by Gary Fong
Photographer: Lee Love, www.leelovephotography.com
Click photo to enlarge
Click photo to enlarge
Creating “something” out of nothing has always been a desired element of one’s skill set. In advertising, it’s often taken a couple steps farther down the path of duplicity. But in advertising, it’s not about integrity, but about the selling of an idea.
Lee Love, shooting promotion photos for a rock band, deploys his creative side with a capital “C”. Celebrity rock musician often have tight schedules for hundreds of interviews and photo sessions. The shooting backgrounds are usually not ideal, nor the lighting. A photographer does what a photographer needs to do to complete the project in the given amount of time.
But unlimited imagination is part of the toolkit used by light-stalkers conjuring up the location of unexplored dreamscapes. Lee usually doesn’t pre-visualize the concept. He develops lofty thought of “what if”, as he’s building concepts in his mind after a shoot. Those lofty thoughts, on special occasions, transcend beyond reality, into something a few steps down the road of “lost integrity”.
Now for the Nit Picking
Other than the background, the sparkly globe in hand, and beam of light (complete with white dove), the image is real. Or, should I say, as real as the conventional limits of reality in advertising.
I’m not particular fan of photo illustrations, because most are not done well. But I am an advocate of good photo illustrations that accomplish what they’re set out to do.
Lee’s visual elements are specifically designed to provide the viewer contradictions, good vs. evil; the dark foreboding alley vs. the purity of peaceful harmony, with the two musicians in the middle, as fighting the good fight. As long as the viewer recognizes the image is beyond reality, I would think it has a place for media conveyance.
If the viewer questions the reality, that’s treading dangerously on thin ice...and who knows when the ice of truthfulness will break. Lee’s execution of beyond reality is nice. I’m not an expert, but I’m sure he spent more than five minutes in PhotoShop making it happen. Think I’m wrong, check out (See right picture).
I agree, most photo illustrations aren't particularly well executed and that's probably why I don't like too many of them, but Lee's work is in a whole different catagory.
Nice job Lee. Your creativity is amazing!
- Lyle