Philip-Lorca diCorcia

This week I began looking deeper into various artists.  One that stood out, mainly because I was able to read an interview from them, was Philip-Lorca diCorcia.

Since typically, I tend to photograph people I was curious about his origins in household items falling over, and his switch.  I have begun to see that I do like some architectural images of my own, if I can use the architecture to help tell a narrative or idea, rather than just using the camera to analyze shapes.  

He first started using a flash because he required motion in the scene to come to a stop.  I was excited to learn this piece of information because that is the same reason I began using one.  I didn't start using a flash because it was a dark scene I was capturing, it was because I needed to stop the motion before me in order to get all the details.  

I was semi-mindblown to read that originally he was not interested in his predecessors work.  When I began taking pictures I had started because I was growing very annoyed at seeing the same exact images from magazine to magazine in the skateboarding industry.  Since then, I have come to appreciate more of the people who came before me in the medium, however I feel that my contemporaries are much more influential to me.

Usually still life images, or simply images of a room don't gain my attention.  However with some of diCorcia's pieces from A Storybook Life I was actually investigating them.  I'd like to understand what makes these work for me, as opposed to most.  My guess is that still places are created, but not a still image.  There's still a figure in the composition that is out of place or normality.

Perhaps this idea/method would help out my work.

My critique did not end up the way I had hoped.  Some images I used I wanted to experiment with delivery.  I also wanted to see the reaction of what I typically do on my own vs. how I perform for assignments.  Most people seemed to prefer my assignment work.  It may seem that my self guided work had no united direction, however I just have not had enough time to gather the correct images for the subject matter I wish to portray.  Hopefully, I can implement some words of wisdom from "the predecessors" for use in my self directed work and in general in between images.

Article I'm referring to: 

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/09/interview-photographer-philip-lorca-dicorcia-talks-2003.html