Photographer Research 4: Rachael Koscica

About This Photographer:

Rachael Koscica was born and raised in Arizona, America, and found an interest for photography when her father gave her a camera for Christmas one year. She followed by learning about B&W developing and darkroom printing in years at college. She combines her degree in Fine Art Design with her photography, creating mostly conceptual pieces and even working for clients such as Vogue.

Why Have I Picked This Photographer?

I have picked Rachel to study more in-depth as I loved the way her surreal photography often takes on the theme of reality and dreams, which is an interesting contrast I too would like to explore in my personal work. She also works a lot with underwater photography, something I have always had a strong love and interest in, and something I would love to conduct myself if it was much simpler for me to conduct on a regular basis, but I love some of the colour contrasts hinted in this selection of her portfolio. In her surrealism portfolio, not only does she play with the contrast of reality and dreams, but she also often explores the theme of life and death, but also the animal and human worlds too.

Evaluation:

The contrast that I see most in this photo is the use of light and dark. I have not focussed on light and darkness in great depth so far in my own personal work and I believe that, looking at this particular image, it could look really effective. I like how the use of a bright light source brings a strong contrast for this image, and allows the model to almost 'glow'. The effect is actually quite disorientating in this image as it appears that the model's head is completely separate from the rest of her body. The darkness of the image gives off the impression of a scary, mysterious tone, which is added to by the blurred, unidentified object in the very back of the composition, but then the idea is further contrasted by the use of a feminine, attractive model, wearing a swimming cap decorated with feminine flowers. I think this initial idea of light and dark also allows for a key focal point for the eye, as the model's head stands out really strongly against the 'glow' of her body beneath her..

This image has a really strong message of life and death and is somewhat haunting. The basic is that the model is supposedly alive, and she is holding on to 'someone' that is dead. You could arguably say that they are both deeply in love, hence why the girl is still holding on to the 'person' despite the fact that he or she is dead. The framing I find is also particularly important as the couple only make up a small amount of the image; they are surrounded by a dark, yet pretty background, which again signifies another contrast. Despite the dark colours which might suggest a dark, horror tone, there are also pretty yellow flowers which contrasts the idea of good and happiness. Emotions play a really important part in this image which is special because it allows for different audiences to perceive it differently, which is definitely something I could play into my own personal work.

I chose this image for research into 'contrasts' because I love the strong contrast in the colours. Whilst enhancing the curves and levels in some images can look silly and over-worked, I like the overall brightness of this image and it is quite captivating. Her skin is quite pale, which makes for a brilliant contrasting 'background' against the bright colours she is wearing. The use of yellow and red colours in her clothing and makeup contrasts beautifully with the deep sea-blue of the water around her. This image could also be 'read' in a completely different manner, it is all about perception. Some audiences may suggest that the model is completely underwater to suggest that she may drown, which would have a complete contrast of moods and emotions, as she facially looks really happy, but the paleness of her skin could also suggest that she is cold and dead.

This is my favourite image of all four of them, simply because I think it is stunning. I love her strong use of lighting in this image and how it shows form of the model and the tree. The model is wearing all black, which brings about the natural contrast of lightness and darkness, but other people may read it as good and evil. With this particular image, I am inspired to do a shoot based on good and evil, where I perhaps have a 'good' angel and a 'bad' angel, signified with the use of bright lights and pale colours for the former, and dark tones and passionate reds for the latter. The use of the lighting behind the model is also really effective because it gives off a nice glow around the edges of the model's frame, and also illuminates the colour of her red hair, which also contrasts well with the black in her clothing and the whiteness of the lights.

Influence:
I find a lot of Rachel'w work influential, and I definitely feel I will be able to apply some of the themes and techniques she has used in her work into my own. I think that her work is really captivating, and no single one of her photographs is boring to look at. The use of colour and lighting in her work is really strong and influential as I find a range of contrasts in the emotions and feelings she portrays. I definitely feel inspired and I want to now look at using light effectively in my personal work to make stronger use of the emotions that I can evoke from viewers. She has also definitely influenced some of my work so far, including my 'pumpkin' shoot where my main focus was the use of fairy lights in creating special effects for my photographs. I will definitely expand on this idea in the future after researching Rachel's work in more depth.

Summary:
Overall, I find Rachel is one of my favourite photographers I have ever researched over my entire time in A-Level Photography. Her work is really inspiring and beautiful to look at, and you can really see her past experience in Art and Design come through in some of the sets and costumes she uses in her work. I feel I can definitely learn from Rachel about the use of visual contrasts in my work, as well as the connotations of emotional contrasts as well.