ATIBA JEFFERSON; ARTIST ANALYSIS
Atiba Jefferson is a modern day photography. he started off as a teenager with a camera who took photos of his friends whilst they were out skating and now owns his own magazine and shoots photos for not only pro skateboarders but all types of sport. he is an inspiration and his intrest and dedications is shown through his photos.atiba sees angles that not alot of photographers do and especialy when it comes to adverts and promotions his pieces truely stand out he is often called to shot nba basketball pros for adverts and during games aswell as working with some of the biggest musicians and sportsmen and woman around. Aswell as the mainstream stuff he is also an established location photographer who uses street photography landscape pieces and uses elements like natural light sunsets and structure to produce intresting and admireable pieces. he travels around the world exploring culture how the sport of skateboarding is different in one country than it does in another which is what i would like to do. using his trip to chinas examples i will try to recreate these photos to show a relevance to the photographer aswell as some of his other pieces.
after becoming greatly acknowledged throughout the professional skateboarding scene Atiba found himself getting the oppertunitys to expand his portfoloio ang work in other sports which he had previously done befor. Basketball was one of atibas pasttimes and aswell as skateboarding he photographed for the LA.Lakers. This photo is off Terrence Williams who plays for the Houstan Rockets. This photo to me is a definition of photography the whole piece is intresting and effective the use of red black and white keeps a controlled contrast and like many other of his photgraphs makes you see the piece as a whole you dont view it in parts.
This photograph is very interesting its a contrast shot which atiba does very often this is uncommon as his contrast shots usualy encoperate skateboarding. its refreshing to see a change and shows a contrast between relaxed and serious and this impresion is given off in the cloathing alone. The use of brightly colourd trainers on older men suggest fun and relaxasion its almost asif they are being young again on the right side and i feel he is trying to represent your inner child in the sense that on the left sad he looks dressed for his age and not as happy. main reason for likeing this piece is that its on the same background which is atibas way of makeing you focus on the people by not haveing a complex
This is drawing away from some of his more planned work and realy takes street photography back to its roots, this was taken on a trip to china, the piece show order and what would seem odd to us as it isnt naturaly seen in our culture yet in their culture it is probly common to see a man sitting in the back of an open van and we see this because behind the main man in focus there is another man looking very similer to the first man doing the same job. The second van further back drws almost as much attention as the firs as it gives a clearer view of whats going on its almost asif its a far shot and a close up shot all mixed into one.
This photo is of ‘my name is earl’ star Jason Lee but what many people dont know is that he was a proffesional skateboarder befor the tv show. He is loved by many skateboarders and tv viewers alike and this photo another contrast show shows maybe the two sides of his life, photos like this realy do help to show two sides of a person, the photo itself islike many other of atibas photos intresting and eyecatching the colours are realy balanced and give a realy warm feel to the viewer and the undershadow relates to his ‘dark side’ the fact he is so close to him whilst in motion without keeping it blured is hard to achieve for a normal photographer but it shows that atiba is on another level.