Tobais Zielony is a German documentary photographer. He explored communities around Europe. He has a lot of interesting project where its as if he is telling a story about a group of people. They include, ‘Car Park’, in which he captured listless young Brits in a desolate urban landscapes. Another project ‘Curfew’, shows the destructive boredom from youths in one of England’s poorest urban areas. ‘Jenny Jenny’ is a eighteen month project Zielony did of sex workers in Berlin.
The intimacy of the work is what makes it so intriguing. Each image has its own little story that you begin to understand through the subjects expression, clothes and location. Each project is about people who are facing their own problems and trying to navigate their way in the world. These people are often over looked, sometimes isolated.
Im am not looking at a series in particular as I like his style of portraits in all his work. It’s as if he has taken a step back and is documenting these people as they live their lives. They don’t look at the camera which makes them more natural looking. The ones taken at night are really effective. The way he uses the light available leads to atmospheric photographs.
This is my favourite of his images. The light coming in from the sides add more depth to the image. There is light on the subjects face, possibly from another street light that creates a slight shadow on the side of his face. The different tones of his face and the shallow depth of field separates the subject from the background. The background is also interesting. Although out of focus, you can tell it is some sort of block of flats. You can also see other lights and some sort of greenery in the back. The camera is angled slightly up. This is effective as it means the main focus is on the subject but there is enough of the background in the frame to begin to be able to imagine what the location is like. The fact that is it out of focus leads to the viewer looking more at the image as their eyes won’t initially be drawn to the objects in the back.
I am going to try this more photojournalist approach my work. Taking a step back and just becoming someone observing a scene rather than setting up lighting, asking the model to pose and just overall taking a lot of control over the image. This could lead to more natural images and as I’m not setting up the scene, have more of a narrative. I will experiment this idea with my housemates as they go about their lives in a 24 hour period.
Lucy Davis 