James Griffioen
Born February 4th
1977, James Griffioen is an American writer and photographer who resides in
Detroit, Michigan. His work has featured in magazines such as Vice magazine,
Architecture magazine and the New York magazine.
Detroit is popular with many
landscape and architectural photographers as the location is renowned for its
striking deterioration. Detroit is still the 11th most popular
cities in America, even with as many as 10,000 abandoned structures.
His pictures of the abandoned
structures highlight life issues such as the culture and the economy. These are
apparent through the buildings actually being left to deteriorate, instead of
fixing them up to become something modern. This also allows us to look into
Detroits culture, as they don’t seem to be a modern city, they are not based
around skyscrapers, or having streamlined glass towers as work offices. This
could also highlight their aims to help the environment. Less architecture and
construction work leads to less congestion. Griffioens work also highlights the
environment through his use of colour, as there is an awful lot of green in his
images, so this gives me the impression that he is trying to show that the
environment is taking over. The subject matter is of course the building in the photography, but also the environment around it. The landscape around it acts almost as a border to highlight the main object even more. The subject matter is immediately obvious, as the use of his straight forward composition allows the viewers attention to go straight to the building.
The piece has been framed with a straight on, close up view. Some tend to be more close up than others, partly because the landscape around some of these buildings has more content. In some ways, his work is quite basic, just a straight on picture of a derelict building, however this builds up a rhythm in his work, as people know what to expect and this allows it to become more recognisable. The saying "less is more" tends to spring to mind when I see his work, as he doesn't over do it, or take the purpose away from the image. The simplicity allows the viewers attention to be direct, and think into more of what they're seeing, as opposed to being sidetracked by something irrelevant. I do think the overall arrangement of the piece is pleasing to the eye, however I think it could be more exaggerated e.g. more use of different camera angles, or close up parts of the building.
In some ways the image has been "planned", because Griffioen obviously had intentions of what he wanted to photograph, however there is an element and a feel of spontaneity because each picture is original. To add more depth to his images he could have photographed on different times of days, capturing the sunrise and sunset. Whether the whole place looks different at night? The images do remind me of a storybook, especially of a witches house. Furthermore, they make me want to travel, and experience seeing other cultures and opening my eyes to other peoples surroundings. His photo's have been taken with a digital camera, however some appear to be enhanced within photoshop as they seem sharper, and the colours are more bolder.
In some ways the image has been "planned", because Griffioen obviously had intentions of what he wanted to photograph, however there is an element and a feel of spontaneity because each picture is original. To add more depth to his images he could have photographed on different times of days, capturing the sunrise and sunset. Whether the whole place looks different at night? The images do remind me of a storybook, especially of a witches house. Furthermore, they make me want to travel, and experience seeing other cultures and opening my eyes to other peoples surroundings. His photo's have been taken with a digital camera, however some appear to be enhanced within photoshop as they seem sharper, and the colours are more bolder.
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