Jacqueline Rofé Photographer Style

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Mario Testino

Mario Testino is a 63-year-old fashion photographer that is from Lima, Peru. Testino’s career began when he moved to London, England in the mid-1970s. He is known for his portraiture and photographs for extremely popular magazines like Vogue and GQ. Testino’s work is extremely sensual and always has a sense of grace to each image; he brings out this sensuality through photos of individuals, couples, and large groups of people. His most well-known photographs are of Princess Diana and the Royal Family; he has a very tight-knit relationship with the royals and their personalities really come through in his photographs. Testino has also never specified the camera he utilizes for the sheer fact that he believes it does not matter; he claims that the idea is what is most important in photography. My favorite series by Testino is a personal project he had done with celebrities known as the "Towel Series;" it shows people in a more vulnerable state and, as Testino says, it allows for more creative freedom. People can do whatever they want with a towel and it really creates something beautiful in his images. Testino is an extremely interesting photographer that enjoys bringing out the best attributes of people; after researching him, he has become one of my all time favorite photographers.

The Waiting Game 

Txema Salvans

Txema Salvans is a 47-year-old photographer from Barcelona, Spain. In the book The Waiting Game, Salvan took photographs of landscapes that show a prostitute waiting in each image. Each photo Salvan takes has a very similar look; the colors are more washed out and the photographs look older than they are. His images are extremely raw and tell their own story, whether it’s from The Waiting Game or his other projects such as Nice to Meet You and Perfect Day. The images taken in this particular book were taken over a time of six years and documented all throughout the coast of Spain in order to illustrate the prostitution that most don’t see in Spain. There is no information on the particular camera that Salvan utilizes, but his images are candid and appear to be taken on a film camera.

Faces and Phases 2006-14 

Zanele Muholi

            Zanele Muholi is a 45-year-old from South Africa that photographs people in the LBGTQ+ community in South Africa. She focuses on lesbians and gays in order to show that there are people in the LGBTQ+ community in Africa. She also considers herself to be an activist because she shows the attempts to take the negative stigma away from this community. In this particular book, Faces and Phases, Muholi took photos of black lesbians and transgenders in order to cast a positive light on the community. The photographs are absolutely beautiful and really truly give life to the people in each photograph. A majority of her images are done in black and white, while others will have mostly neutral colors and one color that helps the person in the image pop out. Each person in the images is very engaged with the camera and keep a straight face in order to show each and every feature. At one point, Muholi had her most expensive camera stolen and a multitude of hard drives stolen, but it did not deter her from her work. She is still an activist for the community and uses photography almost as a method of therapy to help her through any hard times she may have.