Kris Anderson Qualifies with The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers
Kris Anderson submitted his submission panel for qualification at the 2023 Convention and was awarded a Fellowship Qualification by our experienced team of judges.
Statement of Intent
Thank you for taking the time to assess my panel this morning. My name is Kris Anderson; I’m a photographer based in Brisbane Australia. I’ve been working as a professional photographer since 2010, initially in portraiture for individuals and families. I’ve got a background in music and theatre, and as my photography career progressed I sharpened my focus to the industry that I love, the Performing Arts – photographing headshots, theatrical branding, live performance, and dance.
Most of my dance photography for clients is crisp and precise. As much as I love images in that style, I’ve been looking for a way to more effectively capture the emotion and dynamism of live dance. In a performance, the dynamics of motion, colour and music work together to mesmerise the audience and take them somewhere.
The goal of this collection is to convey that transcendent feeling of being spellbound by a performance, to invite the viewer to immerse themselves in the emotions they might experience watching a dancer perform live – joy, sorrow, passion, fear, elation – from the first moment as the dancer begins to move, to the last when they spin away and leave the stage.
These images were each captured in the studio with one continuous overhead light source to isolate the dancer within the frame. For each image, the dancer and I collaborated to choreograph the dancer’s movement through the exposure; quick motions painted sweeping ethereal streaks while holding a position for a moment would let the dancer’s face and body solidify. Choosing the dancer’s placement in the space enabled us to use light and shadow as part of the choreography. Moving the subject away from the camera opened up the light on the face and body for notes such as joy and elation; moving towards the camera created dramatic shadows to convey something darker, such as mystery or sorrow.
For each image, I’ve chosen a specific monochromatic or dichromatic colour palette to amplify the emotion in that movement. For some images, the colour transitions were introduced during the exposure by passing a series of gels in front of the lens as the exposure progressed. Each of these images is a single capture. Post-production techniques were limited to spot removal, contrast, dodge and burn, mirroring, colour control, and the addition of focus blur to accentuate the movement and draw the viewer’s eye towards the dancer’s face providing somewhere to rest. The set is ordered carefully, using colour to give a left-right symmetry, then twisting one side, giving a burst of kinetic energy so the outer images swirl around the centre.
I’m proud to be able to show a panel that I think meets the goal – a cohesive collection of unconventional dance images that draws the viewer into emotion and feeling.
As you view the panel, I hope you each find your favourites that resonate with you – and I hope those favourites are different for each of you. Mostly I want you to connect with these and experience some of that transcendent feeling of being at a magnificent live performance. Thank you again for being here today and for assessing my panel.
Watch the video below or see the full panel here
More on qualifications see here https://swpp.co.uk/qualify-Licentiate.htm
