Personal Background
Laurens Kaldeway is Canadian and resides in northwestern Ontario. He is in his mid-40s. He is a teacher and a self-taught photographer. He started being interested in photography when his daughter was born. Laurens has said that if it weren't for his two kids, he probably would not have started taking pictures. Even though he considers himself a hobbyist, his photographs have been published in National Geographic. He is a reserved person and doesn't like to share much of his personal information.
Style
Kaldeway likes to take pictures of people and their surroundings. He also experiments with different types and styles of photography. For example, he takes some amazing macro photos of water and oil. Most of photos that he takes are of his kids and wife. He photographs them while doing everyday things like going to school, baking cookies, or playing with toys. This makes his style seem more relaxed and relatable. Since his images are based on everyday moments and objects, it helps the viewers connect with the emotions in his photos.
Philosophy
Kaldeway's work mostly consists of his family. He believes in taking pictures of his loved ones or things that are meaningful to him. Through his photographs, he describes who he is not only as a photographer but also as a person. He shows his love for his kids and life in general by taking pictures of the kids doing various things, such as reading or running. Family is one of the most important things for Kaldeway and it shows through his photography.
Influences
I was intrigued by the way Kaldeway uses ordinary objects and turns them into amazing pictures. I used to think that to take an interesting picture, there needed to be amazing scenery, models, or objects. After seeing his work, I am inspired to see the beauty in everyday objects and moments. I have learned a lot about composition and the importance of the way all objects are placed in a photo. One of my favorite things about his photos is that they are really personal and meaningful to him. I have learned that photos evoke more emotions if they show something about the artist's personality or life. This has led me to take more pictures of my daily life and also objects that express the way I am feeling in that moment.
This photo was probably the hardest to take because of the angle and light. Even though my photo was taken in portrait orientation rather than landscape, I felt that this angle was closest to the original. I tried to get the camera as close to the water to try to create the same perspective. However, getting the picture from the same perspective with similar light was something I wasn't able to do. In Photoshop, I edited this image and made it black and white to make it a little more similar to the original.
For this picture, I focused on getting the main aspects of it rather than the details. I didn't have a plain blue background so I used a blue paper even though it had some designs on it. After seeing how the photo turned out with my paper background, I actually liked that it was the same idea but they each have a different style. I edited the image in Photoshop and I created a low opacity vignette to emphasize the cone, like in the original. I really liked taking this photo because I was able to incorporate my own style in the picture.
This image was hard to create because I didn't have a round plate for the bottom coffee beans. Also, the color of my coffee beans was darker and they were very oily. I relied a lot on Photoshop for this image to create something that looked more similar. I blurred the bottom coffee beans to try to create the same effect of depth. Then, I painted the white line that is supposed to be the plate in the original image. Finally, I added the color of the background. Even though the quality is not as good as Kaldeway's, I was proud to have used knowledge of Photoshop I acquired in class to create something that resembles Kaldeway's photograph.
Artist Statement
I really enjoyed taking these pictures. At the beginning, I had trouble choosing which image I wanted to recreate because he has many amazing photographs. I hope that my three photos depict the simpleness of daily life. The first photo (Soapy) represents all the struggles of life and how we need to rise above them. Lamp Cream represents the fun of life. I really like how the two elements, the cone and the bulb, are used to create a sense of surrealism to the picture. The third photo (Bright Bean) represents the energy of life. Each coffee bean depicts the little moments in life that give us the energy and strength to keep going.
Sources:
https://www.flickr.com/people/lkaldeway/
https://lkaldeway.wordpress.com/about/
https://twitter.com/laurenskaldeway?lang=en
Images
Fork
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkaldeway/14819232741/
Ice Cream Cone
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkaldeway/17007568396/in/photostream/
More Coffee, Please
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkaldeway/25772731641
https://lkaldeway.wordpress.com/about/
https://twitter.com/laurenskaldeway?lang=en
Images
Fork
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkaldeway/14819232741/
Ice Cream Cone
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkaldeway/17007568396/in/photostream/
More Coffee, Please
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lkaldeway/25772731641