Richard Misrach/Robert Glenn Ketchum

Richard Misrach:

Misrach is known for his landscape work and work that shows human interaction with the environment. He has been an advocate for color photography and has recently taken advantage of the perks of digital photography and producing very stunning detailed images. He has had work in over 50 major museums. Misrach's work really shows how important lighting is in landscape photography.  He has taken a lot of photographs using the golden light right before sunset. Although I do see a lot of photos where he shot on overcast days. It makes me wonder how long it takes him to get a successful photo of a certain place, if he waits days until the perfect light or if he just gets very lucky. I think his photos of how humans interact with the environment are very successful, especially the one above. I love the contrast of the textured road created by vehicles. There is a lot of detail that is shown by the lighting. I'm not sure about his placement of the horizon line though. It does break the photo in half but the sky really works with the image. Looking at his work makes me want to use my largest f-stop and set my camera on a tripod during golden hour and take as many landscape photos as I can. I was also particularly inspired by his use of reflections in his landscape images. 




Robert Glenn Ketchum:

Ketchum has been a strong advocate of using photography to address enviromental issues. He was one of the founders of the International League of Conservation Photographers. American Photo magazine named him one of the most important people in photography in the 1990's and also featured him in their 'Masters Series'. His photos are mainly color landscapes. I think his photos are very successful because he just doesn't shoot traditional landscapes of rolling hills. He also shoots nature, photos of trees and streams. Just because you are taking a landscape photo doesn't mean the background has to be miles and miles long. I like how he uses fog in a lot of his photos. It blocks just enough of the land that it peaks your interest but if you look hard enough you can still see past just a bit of the fog. I'm very inspired by his work because it looks like he had to hike through deep nature to get his photos. It doesn't look like he stood on a lookout next to a hundred tourists and snapped his photo.