Peter Lik is my favourite and most inspirational photographer. Born in Australia, Peter has photographed much of the world’s most amazing landscapes, creating surreal panoramic prints. His career began to take off in the 1980’s where he travelled to the United States twice, second time to complete a trip to photograph landscapes of all 50 states. He has displayed his work, and the highlights of this trip in a photo book, ‘Spirit of America’. Since Peter Lik first started as a photographer, he has grown hugely in popularity and price. He has reached his audience over several platforms, from postcards to many of his own galleries. Peter Lik not only delivers his stunning photographs, but also his experience of his travels, and how he got ‘the shot’. In early 2010 Lik signed an agreement to star in an action/adventure reality series, which debuted on ‘The Weather Channel’ on 31st March 2011. The series is called ‘From the Edge with Peter Lik’ and follows him as he travels across the various landscapes of the United States. This has been used to great effect to aid alongside his photographic work, providing the audience with a wider understanding of our world, and reality to the surreal environments. The show was only aired in America, meaning anyone living outside of America, such as myself, can’t watch it. I have however seen clips of the show, and feel the journey to and around the landscape is as meaningful and powerful as the final photo itself. This is the first I have seen or heard of any photographer using film/video to aid their success and experience, and appreciate what it provides.
From what I have read, one of the first platforms Peter used for his photographs was merchandise – Postcards. Peter opened a postcard stand in Cairns, Queensland in mid 1990’s and soon realized his photographs were extremely popular. Peter then went on to open his own fine art publishing company ‘LIK USA’, as well as his first gallery in his hometown of Cairns. Now based in Las Vegas, Lik’s career continues to grow; he has sold in excess of $200 million of fine art photography, and has 13 galleries of his own spread across the United States. Lik displays his work mostly across 3 platforms: Online, Gallery and Books. Alike many other professional photographers, Lik has his own website. The website is not just used as an online portfolio, but includes a short biography, information on his show and all his galleries, as well as an online shop for people to purchase his books and/or prints. Books are a good source for displaying a set of photographs which portray a story or journey, which Peter has used very well to document his travels across the U.S. Large prints however sell for much larger amounts of money. In early 2011 Lik sold his photograph ‘One’ for $1 million. Using a wide variety of platforms to reach a wider variety of audiences has huge advantages for both gain in popularity, and profit.
Principle 5 – Working Methodology
When first set the brief and put into a design team, the very first thing I thought to do was to brainstorm all the possible ideas for the magazine. I created a mind map including all the different topics around Birmingham that could go into the magazine. A mind map is a very useful starting point to get down instant thoughts and ideas, and is something I do with most pieces of work. This gave me a wide base to work from, and then narrow down onto the preferences of what I wanted to include, and ignoring the rest.
Next step was to begin the first stage of research. I conduct research all throughout my design process, constantly looking at what already exists, and how I can make my own work unique. I brought several magazines from different stores which I felt were relevant and would be of use to gain ideas and inspiration.
Once we had decided as a group the type of content and target audience for our magazine, it was easier to decide on a theme and a name. The name ‘Mayhem’ came around soon enough, and opened up a new door of possibilities. New possibilities brought new ideas which meant a new mind map was needed. This time I was able to closer focus my ideas around a more precise subject.
Once I had a general idea on the theme of the magazine, I was able to consider the type of photographs I wanted to take. With these ideas, I explored the city looking for interesting subjects and viewpoints to capture all the mayhem in Birmingham. With all the photos from several trips around the city, I used contact sheets to keep photographs of the same subject together, and displayed these in my RVJ. Contact sheets are a useful way to analyse all the photographs I have, and decide on the best ones to use for the final product. I then analyse my best photographs, considering how to improve them further through editing or different compositions.
A key quote for my design process for this brief is that I don’t sketch, I photograph! This is because the photos are more of a documentary style, not staged. I never know what to expect from the city, or what I’m going to see. I will do most of my sketching for layout ideas of the magazine, considering different grid layouts and shapes. I also use sketches for collaboration ideas, as it was a joint decision for I and the illustrator in the group to collaborate for a few pages of the magazine. My working methodology is mainly through experimentation with the camera, not the pen.
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