Silhouette Photography
| Last Updated: July 1, 2014
In this showcase series we feature the photography of Rupert Vandervell.
Rupert introduced himself to Photophique:
I am a self-taught photographer and I live and work in London. As a photographer, I first started shooting landscapes and architecture. I quickly became fascinated by shapes and form in our surroundings as I have always been obsessed with clean lines and the geometrical appearance of things.
I find the tonal range of black and white well suited to my way of seeing. Colour tends to confuse the way I want to record things. I have spent many years working with design and the moving image and this has probably had quite an impact on my style of photography.
There are certainly elements that have made their way into my photographs. Through the lens I find people captivating and my work explores our relationship with the world and how we interact with it.
Can you tell us more about this Urbanites series?
This series of pictures is an exploration of the city, its urban spaces and the human presence within it. The street is a place where all people are equal but everyone is there for different reasons. On every corner there is a story waiting to unfold. The geometrical surroundings of the modern city’s streets are perhaps the stage on which the inhabitants act out their lives.
Black and white brings a starkness and sensitivity to these images and helps to isolate the figure free from distractions. Inside every crowded and frenetic city there is a moment of pure silence waiting just around the corner. These pictures tell their own stories but hopefully they provoke the viewer into giving a little bit of themselves.
What equipment did you use for this series?
I used an Olympus E-M5
with a 20mm pancake lens exclusively for this series. This lightweight combo is perfect for working on the streets and the super fast focusing system is just what I need.
Also, the EM5 is very good in low light conditions so the night scenes were easier to achieve at lower ISO settings. I have always used Olympus systems and have no plans to change that and their cameras just seem to get better and better.
I use both Lightroom and Photoshop in post. I prefer to start out in Lightroom where I will select and crop and then usually pass the image onto Photoshop for further processing including contrast adjustments and general balancing and tidying. I enjoy the post-processing stage but I prefer to try and get as much right in camera first.
You can see more of Rupert’s work via rupertvandervell.co.uk or Behance.
Photophique has express permission to publish these images and Rupert Vandervell retains full copyright to all photographs featured in this showcase series.
