Comparing Photographers – Richard Billingham and Jeff Wall

       

 

 

 

In this short essay I will be comparing the styles of two iconic photographers, Richard Billingham and Jeff Wall. I will be comparing there styles of composition, camera techniques and their styles of working. I will be looking at the photographers similaritys and differences, as well as how each photographer links to the project of identity.

Both Richard Billingham and Jeff Wall have very different styles of working, Billingham uses the technique of true documentary photography, not directing or even letting his subjects know their picture is being taken. Billingham’s aim as a photographer is to tell a true story to the nation of what life was actually like for people in working class England at the time. Billingham’s image (on the left) is really well composed, even the slightness aspects of the image such as the wallpaper against the dull brown sofas seems like they have been thought about and composed to look this way even though the images are just simple snap shots of Billingham’s home life. Billingham used a simple disposable film camera to take these shots, no fancy lighting techniques or camera tricks where used to create these images. Billingham links to the project of identity because his work is all about revealing the identity of people that do not often get the lime light in society.

Jeff Wall’s image (on the right) is composed in a way which is very different to Billingham’s image. All of Jeff Wall’s images are staged or set up to look a certain way, Wall’s style of photography is to create an unreal scene in an attempt to  create a false sense of documentation or a snap shot image. All of Wall’s images have a lot of underlined meaning to them, very aspect of his photography sets are through out and have some alternate meaning. For example the fact that Wall chose to have very prominent avocado green cupboards tells the audience this image is most likely to be based in the 1960’s due to this style of kitchen being a very popular one at this time. In juxtaposition to Billingham’s style of working Wall uses complex lighting techniques, along with digital cameras.Jeff Wall’s work links to the project of identity because his photograph is all about creating different identities and tell a short story about their personality.

In conculion Billingham’s and Wall’s work have a number of similarity’s and differences. The main difference between the two photographers is their method of composing images, Billingham is a documentation photographer so his work is all about capturing a genuine moment that has actually happened compared to Wall’s style of work which is very much about creating an artificial scene. Both photographers have a different approach to producing images, in some respects the photographs they produce are similar in ways but the method in which Billingham and Wall work are very different.