Black & White Photography - September 2015 UK

24

B+W

COMMENT

susanburnstine.com

With a classic training in film behind him, David Ingraham now

approaches photography with just an iPhone – but manages to produce

images that invite narrative and imagination. Susan Burnstine reports.

AMERICAN

CONNECTION

W

hile scanning

through Instagram

a few years back,

I happened

upon a Los Angeles based

iPhoneographer using the handle

@dayzdandconfuzd and was

drawn into his rich, moody,

surreal black & white imagery.

Soon after, I met the man behind

the elusive Instagram alias in

person, David Ingraham, and have

remained an enthusiastic follower

of his imagery every since.

Ingraham crafted a unique

style by merging street

photography with fine art

elements while his use of strong

composition, story, symbol and

metaphor allows viewers to

be drawn into the captivating

mystery that guides his visions.

Ingraham says, ‘I’m very much

into the idea of presenting the

viewer with a sense or feeling of

something – possibly alluding to a

certain story – but leaving it up to

them to fill in the blanks. I’m not

interested in a photojournalistic

approach to photography because

I don’t want to tell a specific story.

I embrace ambiguity in art – the

unanswered questions and the

mystery of that – so specificity

kind of bores me; it leaves no

room for the imagination.’

Ingraham initially decided

to take the genre of street

photography in a different

direction to the traditional

approach as he was inspired by

experimental techniques – while

he also enjoyed dabbling with

his images in post-processing by

altering the mood slightly, playing

with selected focus or creating

composites. ‘Whatever it takes

to create a compelling image. I

try not to worry about following

any sort of rules; I say save that

for photojournalism. So yes, my

approach and style walks a blurred

line somewhere between the

traditional and the contemporary,

the real and the surreal.’

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