David Hillard documents his life and the lives of others
around him in his photography. His
work focuses on “the personal, the familiar and the simply ordinary”. Hillard manipulate the physical
distance to in turn show emotional distance. Although Hillard’s images are of the familiar and ordinary,
he makes the viewer recognize the deeper significances within these average
actions and moments he captures.
Hillard utilizes panoramic photographs made up of multiple single
images. He maneuvers the viewer’s
eye through the photograph by altering the focal planes from panel to panel;
this manipulation is impossible to attain with only one single image.
I really enjoy how Hillard has altered the perspective
through these three panels. At the
left image you see a mirror image of a little child standing naked within a
metal bucket. This mirror is the
only thing within that first panel hanging on the wall. As the viewer we are not seeing the
mirror head on but more from about a 45-degree angle. The center image is of a woman, most likely a mother,
bathing the child. This is the
same child that we see in the left panel but this time the child is seated and
looking up at her mother. Her
mother is gently grasping the child’s shoulder and back. This image is backlight by a large
window with white curtains covering it.
Upon the table there are other items including a towel. The panel to the right has three potted
plants, one of which sits upon a small wooden table. The table also has a small towel and what appears to be a
shampoo bottle. This image also
appears to make the table look as if it is at about a 45-degree angle from the
viewer. This image contains the
corner of the room. David Hillard
has made this image that at a quick glance one could think of as just being one
full image with nothing altered.
This image would be impossible to capture as one image because the
reflection of the child in the mirror does not resemble what is happening
within the next panel at all; this manipulation of multiple panels is one of
the main reasons Hillard enjoys shooting this way.
When looking at these three images they line up almost
perfectly from panel to panel whether you are looking at the rock wall or the
mountain range or even the trees. Hillard
plays with the focal points of these three panels. In the panel to the left Hillard has made everything in
focus including the trees way off in the distance. The center panel has a
shallow depth of field forcing the viewers eye to focus on the rock wall that
is in the foreground. The grassy
area behind the rock wall and the trees, clouds, and mountain range off in the
distance are all blurred. The panel to the right has a man grasping onto the
rocks; both the man and the rock wall are in focus. There is detail in the grass that is not extremely blurred
but the rocks that separate the grass from the trees are blurred along with the
trees mountain range and clouds.
These panels are placed one on top of the other. The bottom image is an up close image
of the ground with a puddle that shows the reflection of the buildings that
make up this alleyway. The center
image continues the streaks of the puddle in the bottom image. There is a man in all black bending
down as if he is picking something off the ground who is in focus. Further back there is another man
standing who is out of focus. The
image gets more blurred the further your eye goes down the alley. The top panel is of an image looking up
from the alley. The image is not
looking directly upward it is more on an angle. Although the images seem to line up perfectly the top image
is taken at a different angle than the bottom two images therefore when the
viewer sees the three panels together as a whole the perspective is altered
creating a warped feeling that makes it feel as if the buildings are bent.
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