Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia is an American photographer who started his work in the late 1970's and mostly uses his friends and family as his subject. diCorcia's pictures often evoke a feeling of loneliness by using lighting and framing to give this effect. I often find myself inspired by the depth of diCorcia's images and I find myself wanting to follow in his footsteps of dark images. The photos taken by Philip-Lorca diCorcia make me want to explore new techniques and a style I am not used to. I enjoy darker images and night time pictures because it brings me a feeling of nostalgia and it will often make me think deeper about an image. When Philip was in university he studied with Jan Groove who gave him the idea that a picture was more than just a documentation of time and it can involve intense planning. This is also how I feel about photography because a picture can be heavily staged and still produce the effects and emotions of a natural and candid picture.

diCorcia will often stage his pictures but they almost always look and feel candid. This is a style I like because it allows you to control a result while having the image feel natural instead of stiff and staged. I also like the lighting he uses in his pictures as it often gives great effects and ads to the result. In the picture above the lines cast across the girls body and background create an empty feeling and cause the image to look deeper and lonelier than it is. In the first picture the Del Taco sign highlights the right parts of the mans face to convey the correct emotion. I also like the motion blur of the cars lights because it gives an illusion of time passing and it makes you wonder why he is there. I find this inspiring because I think lighting is very important to pictures and these images show me how I can explore different lighting techniques.