Commercial photographer Dominic Davies was invited to present a talk at our university to discuss his practice and how he reached his current position as a photographer today.
Davies’ main work is studio based and kick started his career photographing for bands and other artists. He would be given a piece of music and would create album covers for them using the music he had been given. What the outcome would be is a reflection of how the music inspired him. This led him out of the studio and into his environmental surroundings in which he created still life outside of the controlled studio environment.
What I find really engaging with Davies’ work is how each image is constructed in camera, meaning no post production is used. The effects and lighting is carefully considered and the outcomes are strong. The composition of each individual image is intriguing as the styling of the subject is very different to what we see a lot of the time commercially.
An example of this being his work for renowned chef Heston Blumenthal, ‘The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.’ This body of work consists of beautifully constructed still life images of food which has been assembled in an ascetically pleasing way. Close crops and dramatic lighting puts a different spin on the way food can be photographed. The beauty and the richness that comes through from this project inspires me to think outside the box about how else to capture my subjects when photographing.
