The Hipster Life

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, everyone. I was a bit out of commission, but am now back and ready to update your visual horizons.

Karly Wildenhaus' series Atlanta Portraits, despite being a bit too embrasive of the hipster counterculture is quite a well composed, and produced series that could easily scale the pages of VICE. I have never seen these photographs outside of her website and I'm sure that in person something about the size or printing of the pieces might make them less striking for me, but as it stands, I still enjoy them.

Wildenhaus just moved to Chicago and is attending the Art Institute for (I think) visual criticism, which is unfortunate, because I think fashion photography would be a great route for her to pursue. Right now her work exudes a kind of raw talent and understanding of composition and color that with the right training could become really phenomenal work in a few years. I believe when she completed this series she was actually working for a fashion photographer, which I'm sure didn't hurt the richness of these images.

Here are some of the portraits from the series that I like in particular:







Besides the fact that Wildenhaus has a wonderful grasp of what makes a GOOD image, her content has certainly been considered. Granted, I think the style of the work pulls from photography less focused on content and more on dazzling the viewer, but that's not to say that her subjects are solely pretty faces. There has obviously been a great deal of attention to capture these people in their environment and to include objects, pets and people that have some amount of significance in the portrait-sitters lives. This is the one place where I think a couple of the images fall short. In more than one case the subjects seem a bit uncomfortable and stiff in their poses, which considering the locale, should have been considered. Although, going back to my previous statement, I think that these images draw heavily enough on photography that uses blatantly posed figures that is isn't too terribly bothersome.

On the whole, I think the series captures a small sect of the Atlanta population in a very well executed manner. I am very curious to see what else will be coming out of Wildenhaus in the next few years.

WEBSITE: www.karlywildenhaus.com