Adam Ferguson

 May 4th, 2023 

Adam Ferguson 

By: Connor Albaugh 

            As I am researching for this blog, I realized that this is the last and final one for this semester. Overall, this semester was extremely long and hard. There were a lot of ups and downs, but for the most part, I was able to find my way and do my absolute best on each and every assignment that I had due. Junior year is coming to a close and this is my last and final assignment for all of my classes which is crazy to think about as well as comprehend mentally. With this in mind, there were a lot of photographers that I looked at and researched about when it came to finding inspiration for my final project. The photographer that I ultimately ended up choosing goes by the name of Adam Ferguson. 

            Ferguson was born in 1978 (Article #2). “Regional New South Wales, Australia” was the birthplace of the now-renowned photographer (Article #2). Out of every career possible, Ferguson choose photography. On behalf of school, he decided to pursue his education at “Queensland College of Art, Griffith University” in Australia (Article #2). He would end up graduating for this university in 2004 with a “Bachelor of Photography” (Article #1). College is an expensive endeavor, so when finding a career and ultimately his passion, he needed the funds to make this a reality. Post graduation, Ferguson “traveled from port to port through the Caribbean and Mediterranean as crew on a sailboat” (Article #2). As simple as this job may seem to you and people who knew of Ferguson, he used what he made to “launch of his photographic career” (Article #2). In the coming years, Ferguson would create some very memorable and captivating photographic images as well as multiple popular projects. 

            Overall, Ferguson’s job title is “an Australian freelance photographer who lives in New York City” (Article #2). This idea of “freelancing” means that you are self employed, generate your own clientele, promote your outstanding work, and conduct individual photo shoots. This gives a lot of leeway as a photographer because you can do as you please and are good at while still making a good living. His work was so spectacular that it had the opportunity to appear in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, etc (Article #2). Before his claim to fame, Ferguson first started gaining attention from “his work in 2009 when he embarked on a sustained survey of the U.S. led war in Afghanistan working as a photojournalist on assignment for Time Magazine, The New York Times, and National Geographic” (Article #2). The images of Afghanistan invoke a lot of emotion, but are very close up which makes the viewer feel uncomfortable as well as show them the reparations of what a war does to a population of people. In the years following this project, Ferguson “has worked internationally documenting the consequences of geopolitical conflicts on civilian populations” (Article #1).

            One aspect of his photography that I decided to focus my time on in regards to Ferguson as a photographer was his portraiture. The one portrait that got my attention quite fast was a picture he took of Jeffrey Siegelman who is a medical doctor in 2021 for The New York Times Magazine (Article #1). It happens to be on the topic of COVID-19, which was a worldwide pandemic that stemmed from the spreading of a very dangerous and life-threatening disease in 2020. The caption reads “What if you never get better from Covid-19?” (Article #1). Overall, the composition of this photo is quite magnificent. The first thing that really captured my eye as a viewer is the pristine framing of this individual. He is placed symmetrically in the middle of the framing of a building in the foreground and is dead center of the photograph. This framing creates a dramatic shadow of the figure of this man because it keeps out a lot of the background light that may seep through the framing where he is standing. Another thing that I really like about this photograph is the lighting. Being that Ferguson takes “studio-like photographs,” the lighting on the right side of the man’s face looks artificial like a strobe was used or a light pole is shining on the mans side. The bright side of the man’s body represents optimism or life one still has to be able to fight though COVID-19 and the struggles of the pandemic as well as the physical and mental reparations of such a pandemic. The lack of light on the left side of the man’s body represents the dead or fleeting part of life as one who may not be able to overcome or struggles with the presence of COVID-19 will experience hardship and potentially death being it is life threatening. The lighting creates two separate feelings which allow this photograph to be highly emotional. The lighting also allows the viewer to see the facial expressions on the man’s face. He is a medial doctor, so which this in mind, he definitely deals with a lot of cases of COVID-19 everyday where he works and it looks as if he is rundown. Starring off into the distance is indicative of being deep into thought and could be in some sort of shock from what he sees and experiences on a daily basis in his profession. Him being photographed in his scrubs portrays him in the sense that he just got off of work or is about to go into work which could mean he is mentally preparing for his day or mentally decompressing from a long and tiring day. The focus of his image is another excellent quality of this image. The image has a shallow depth of field which allows the viewer to focus on the physical and mental aspects of the medical doctor in the middle of the photograph. The background of the photograph is so rich in color although it is blurry, being that it is not the primary focal point of the image. The rich orange, yellow, and light grey colors in the house, from the light on the street poles, and in the eye all come together in a cohesive manner to make a visually captivating, yet poignant photograph. The framing of this image also acts as a way to eliminate distracting elements. Although a shallow depth of field has the same role in a way, the framing forces the viewer eye’s to focus on specific things in the image which eliminates things on the right or left side of the image in the background that may distract or take away from the overall meaning of the image. I enjoyed looking at this image because it is so photographically pleasing to see different colors, a new place, and the amount of emotion that can be taken away from a simple, yet powerful pose of one of the most important and under appreciated people in our society. 

            In the end, Alex Ferguson is quite talented and has the ability to create some incredible work. I was inspired by him for my final project because of the detail of his portraits and the overall emotion that is shown in each and every one of his images. My topic happened to be night portraiture. This was an extremely hard topic to take on because at night, light is limited and if you don’t know what you are doing or aren’t comfortable with your subject, it will be very difficult to create a memorable, yet cohesive series of photographs. I photographed my friend Mikey who has an incredibly funny, yet serious personality. The photographs I took of him include him leaning on a pole, flicking off the camera, standing by a street, or looking off into space. A lot of his poses are dramatic, but they convey a lot of emotion within the photographs. As important as his poses are, the detail behind him in my photos is also important. It happens to showcase different areas of downtown Williamsport during the late night hours. Very little people are out which shows the absence of life and activity. It was me, my camera, and my boy Mikey grinding in the cool, yet mysterious and suspenseful environment. We had ideas, but didn’t know what they would become or eventually come to resemble. My photographs came out quite well and I am very proud of the work as well as the time that I spent to make these photographs look and feel as though they are creating a memorable and lasting idea viewers can take away. This is what I take away from Adam Ferguson’s photographs. His strong emotion, beautiful compositions, and different subject matters with different poses all come together to make very good images. Some are serious, some are funny, and some invoke confusion among his viewers. Believe it or not, the couple of black and white were very well done and give off this moody and highly captivating narrative about each of his subjects. This is how I feel with my images, as the black and white prints show my friend Mikey in his natural element of who is he, but the surrounding environment like a street without cars, buildings of high importance, and places of transportation all contribute to a moody, yet dramatic feel to my subject and the things around him. The focus Ferguson uses in his images is so well done and this is one thing that really inspired me as well as with the emotion and the detail he can capture with the different places and people he has had the opportunity of working with and gathering photographically. When all said in done, there is a bright side and a darker side to the photography of Adam Ferguson, whether it be in black and white or color, that not only differentiates several of his photographs, but allows each subject to have their own indivual spotlight and moment of fame. 

Sources: 

Article 1 - https://adamfergusonstudio.com/portraitportfolio

Article 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Ferguson_(photographer)