A Year in Review

Here are a few highlights from this year and some of the amazing people I have had the opportunity to work with.  My sincere thanks to everyone involved including the models, wardrobe designers, MUA's, hairstylists, and anyone else who has helped or supported me in any way to make it possible for me to do what I do.

Incorrigible

Forsaken

High Class

Feel My Beating Heart

Dana

Beauty in Motion

Reveal

Rapture

Fire

Sweet Heart

Faint Whispers

Placid

For more portfolio images, please visit me at:

www.adamgaverluk.com
Model Mayhem
Deviant Art
Flickr

All images on this site are copyrighted unless otherwise stated and may not be used without the expressed written consent of Adam Gaverluk Photography.

Copyright ©2010 Adam Gaverluk Photography.

All Rights Reserved.

A Photographer Never RevealsTheir Secrets

Today I came across a Journal entry from another photographer who suggested that the sharing of information and techniques amongst people in the artistic community should be improved in order for the art form to grow.  

I think one of the issues specific to Photographers is the advancement of technology.  The quality and simplicity that is available these days is nothing short of threatening.  People can buy a decent DSLR, download a pirated copy of Photoshop or Lightroom from bit torrent, and install a 3rd party plugin that will allow them to create pro quality effects in a single-click that 10 years ago would have taken me a lot of time and effort to produce.  This has narrowed the gap between the people who have put in a considerable amount of time to perfect their craft, and the wannabe posers looking to pump out images as fast as possible in an effort to proclaim themselves as "professionals."

Obviously there is no substitute for the artistic vision needed to take the image in the first place and the skill of the photographer handling his/her instrument.  But if everyone could paint with the same skill and creativity as DaVinci or Picaso, their work would cease to be special.  I would be happy to share information with someone to help them out or swap techniques with another established photographer, as I am sure would a community of magicians for example.  But there are always going to be those special tricks that you will keep to yourself, the tricks that you have spent a lot of time perfecting.  If everyone can do the same technique, it looses it's uniqueness and in some cases, the artist will loose their individuality.

The other obvious reason for not sharing, is if your photographic endeavors are also your main source of income.  It clearly doesn't make sense to show all the other photographers in your community the special way you process wedding photos if that is what makes you unique to that genre. 

Lets be honest, photography has never been easier or more accessible than it is right now.  And in an art form where technology plays such a huge roll, and the access to information is so easily obtained, true individual style will become more and more difficult to achieve and maintain.  Only a minority of photographers will reach that status in their careers.  The value of a few unique individuals making an impact by preserving their specific techniques outweighs the convenience of the whole community sharing in that knowledge.

We should be ashamed... and we are.

I recently heard a rebroadcast of an episode of "Definitely Not the Opera"on CBC radio were the general discussion was on what happens in society when we make the "private" public.  The last part of this segment was one I found particularly interesting where they discussed and interviewed a former teacher from Austin Texas who lost her job after it was made known to the school administration that she had posed nude for an art photographer.  I would encourage anyone to listen to this segment of the broadcast via the link I have posted or simply type her name, Tamara Hoover, into Google or Wikipedia and read about her unfortunate case.

This incident only servers to reinforce the negative and shameful way in which we view our own bodies in North American society.  These attitudes and misconceptions about nudity and sexuality belong in the past with the burning of witches or the belief that the earth is flat.  In a world where we can build the Hadron Particle Collider and recreate the big bang to view how our universe may have once began, it is astounding and baffling that with this incredible intellect, we cannot wrap our heads around the fact that nudity and sexuality are not the same thing.  Yet they are continually treated as such.  You need only look at ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian cultures to see that this was not always the case.  As a species, we where once able to look upon ourselves and appreciate the beauty and magnificence of our own bodies.  We once were able to take that appreciation for our own magnificence and express it in art and sculpture, and then display these incredible works in public places without causing riots, mass orgies, or damaging the public psyche.      

In the case of Tamara Hoover, I fail to understand how her posing for a photographer was somehow going to damage her students either mentally or emotionally or was in any way a reflection of her abilities as a teacher.  It was in fact the students that rallied behind her in support and in an attempt to reverse the school board decision to terminate her contract.  So what is the message that is being taught to the students in this case?  Be ashamed of your body and of your humanity?  That nudity in any form is intrinsically wrong and that it will insight sexual deviance?  Don't ever express yourself creatively or be comfortable in your own skin, because one day you might loose your job over it?  That's a hell of a lesson to teach the entire student body in one shot.