Neil Winokur
January 25th, 2022
Neil Winokur
By: Connor Albaugh
After a great semester of blogs in the previous year, this blog will be the first blog written since the beginning of Digital Photography II. I am very excited to get back to the photographing process as well as being able to apply my skills in classroom assignments. With high aspirations and ideas, I am going to try very hard to "one-up" the work that I was able to create in the previous semester. I believe many of my pieces were truly special, some being intricate while others were simple, yet creative. I would like to have the same balance in this photography class and I am ready to get to work. For my first blog, I have decided to focus my attention on a photographer by the name of Neil Winokur. Before I dive into his early life leading up to his career, there is something important to consider here. A lot of the photographers that I viewed in the powerpoints for this particular assignment section had incredible work. Each photograph had a lot of detail and utilized very unique practices of photography in order to show how abstract a subject was and attracted viewers in this manner. On behalf of Neil Winokur, he showcases a different look to his photographs and the things he chooses to capture through the lens of his camera. On that note, it is of the essence to start from square one in order to accumulate as much information as possible about Neil. Neil's life began in the beautiful state of New York, where he was born in 1945 (Article #1). Neil graduated with a degree in math and physics in 1967 from Hunter College, which is just one of many public universities in New York City (Article #1). At this point in his life, you would think that Neil would be on a clear path for a career like engineering or a financial analyst. But, Neil did not end up doing this in any shape or form. Instead, he started photographing at his leisure. Neil spent most of his time on black and white photographs in 1970, which were all made possible by a camera that was lended to him to borrow (Article #1). As Neil was inspired and fell in love with photography, he had the opportunity of using a much better camera which had a "large-format view" in the new studio he was working in (Article #1). Neil was so invested in photography at this point that his job at a "strand bookstore" became unimportant and ended up leaving to make more and more black and white prints with this new camera (Article #1). However, Neil had a "slump" so to say where the time he put in wasn't enough to see considerable results, and this costed him the point where his strand bookstore job became Neil's main source of income (Article #1). But, when he thought things were rough, Neil would eventually see his work pay off for him. During the 1980's, Neil started to catch the eye of the public and his reputation as a photographer would change his life.
The 1980's would be a breaking point for Neil Winokur. Seen as a small photographer with merely dreams of becoming a pro photographer, this would change in his favor. Neil would become very popular during the 1980's because of his certain photography practices. With the view camera that he had the ability to use in the photography studio he worked in, Neil took "close-up" color portraits of friends and acquaintances" (Article #1). This idea would only make up half of his style, because Neil's experimentation with photo-taking would further his creativity in the later images he was able to create. Neil started with a plain, "white background and utilized gel-colored strobe lights" in many of his early portraits (Article #1). Mind you, Neil would take this portraits in a studio with intentions of keeping his subjects "still" while still having the satisfaction of being apart of life in a unique manner. Hence, Neil Winokur takes portraits of "still life," those of which exert no movement in the image during the photography process. With many of these early photographs Neil was able to create different color schemes in many of his images based upon the mood and what he was photographing. However, Neil wanted to up his game. Using gels to create a sense of color in his portraits, Neil "placed his subjects in front of brightly colored seamless backdrops, and positioned strobe lights fitted with color filters in front of and behind his subjects" which would allow him to have a more atypical effect on the images he took (Article #1). This atypical effect would exist because without color filters, it would be very hard to naturally mimic this image unless you happened to be somewhere with the certain color you needed to create the image. Neil's new technique would include different things such as "people, objects, or animals" as some of these filters would match the color scheme in his subjects or they would be completely the opposite of the subject of the photograph. For example, the image that is picture above is a photo taken with the color filter technique. There is a green foreground and a light green background which surround a silver and red scissors which is standing on both of its blades in the middle of the photo (Article #3). First off, out of all of his images, this one stood out to me. Who would of thought that a scissors could be used to create such a brilliant photograph? The light green in the background really brings out the colors of the scissors and directs your field of interest to such a simple object. The depth of field used here by Neil was excellent, which eliminates any distracting elements such as studio equipment or potential rips in the studio paper, for example. The red in the handle and the silver in the blades of the scissors couple very well with the green color filter on the strobes. The strobes in this respect do an excellent job of putting "a spotlight" so to say on the scissors and the position it happens to be in. There happens to be a shadow from the scissors in the foreground of the image which suggests that the light is more prominent in the foreground then in the background. This shadow creates a dramatic effect on this image in the respect that the scissors is far larger than the shadow at the angle in which it is seen. Being that the scissors is captured at eye level, this shadow cannot be seen in its entirety because the scissors and his physical characteristics are far more important than the shadow and what is displays. With all of the colors having their own influence photographically, the soft lighting is easy on the human eye when viewing the image and all aspects of the photo can be seen in their entirety like the red color of the handles and some of the marks within the blade of the scissors. This image is compositionally exquisite as it displays great symmetry, vibrant colors, and expert lighting. The choice to use the color green creates a feeling of life and invokes a sense of relaxation and tranquility during the viewing process of the image. Neil Winokur, like the image seen above at the top of this blog, created completely different images using different colors, people, and animals. The diversity in his photography truly makes his images attractive and apart from the rest of other photographers because of the simplicity and attention to detail. This made him very popular and the diligency in his work paid off for him when at one time, he thought he may have never made it.
