As the year 2022 comes to a close, it’s a natural time to reflect on the year as creatives. One particularly interesting aspect to consider is how our styles have evolved and adapted over the past 12 months. To get a deeper understanding, we reached out to four photographers and asked them to share their thoughts on how their style changed in 2022. From exploring new techniques and subjects to embracing different approaches to post-processing and editing, these photographers offer a unique perspective on the ways in which their artistic vision has evolved in the past year. In this blog post, we’ll be sharing their insights and reflections on the journey of finding and honing their personal style as creative professionals.
My style has changed in that my work is more purpose driven and focused on imagery that will make people feel something – even if that something is uncomfortable. While I used to photograph a lot of diverse bodies before, I wasn’t necessarily celebrating them as they ARE. Instead, I would put them into poses and expressions that fit into the traditional beauty standards and this year I asked myself “What would it look like if I removed everything I’ve learned about bodies and how they “should” be? What would my posing be like? What would my lighting be like? What would my editing be like?” This has helped me redefine what beauty CAN be, instead of defaulting to what we’ve been told it should be.
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As much as technology and AI fascinates me (and I’m a huge fan) the abundance of this has forced me to look inward and truly understand myself more than ever. I’ve always said that style is informed by a deep understanding of one’s self, and with AI superficially appearing to have a ‘deep learning’ of the author, does the author ‘know thyself’ as much??
#AI
#AbundantIntelligence
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My style didn’t really change, but it refined. I have been working on my art book and I realized that there was a huge lack of 40+ female models in fantasy art (mine included), so I’ve put a lot of work into casting women who want to be characters. It’s an ongoing quest and really opened up the type of visual stories I can create. I love it.
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As a fantasy photographer, my work has always had a lot of bold colors. But this year I feel as though I have broken through a mental block and begun to refine both my color palette and my retouching unlike I ever have before. In addition, I have spent this year self-reflecting, which has helped me be more honest with myself as an artist and opened up my ability to connect with my subjects. I’m supremely proud of myself for this growth, and grateful towards the Infinite Tools plugins, team, and community for enabling visual creators like myself to reach greater heights each and every year.