therefore shows the front and rear views of from the car in this desert desolate area. The fact that the photo has been taken in a car relates to a journey very well. Also, the long road towards the right of the frame which stretches into the distance has similar connotations itself. Both depth and perspective is shown through the road as it gets smaller as it gets further away. The overall colour scheme is very natural, full of browns and greens. By including the mirror a sense of the past is implied, where the vehicle has already been and the front view suggests the fututre which remains uncertain as the end location cannot be seen.

In this piece another interesting technique is used, i feel that the way that he has included four separate photographs in one composition and created a sequence. This works very well in presenting the journey and progression of the subject who is seen to be on a zebra crossing in an urban location. As the pictures change to the right the subject is shown to change positions, implying that time has passed and therefore illustrating the movement that has taken place. As well as this, similarly the progression of a car in the background is illustrated as it moves from left to right. A formal element that is dominant in this image is line, shown through the zebra crossing and buildings in the background.

Here, Gold has photographed a stranger once again in an urban city location. I feel that the immense depth of field works very effectively in enhancing and directing the focus to the subject as the background is very blurred. The way that the subject is on the phone shows similarities to my other chosen photographer Seymour Tamplar. This makes the audience think about why she is on the phone, is she meeting someone? Or looking for a route?ect. The phone has connotations of communication, contact and connection. The colours of the subjects scarf and bag are very vibrant and bright in comparison to the rest of the composition so therefore stand out.

In this photograph, Gold implies a sense of movement and also time as he does in his other works but in a slightly different way. The cloud of snow which is gathering behind the snowboarder instantly implies that he is in motion, as does his body position. Also the trails in the snow show evidence of other journeys that have taken place, suggesting time and the past. As does a lot of his work, this piece includes depth and lines very well. The orange tinge to the colour of the piece corresponds to the position of the sun being during a sunset.

Influence 

Similarly to Ben Gold I have used a candid style of photography throughout my topic capturing strangers and documenting them in an urban environment. Also I really liked his use of including several photos from the same position and putting them into one composition in order to show the progression of movement capturing the body positions at different stages of the movement transition.