Anthony Rivera

Anthony Rivera is a photographer based in Los Angeles. This is where he primarily takes his photographs, using the streets as his subject and his inspiration. His primary genre is landscape and documentary using a dark setting through the use of night and black and white. He uses a film camera to shoot all of his pictures primarily developing them in black and white. I chose to explore Anthony Rivera as a photographer as he uses the streets to document life at night, something I want to experiment with within my own work. I like the use of spontaneity in his images 

 This image shows the back of someone as they cross the street. The lights create contrasting circles against the dark night, allowing depth to be created within the image. The image is black and white, creating a large contrast between the night sky and the mask on the back of the man's head. 

I think this image showcases the photographers use of spontaneity to capture a true portrayal of the streets at night. Even though the image seems quite simple, with only the back of a man and couple of street lamps being clearly visible in the image, it leaves the rest of the image ambiguous, allowing the viewer to question what is happening in front of the man and behind the photographer, drawing the viewers into the image. The mask connotes the villain from the Friday the 13th films, creating an air of violence and disturbance in the image. The composition of the image, suggests it was a spontaneous shot, emphasising the importance of the mask in the image. Furthermore, the spontaneity of the image creates a tense ambiguous feeling as the viewer is left wondering what is going to happen next, as a result of the mask and its connotations. 

This image portrays a long dark side street or passageway at night. Part of the side street has been lit up by street lamps, highlighting a certain part of the image. Two people are standing in the light, showing that they are walking away from the photographer and possibly away from the light. The majority of the image is encased in darkness with a small section illuminated, revealing a white stripe on the wall as well as what appear to be windows.
Personally, I think the use of light creates an expanding depth in the image, giving it a feeling of never ending and posing questions such as what awaits at the end of the passageway? The use of black and white creates a feeling of isolation in the image. as the readers focus centres in on the lighter area of the picture.  The leading lines create a feeling of afterlife in the image, as it looks as if the two figures may be walking into the light or towards something better. 

This image depicts a street scene with what appears to be a man sat at a table receiving a fortune telling. The photograph has clearly been taken at night with the street lamps illuminating and highlighting certain parts of the picture. The man who is at the front of image is encased in darkness, allowing the viewer to pick out certain parts of the image and leaving other parts ambiguous such as the objects on situated on the table. The mixture of lights, cars and people create a busy atmosphere in the background, creating depth within Anthony Rivera's image.

I believe this image encases both feelings of solitude and liveliness within the foreground and background of the image. I think the use of black and white adds a layer of grain to the image that makes it seem more realistic. I like the use of lights to create both depth and highlights within the image.  There is a contrast between the foreground and the background creating a sense of irony within the image. The background is clearly built up, as shown through the buildings and the lights, however in the foreground, a woman is charging to read strangers palms, in a back alley. This suggests that she is working to get to the background of the image where it is built up. 

Responses

For my responses to Anthony Rivera I centred my images around nighttime and the use of light at night. The lighting in Anthony Rivera's are often in the form of circular shapes, as a result of the lighting coming from street lamps, therefore I have attempted to include lighting from street lamps in my images, allowing me to effectively respond to Anthony Rivera's style of photography. There were some complications when trying to shoot these images as different settings such as a longer shutter speed is required on the camera when taking pictures at night. However, I didn't always have a tripod to hand when taking spur of the moment images and so often the images were unfocused due to a higher amount of movement. 

This image focuses on a group of young people all waiting at traffic lights. They are all in conversation, shown through the body language. The image is in black and white with certain parts  illuminated in the background by the street lamps. This creates a high amount of contrast as the lighter areas of the image contrast with the areas of the picture that are in darkness. 

I think this image has been a successful response as I have incorporated both people and lighting at night, something that John Brownlow does in his images. I have spontaneously taken this photo, capturing a snippet in the lives of the group of young people.