Personal Background
Sam Kaplan began his photography career in high school by taking as many photography classes as possible, and he attended Wesleyan University and graduated in 2007. After moving to New York he assisted several photographers which taught him the fundamentals of lighting and running a business. Sam studied both sculpture and photography in college and worked hard in all this collage classes. He received an offer to shoot for Fortune. The success of that position lead to more referrals and, by last fall, he was busy shooting gift guides for several magazines. In addition, his food photography is shown in several Pacific Standard magazines.
Style
Sam captures all different types of still life objects including a variety of food and drinks. He likes his viewers to see every detail in every photograph, and therefore takes his pictures very close up. Sam also likes to take photograph in the best lighting so that the pictures come out the best quality. He works hard to make every picture the best it can be.
Philosophy
Sam concentrates on still life photography. He chose to do still life photography because, throughout his high school photography classes, he was always the most captivated by still life images. He makes a personal connection with each of his photographs as he takes it by talking to the subject. This is a very funny way to take picture, but it works for his. I can relate to this because I tend to always talk to whatever object I am taking a picture of, and I feel it helps.
Influences
In my opinion, the two words that describe Sam’s photos are beauty and simpleness. He likes to use all different types of objects to make his images unique. Sam’s photographs have influenced me in my work because, like his, I have a love for taking pictures of still life. I feel objects can capture someone's personality. Sam and I are similar because we both like to take pictures up close and capture every detail. From Sam I have learned to see the value and potential in every picture. I have also learned that, no matter where you are, you might have the opportunity to take a picture. If you think to yourself, "That would make a good picture," you should always take it because that picture could be the best picture you have ever taken.
Sam Kaplan |
Sydney Vigo |
untitled (whipped Cream)
http://www.samkaplan.com/FOOD/14
http://www.samkaplan.com/FOOD/14
untitled (Cranberries and Blueberries)
http://www.samkaplan.com/FOOD/14
http://www.samkaplan.com/FOOD/14
untitled (Pretzels)
http://www.samkaplan.com/FOOD/14
http://www.samkaplan.com/FOOD/14
Compare and Contrast
Sam Kaplan is a professional still life photographer. I am a freshman in high school, so there is the first comparison. Sam's images had better quality and more detailed than mine. When I reenacted the whipped cream image it took a lot of work for me to get it to look as similar to his as possible. When I mixed the berries together it did not wan to stay stuck together like Sam's which made it more difficult to have it similar to his. The pretzel picture was my far the easiest of them all to recreate. The hardest part was finding a blue background similar to his.
Personal Artist Statement
I chose this photographer because I to have a love for still life photography. The images I chose are important to me and tell a story because these are all images of foods I LOVE! I really liked the movement of the whipped cream and how it makes everything looked very well composed. The texture of the whipped cream really caught my eye. I really loved the colors in the cranberry and blueberry image as well. I love bright colors and when I was picking my images that one really stuck out for me. I loved the shape of the pretzels and the bright blue background really made the image bounce. The emphasis in the pretzel image for me was around the rim of the circle.