Chris Burkard

 Chris Burkard artists reasrch-

Chris Burkard is a professional landscape photographer who captures inspiring landscapes at the farthest areas of the earth. He explores the relationship between humans and nature whilst also promoting preservation of untamed areas across the globe. He shoots a wide range of subjects such as: surf, adventure, lifestyle and travel. His images are capture nature through a powerful, untamed and wild perspective. His photography takes a photojournalist approach and takes more editorial based images. 

I have chosen the images above as they are based on surf landscapes/ seascapes which fits my theme following surf and skate culture, I will be analysing these images. The pictorial space in these images is very deep, he creates depth by capturing the background in high quality and bright lighting to make it stand out against the foreground. Not many shadows are used in his work so therefore there is a lot of bright detail throughout the whole image. The is often overlapping of objects in foreground to the background which creates even further depth. The horizon line works as the central anchor in his images to Crete a balanced image. He explores relationships with adjacent objects to create a sense of scale, for example he incorporates the human form (a surfer) to to show the size a scale of the waves and mountains in the background. This therefore creates more of an intensity to the image as it shows the huge true scale of the looming background. Chris Burkard shoots using 'A9 w/ 100-400mm f4-5.6 or Sony 200-600mm' as its a light camera which produces high quality images. The shape and form used is very complex as he explores many different elements into his images which are all unique- some images use free flowing, organic shape and some sharp, angular shape. A very wide tonal range has been used in Chris's photography as he creates abroad range of darks, highlights and mid-tones. He incised strong highlights to add detail and enhance colour in his images. He explores different colour schemes in each of his images to emit different emotions. For example, the first image explores darker tonal range which creates an eerie, lonely atmosphere as the dark mountain looms over the tiny surfer. However, the second image uses a bright and colourful colour scheme and lighting which enhances the bright blue of the wave against the evening sky which creates a more energetic and uplifting atmosphere. My overall emotional response to Chris Burkard's work is uplifting and energetic shown through his bright use of lighting and colour in his inspiring landscapes. His work links to my theme/ project as I have been focusing on surf culture which is something he has explored in his images. However he approaches it in a very different way compared to the other photographers I have respected into as he focuses more on the landscape side of things rather than the physical surfing. This adds much more to the image as the background is more interesting and almost takes over the main focus of the image. In Chris's work he explores preservation of areas and travels to places not many people can visit which makes his images much more intriguing. Overall I am very inspired by Chris Bukard's work and his inspiring landscapes, therefore I have decided to conduct a shoot which explores Cornwalls unique landscapes, I will also try to incorporate surf so it is relevant to my theme.