Photographers I Looked at for my dissertation

Einar Anbjorn Hansen is a twenty-two-year-old photographer from Norway. He also has Autism, which gives him difficulty in dealing with his day to day life. For him, landscape photography is a way to escape the stress caused from his everyday environment. ‘Nature makes me relax and I’ve found this to be the best medicine for my autism.’ (E, Hansen 02/12/2018 Interview with Christian Hoiberg). He struggled in school through bullying as his teachers had little or no understanding of his condition or how it affected him. In 2008 his mother bought his first camera, a Canon PowerShot A580, which started his journey as a photographer. Hansen started out just documenting his day to day life before figuring out he wanted to be a nature photographer. His mother encouraged him to pursue this and helped him to upgrade his camera equipment, driving him around, so he could pursue his photography.

As Hansen explains in an interview with Christian Hoiberg, ‘Being in nature gives me a different type of calmness so photography is literally a great escape when I need it.’ (E, Hansen 02/12/2018 Interview with Christian Hoiberg). This illustrates that photographing nature allows him to live in the moment and express himself in a positive way. He has found that being in nature helps him relax and cope with the effects of his autism, such as struggling to understand social situations and anxiety caused by this. He began shooting nature in 2015 and quickly discovered that it gave a calmness that he had never felt before, allowing him an escape from the barrage of the everyday. Although, he does need to be careful as it can become his sole focus, overshadowing everything else, which is true for many autistics as we can become obsessive over what seems to be insignificant for most people but is major to an autistic person.

Fig 1: Hansen, E.A., (2018) Vestfold. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

Hansen’s landscape photography is visually appealing, and he has made great use of the colours in them, for the contrast between the darker trees and the lighter sky and lake, which adds to the quality of the image. This picture shot in Vestfold, Norway, Fig. 1, was shot according to Hansen, at 4:39am just as the sun is cresting over the treeline. The image is split through the middle by the edge of the lake and the lake is still enough so that it has made a perfect reflection of the trees and sky. It has been framed perfectly with each half a mirror of the other, the image could be flipped around, and you would not be able to tell which was the reflection and which was not. This image works for me as I like the perfect mirroring, as it shows a perfect still moment in time. Fig. 1 has a horizontal line drawing the eye across the image giving it a focal point. The image gives me a feeling of calm and serenity which I believe is what Einar was feeling when he shot it.

Fig 2: Hansen, E.A., (2018) Vestfold. Photograph. Photographer's own collection

The above image, Fig. 2, is another from Einar again from Vestfold, Norway, it has an almost ethereal quality about it with the hint of fog within the trees. The image is almost bisected with the footpath leading the eye up the middle of the image. The dark browns of the ground and the tree trunks make the green of the leaves more vibrant. The canopy is densely compacted; meaning that the light is trickling though the gaps giving a consistent light source which has given the image good lighting with no bleed and no heavy shadow. This image does not feel me with calm as the colour palette is darker giving it an eerie appearance, but it is a visually appealing image.

Overall, his work is enjoyable, and I like the feeling his photographs give me. I like how his images often have lines that lead the eye through the image. The calm colour palette adds to the effect that his images have on me which help me to relax. This is backed up by chromotherapy which is the use of colour in therapy, this is useful for autistic people as their senses can be heightened which can cause anxiety. His attention to detail, which helps him frame the images the way that he does, raises the quality of his photographs and, his aim of sharing the way that he feels about nature and the environment comes across successfully in his images. I would love to be able to do the same with my images. This quality of images is something that I strive to get but I am glad that there is another photographer who feels the same way I do when shooting nature photographs.

Malcolm Wang is a seventeen-year-old photographer from Michigan, USA. He has been diagnosed with autism and epilepsy, being diagnosed with autism when he was three years old. Malcolm has always like pressing buttons such as light switches or the buttons on a washing machine, so using a camera satisfies that desire. He was in the sixth grade when he became interested in photography and he has a Canon PowerShot and an Olympus DSLR which he uses to shoot nature photography. He takes photographs as it enables him to connect with other people as has his other special interests. These special interests for autistic people can lead to careers as well as helping them interact with people and learn how act socially, as they give the autistic person something that they are passionate about as well providing them with a common topic they can discuss with non-autistic people.

Malcolm considers himself as a working artist as he sells prints and cards of his own work. He created a body of work consisting of thirty-one images for autism awareness month and applied for an exhibition at the Novi Civic Centre public gallery, convincing them that they should show an artist with autism for Autism Awareness Month, they agreed and showed his work in the gallery in 2017. They invited him back for this year again for Autism Awareness Month, possibly because he is an active in raising awareness for autism all year round. Malcolm has won awards such as the Award of Excellence 2016 from the National PTA in Reflections Art competition in the Special Artist Category and the Michigan PTA’s Award of Excellence 2017 and 2018.

Fig 3: Wang, M., (2017) A view through Robert C. Anderson’s kaleidoscope. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

Fig. 3 is an image that is displayed at Michigan’s Botanical Gardens on permanent display. This picture is interesting as it is both abstract and nature photography. Wang achieved this effect by shooting through a kaleidoscope. This has made the image full of lines which lead the eye all over, which adds to the optical effect of the kaleidoscope. There are three main colours within the image; green, pink and white and the combination is soothing. The soothing effect of the colours are associated with chromotherapy which is used on people with autism to help them cope with stress and overstimulation. I believe that Malcolm made a lucky mistake as this combination of colours is found in nature. This image works for me in terms of the colours and the detail left in the image even with the kaleidoscope in front of the lens.

Fig 4: Wang, K. (2018). Malcolm Wang Spectrum Fest. Photograph. Photographer's own collection.

Fig. 4 is a photograph of Malcolm Wang holding one of his images from the Kaleidoscope series for the Spectrum Fest, which is an event raising awareness and acceptance for people with autism. The colours with the print that Wang is holding are all shades of green making the print monochrome. The variating shades of green are soothing which in chromotherapy is a balancing colour and is used at the end of a session to bring it to a close. Wang has worked to learn how to socialise and be comfortable interacting with people. His photography has helped that and is helping to raise awareness for autism in Michigan.

Overall Wang has had success even for his age, he has promoted his photography to the right people and has been able to show his work to the general public. I will be using his example and make the connections needed to get my work shown. He has managed to have his work shown year after year in the Novi Civic Centre for Autism Awareness Month. It has been shown for the last two years and is going to be shown next year as well. I like the work that I have seen and I feel that he is someone for people with autism to have as a role model as he has managed to use his strengths to deal with his autism and make a life and career for himself. He is also promoting a positive awareness of autism with every exhibition he is in.