On the left is a photograph of a german photographer called Jan Von Holleben. Holleben was born in 1977 in Cologne and was brought up in the southern German countryside where he lived most of his childhood in a small community of family and friends and was inspired mainly from his parents who helped him develop his photographic skills. At the age of 13 was when Holleben followed his father’s photographic career by picking up a camera and experimenting with all sorts of "magical tricks". After pursuing a career in teaching disabled children, Holleben then moved to London to follow his career as a photographer and got a degree in the history of photography at 'The Surrey Institute of Art an Design'. Now Jan Von Holleben's work is being exhibited and published worldwide.
Jan Von Holleben has a massive portfolio of work, but after looking through his website I was really
inspired and amazed by the portfolio called dreams of flying which consist of making children's dreams come true through the use of props and and having a creative imagination just like Holleben's. Holleben says that he always tries to bring influences from his parents and his childhood into his work (a Child therapist and cinematographer). Holleben uses his own past experiences, childhood memories and knowledge gained from his parents and earlier career to create these inspiring, happy, fun, imaginative and creative photographs. Holleben describes his own work as being "Direct, natural, playful, considered, honest, improvised, educational, fun, childish yet totally serious by approach!". I really like how he describes his work as being childish, yet in a serious approach, which shows that he is having fun and trying to get a creative childish approach when creating his work but is also trying to give a message through his work to get everyone who sees his work to be able to remember their happy chilhood memories or imagine their childhood dreams. When Kanye West, the world famous American recording artist, record producer, film director and fashion designer saw Holleben's work he posted a blog about it on his website saying: "Jan von Holleben makes dreams come true!".
When creating these photographs Holleben tries to bring people back into the reality of photography because he feel that now in the 21st century too many people rely on the use of photoshop and digital manipulation. In his bio he says that he learnt a lot of magical tricks from him father too develop and use in his photography. I really like the fact that he dosent want to digitally edit his photographs because I feel that his photos of these children are suppose to show dreams and turn them into reality. I feel that if Holleben did use photoshop or other softwares and digitally placed photographs of children in a location or the sky, I think that they wouldnt look as intriguing and as visually exciting as they are now because everyone would know they are not real. Holleben says in many interview and statements that he wants to be able to make these look like reality to show childhood 'dreams of flying' using these 'magical tricks' that he has learnt from his father.
After researching the makings of 'dreams of flying' I found a video on how these pictures are made and found that lots of pre planning and setup is involved in creating these on floor arial photographs. A big factor I noticed when watching these videos was that the kids were very happy running around and in the photographs. Holleben tried to interact and have fun with the kids throughout the photoshoot and also showed them himself how he would like them to pose and what emotions they need to show for different scenes from childhood books and shows. Holleben used lots of props in the photographs to set the scenes and visual manipulation (Holleben's 'Magical Tricks') by making sure the positions of the children look realistic like they are flying through the air, eventhough we the audience know that the children are just lying on the floor and the camera is taking a photo of them from above.
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| Top Left: PeterPan & Tinkerbell, Bottom Left: The King Kong, Top Right: Tarzan & Jan, Bottom Right: The Superman. |
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