Jordi Huisman.

Jordi Huisman is a Dutch photographer, born in 1982. In college he studied Engineering and during his free time he would take photos as a hobby. His hobby grew into a passion, which lead him to attend The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. He dabbles in both editorial and commercial work, however, the most interesting work is his documentary photography. One of his projects titled, Rear Window, captures sights from the rear windows of residential buildings in different cities worldwide. What inspires me most about Jordi Huisman, is how reinvents the way I look at the everyday world around me. Something as simple as, the view outside of a back window, can be captured, studied, and admired. Huisman takes the mundane and gives it a meaning, making people observe and appreciate the things that may seem unsubstantial. 

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer who was born in 1948. His earliest photographs were taken in a movie theater, where the subject was film footage of Audrey Hepburn. He got his BFA in Fine Arts at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He later moved to New York City and soon after received many global awards and fellowships, including the John Simon Guggenhein Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the Mainichi Art Prize. Sugimoto has described his work as an expression of “time exposed,” meaning that his photographs serve as a time capsule. He is most known for his of an 8 by 10 large camera format, black and white photography, and extremely long exposures. Although his work ranges from crisp images of forms, his most intriguing work are the ones that are out of focus. In his photographs of the World Trade Center (1997) or the Eiffel Tower (1998), he doesn’t capture the harsh lines and structure of the architecture, instead he photographs it out of focus. Doing this (in addition to putting them in black and white) creates a moody feeling. Despite the blur, it is interesting to see that the structure are still identifiable. My Orange Juice photograph was heavily inspired by Sugimoto. There, I captured the essence of the orange juice, not the orange juice itself. 

Ana Bathe 

Ana Bathe, born in Belgrade in 1978, is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living and working in Berlin. Bathe takes the idea of portrait photography and flips it on its head. She uses various forms of art, assuming the roles of subject, photographer, costume designer and makeup artist. Many of her subjects carry themes of identity and beauty, criticizing politics, social norms, and cultural issues. Bathe does this specifically by exploring gender roles, censorship, and body politics. Bathe discusses her influences in a blog post which reads, “When I first started expressing myself artistically, it was mainly to channel my anxieties, traumas and frustrations which were forced into my life through a status of a war refugee.” Her work is inspiring because she uses her own body as a blank canvas, creating images that speak on many important topics. Bathe inspired me to dabble in conceptual self portraiture.