Neil Winokur and the image that he created (at the top of this blog) is just one of many photographs that are so incredible in their nature. When the ordinary eye sees these images, they may say that Neil simply "centers a single subject against a bright background" (Article #2). However, the planning, execution, and creation of one such image is much more complex than this even though his images bring out the simplicity in certain objects. Neil's images represent more than just light and centering, as "life-size images" are his forte despite what he photographers (Article #1). One thing that I forgot to mention is that "whether he photographs a person, object, or animal," his images don't exaggerate their true size. The angle, the lighting, and the details surrounding the subject in his image are all to scale in the respect that something is not too big or too little. They are positioned carefully and merely the zoom and position of a subject would be the only way for items in Neil's images to look smaller or larger than they actually are. Neil does a good job of selecting certain things to be in his images and the way these things couple with the color background he chooses using strobes is excellent and visually entertaining. Your subject and how big or small its size is shown could have a drastic effect on how the images is viewed and what people think about the image overall. But, there is no question as to why Neil puts certain things or uses certain colors. The only questions that would arise would be whether the color used really correlates to the subject in the image. In the end, Neil's work gained considerable fame and a lot of his work is pictured in different museums across the world. Neil is very influential as a photographer because it shows how one may not find success immediately, but if you work hard and constantly grind at something, you will most certainly improve and see success in little increments which one should build upon. In the field of photography, he is impactful in the sense that his practices have reasoning. The people, items, or animals Neil Winokur photographs serve as an opportunity to "grant a moment of fame" (Article #1). This aspect of Neil's work is very easy to see because the positioning of his lighting is done to highlight his subjects and bring out their true details. Additionally, this part of Neil's style is unique because things as simple as a toilet paper roll or a screw are given recognition when most people would only recognize them as a necessity for cleanliness (the roll) or a material used to bridge two items together (the screw). The way Neil is able to portray these certain things in his images not only tells the viewer about the images, but makes time for each and every image to be special because they are all part of our lives no matter how big, small, or important they are to survival. Popular or not, everything has their own sense of beauty and detail which only certain people would give time to investigate and discover for themselves. Neil and his photography often encourages his viewers to "consider their values they ascribe to themselves and their possessions" as well as "what it means to be an icon" (Article #1). There is a lot to unpack here, but the main idea is that many of us just use items for what they are and don't really take into account how we are actually using them. Much of the world's use of certain items are often abused and people don't really consider their thought process when trying to use certain things. Many items are taken for granted and many items are underutilized which is why Neil has this goal for his photography. There are many people, items, and animals that Neil photographs which allows the viewer to bring to mind their feelings, usage, and overall thoughts upon what he photographs. It is so important to consider how lucky some people are to have certain items and be able to use them consistently while others lack the appropriate resources to afford or have the ability to use and experience certain things. This is why Neil has made it his mission and his profession to capture such simple things when in fact they mean so much more than people think. I really enjoyed analyzing Neil's work and in my photography, lighting, color, angles and focal lengths are things I try to incorporate in the my photography to create the best work that I possibly can. His techniques and dedication to his craft will be very important when I begin experimenting and later creating images that I will use for my assignment. His contribution to the field of photography is truly incredible and it is something that should gain more attention and publicity towards because of how meaningful his photos are and what they have the honor of displaying to the human eye.
Sources
Article #3: http://janetbordeninc.com/artist/neil-winokur/
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