Ruidan Li Style Photographs

1. Claire Yaffa

Claire Yaffa is a freelancer known for works she documented for a diversity of medical organizations. Her photography rooted in social realism that strives to portray the image of ordinary individuals with difficulties in life especially for the children and homelessness. Her photography is mainly monochromatic with a sense of observation. In the book Light and Shadow, she chose to focus on the abstraction brought by the human body and frond. These monochrome photos were made with dramatic sunlight, they presented in a sensual emotion. Yaffa recorded curvature of torsos with extreme close-ups, and it made viewers taking more time to figure out the object and the broader picture outside the frame. They combined with images of plums, I somehow cannot recognize which one is the human body. By using a poetic visual content, she illustrated the introspection when she took photos in which to explore the mystery of light and shadow. All the shapes and figures are similar and give a fantasized imagination, the lines of the body are the analogy of veins of plum, and they are quiet and soft under the light. As described in the introduction, Yaffa’s work is to investigate the meaning of existence: why things need to be photographed. She focuses on moments that capture her eyes, and these figures of soft lines vividly convey how she views reality. She found beauty in ordinary things as well as individuals in society. 

2. Robert Walker 

Robert Walker was born in Montreal, then moved to New York as the start to develop the interest of street photography in 1978. He interested in color film and it’s nature of the vibrant hue. He was famous for snapshotting in metropolitans that filled with a diverse color scheme. Walker believed in what Oscar Wilde said, “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible”, which addressed why his style is energetic and eye-catching. In his publication, Color is Power, his works are packed in saturated red, blue and yellow, which are the primary of all colors. They are evocative and aggressive as the dominant feature of photographs, Walker took pictures of subjects that he cannot control, and it gives a feeling of unexpected virtue. Every photo in his book takes up the whole paper, it presents details within the space on the street. Viewers could find strangers, slogans, billboards, etc. Walker’s street photography different from those who purposely cut out every distracting object and leave minimal information, he used layers of the buildings in the city and create multiple spheres of one moment. With the faith in film photography, he thought a photographer needs to find something interesting, which is also the ultimate goal in capturing attractive scenes. And he assumed audiences could gain vigor when browsing animated works.

3. Mitra Tabrizian

Mitra Tabrizian was born in Tehran, Iran, lives and works in London. Her works are created with cutting-edge concepts that beyond straightforward narratives of ideas. Even though a lot of photographers focus on the notion of femininity, race and sexuality, her works exhibit unique scenes like crimes or accidents to illustrate the central arguments. Tabrizian carefully used mise en scene to portray the dynamic of one single moment, her works are thought-provoking and full of imagination. In her book, Beyond the Limits, she always used a group image to express the conception. They are grand and imposing, giving the feeling of “presentation”, which purposely displays the performance of the story and scene. Like a screenshot from a movie, multiple subjects cooperate with each other, and they become part of the storytelling. Tabrizian’s cinematic style also drawn from her career as a filmmaker that manifests the still and motion picture altogether. By using a design of characters’ make-up, gestures and facial expressions, she knows the subtly in addressing the abstraction in a visible fashion. Viewers could more easily comprehend her works with the details of decoration, clothing or just the distance between subjects. Tabrizian was good at blending surreal spectacle and individuals’ struggles. In her work, female images are intricate and vulnerable, meanwhile, they are also inviolable and tough when being presented in the vast and elegant settings.