www.rosco.com: Photographer Jason Hill specializes in dynamic portraits and exploring new ways of using light. In an article posted in the Portland Tribune, we learned about his photography exhibition entitled In My Skin at the Portland Art Museum. According to Jason, “In My Skin celebrates Black cultural identity, African ancestry, and the contemporary lived experience of the community in Portland, through portraiture with dynamic lighting and saturated color.”
5 comments:
These Portraits are stunning. I am in love with the use of color that Jason Hill employed in his photography and how stunningly he was able to capture each of his subjects. The photographs are generally dimly lit, as opposed to most portrait style photos that I've seen where there is a lot of light on the subject so that they are the obvious first thing you see. In Jason Hill's photos I am instantly drawn to the eyes first. The strip of color shining across the eyes of the people in the portraits and the way that they draw my attention which then spreads to the face and expression of the subjects is both stunning and genius. I love how his photography makes me want to stop and study each photograph in order to get all of the details that are not instantly available on first glance. I love this project and will definitely go look further into Hill and his art.
I really love these photographs, and the message that goes behind it. I think the process of it is almost as beautiful as Jason Hill’s end product. When asked how he photographs black skin specifically, and his choice of wording when saying he ‘let’s it be’ is very powerful. Also, The way he lets the subjects dress, and accessorize themselves as well as do their own make up is very telling. The photographs feel pop-y and upbeat. I think the theme of creating superhero references for all of them is well executed, to me all the subjects look strong and powerful. Almost, like their hiding a mysterious resistance. The composition and arrangement of this collection creates a feeling of community and equality. Because the are all organized in a similar way photographically with the profile image and colored strip across the eyes, there is a good sense of cohesion. That being said, their uniqueness and individualities still shine brightly with the graphic details.
This article made me so happy and the people photographed are so beautiful. I really appreciated that the article covered the meanings and culture behind this artwork as well as the process to get to it, with quotes from the artist. I thought that Jason's hope to have younger kids be able to see superheroes that look like themselves is such a powerful topic and one that is still being fought for. This reminded me of an article I read before about how the technology behind older film was made so that white skin can be shown well, resulting in black and darker skin tones to have no definition and flattened out. This is even shown in older comic books, where black characters were simply,, blacked out. I am so glad that we have moved away from this as a society and the true beauty of all skin tones is represented fairly. As for Jason Hill, his usage of dynamic color and saturation to display Afrofuturism is really inspiring.
Photography is an incredibly powerful medium. For work like this, it forces the viewers to truly see. According to photographer Jason Hill, “In My Skin celebrates Black cultural identity, African ancestry, and the contemporary lived experience of the community in Portland, through portraiture with dynamic lighting and saturated colour.” The focus on dark skin and beauty is revolutionary in a field where photoshoots shot by photographers who do not know how to photograph dark skin and Black people are extremely prevalent. We've all seen those terribly unflattering photoshoots in Vogue, for instance. Jason Hill forces the viewers to look at the models' skin tones, acknowledge their beauty, pride, and joy, and truly see them. I keep using 'see' because it's true–people enjoy overlooking people of colour, particularly Black people, because it doesn't fit into an agenda of white supremacy, or even worse, the acceptability of white mediocrity. There is so much power in seeing, and Jason Hill has truly unlocked it.
I am amazed by the saturation and quality of color in these photographs. Jason Hill shares that he did very little editing post shooting. I really can’t wrap my head around that concept. Prior to this semester, when I declared a photography minor, I had never shot in a studio space. I have really only taken photos in lighting environments I have discovered, odd places, like the undersides of red lit bridges and abandoned parking garages. I have been thoroughly enjoying the amount of control I have over light and its color, especially after shooting in the light lab. I am even more impressed that Hill did all of the work with color on the fly. I can’t believe that he didn’t even pre plan any of the colorization or have outfits chosen for the models. I am obsessed with his idea of using color to highlight natural beauty of his models without overpowering them.
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