The work of Francois-Xaiver Marciat has had a great impact on my photographic skills over the past few months. In August of 2014, I made the decision to go on a solo backpacking trip across Eastern Europe and the UK. This led to research of popular travel destinations, and as per usual, I became distracted by related links and topics and stumbled upon the work of Francois-Xaiver Marciat.
At first look, his work is timeless. He has a great liking towards black and white photography as do I. Unintentionally, I found my photography during my trip to become somewhat influenced by some of his travel and outdoor photography.
Below are examples of Marciat's photography that have directly influenced my own photographs, which are also featured to illustrate my examples.
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| Normandie 01 (France) 2007 - Francois-Xaiver Marciat |
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| Gourock Coast (Gourock, Scotland) 2014 - Kyle Borges |
In the photo 'Normandie 01' by Marciat, he illustrates a beautiful focal point while using the rule of thirds. My eyes are led down the dirt road towards the coast with great atmospheric perspective being genuinely displayed. In my photograph 'Gourock Coast' I attempted to use that same atmospheric perspective and generate a focal point along the road. This was achieved by using the rule of thirds as well as the landscape in the photo by taking the photo on a part of the road that also naturally curved along the coastline. I also chose to feature a large amount of negative space which is also visible in Marciat's photo.
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| Normandie 02 (France) 2007 - Francois-Xaiver Marciat |
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Prague Castle (Prague, Czech Republic) 2014 - Kyle Borges
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In 'Normandie 2' by Marciat, he takes a photograph at dusk using shadows to create a silhouette of a church and other buildings while using a contrasting, lighter sky to act as the negative space in the photograph. Using this inspiration, I chose to take a silhouette inspired photograph of the Prague Castle in Czech Republic to mimic the technique and style used by Marciat for this photo. I feel like it turned out very effectively and similarly to that of Marciat's. The brightness of the sky provides a strong contrast to the castle which then becomes the focal point because it protrudes into the sky and upper half of the negative space.
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| Morgins (Switzerland) 2006 - Francois-Xavier Marciat |
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| Loch Lamond (Loch Lamond, Scotland) 2014 - Kyle Borges |
'Morgins' is one of my favourite photographs by Marciat. I had seen this photograph before my trip to Loch Lamond and knew that I wanted to capture that same beauty, but in my own style. I chose to also feature a strong use of atmospheric perspective, specifically focussing on the mountains.
I was also very inspired to have the sun illuminating the clouds, but still having shadows and different levels of brightness within the landscape and trees.
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| Pornic (France) 2006 - Francois-Xavier Marciat |
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| Lonely Vespa (Amsterdam) 2014 - Kyle Borges |
Although at first they seem very different, I drew inspiration for 'Lonely Vespa' from Marciat's 'Pornic'. I really connected with his use of a strong focal point with a crisp focus in the foreground and a faded landscape to the background. I chose to use this to my advantage by having the Vespa become the focus and the street used to draw our eyes towards the fading background to work in unity with the very strong and obvious focus of the Vespa.
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| Stockholm (Sweden) 2005 - Francois-Xavier Marciat |
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Vondel Park (Amsterdam) 2014 - Kyle Borges
Although these pictures are complete opposites, I thought I would use them as a contrast. 'Stockholm' offers a dark, mysterious view into a cobblestone alley in the Swedish city, where 'Vondel Park' offers a light, welcoming and familiar glimpse into the famous park in Amsterdam.
It takes a lot of work to tell a story or express an emotion through black and white photography. The aid of colour is not available and it pushes your creative limits and comfort zones to take risks or explore angles that you may not have thought of or been exposed to previously.
I find myself really connecting both creatively and artistically to the work of Marciat and will continue to work on my photography into the future drawing inspirations from many different photographers to incorporate many different styles that can become useful in my career as a graphic designer.
*All images by Marciat were sourced from his official website: http://www.francoisxaviermarciat.com/
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