Artist's Name: Laurens Kaldeway
Dates of Artist's life: No known dates, Currently Alive
Dates of Artist's life: No known dates, Currently Alive
Kaldeway's background
Laurens Kaldeway was born in Kenora, Ontario, Canada, and because he didn't attend college for photography, is considered an amature photographer. Laurens says the most important part of his inspiration were his kids. His children are a very important part of his personal and work life, who are constantly inspiring him to continue photography. In many of his photos his kids are featured as the main subject.
Kaldeway's Style:
Kaldeway's photography is very focused on one subject. He likes to pick a place in the photo for his subject to be seen from whether it's a person or an object; he uses angles to convey the mood of the photo along with lighting and surroundings. Kaldeway also uses his personal experiences to influence his photography. Although some of his pieces are very moody and black and white, many of his photos also possess a playful quality and portray a sort of bubbly feeling.
Philosophy:
Laurens Kaldeway is a self taught photographer and says he doesn’t consider himself to be all that important. On his blog he describes himself as “Living the best possible life right where I am.” To me this means he takes inspiration from the everyday objects and people around him. He describes his interest in photography starting with the birth of his first born. Many of Laurens' photographs feature children. Kaldeway has a way of taking everyday moments or objects and making them shine with his use of lighting and color. He draws inspiration from the life that is all around him.
Influences
Kaldeway has influenced my work because he uses everyday objects and the people around him as his focus. I also like taking pictures of my environment. I have used images of my yard, the trees, my garden, my little sister, and my cats. I find inspiration in the little things around me and I think Kaldeway does too. The life all around me is what I know best, so that is what I photograph. I feel like Kaldeway’s images say that as well.
The first image I recreated was of a pair of beat up converse sneakers. In my image the shoelaces are shorter, so I couldn't pose it exactly the same, but the condition of the shoes is pretty similar. The lighting was tricky, so I had to use a flashlight to get the effect Kaldeway uses.
In my next image recreation I used Pepsi instead of Coffee mostly because I don’t drink coffee. I used Banana gram game pieces to create the same effect. My kitchen floor was a slightly darker color, but I think the effect was quite similar.
In my third recreation I used my colored pencils to recreate his image. I used the stand for these pencils that they were packaged in, but they were still too far apart from each other to with one hand I took the photo, and with the other I squished the pencils together. I love the bright colors and the natural light. My image looks quite similar because the pencils are nicely sharpened and I was able to use similar lighting.
Artist Statement
In my first recreation image of the sneakers the lighting was quite dark and the shoes are placed off center in the image. I needed to use a dark background in order to achieve the darker shadows and a flashlight to recreate the lighting in the original image. In my second image I used the natural bright light of my kitchen. You are staring down at the letters and the cup, so I needed to be sure my perspective was the same in my picture and directly looking down. In my third image I needed to be completely focused in close to the bright colored pencil tips, so I needed bright light and to get very close to my subject. This allowed me to recreate the image because the entire image was of the pencils with no outside frame. I am happy with the way my recreations turned out. I think I captured the mood of each photograph.
Sources
https://merrynfinnamore.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/laurens-kaldeway/
https://f16dm0409dpm.blogspot.com/2017/02/still-life-photographer-laurens-kaldeway.html
https://lkaldeway.wordpress.com/page/7/
https://kareemsoda.weebly.com/photographer-research.html
https://imfportfolio.weebly.com/final.html
https://f16dm0409dpm.blogspot.com/2017/02/still-life-photographer-laurens-kaldeway.html
https://lkaldeway.wordpress.com/page/7/
https://kareemsoda.weebly.com/photographer-research.html
https://imfportfolio.weebly.com/final.html