Name of Artist: Jim Dratfield
Date of Artist’s Life: Unknown
Personal Background: Jim Dratfield was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey.When he was 19 years old, he decided to move to New York to become an actor. When he was twenty he made it in a broadway. He realized he loved being an actor but he hated the business because when he wasn’t performing, he was waiting table at a restaurant. Later in his life he decided to change his career and become a pet photographer which now makes him happy. He now lives on a farm in New York with his wife, son, and adorable Labrador retriever.
Style: His style seems to always capture the personality of the animal. Whether you are staring into that dog's eyes or that horses pose, you can always feel what the animal is feeling or what they are going to do next. His pictures always have this style and purpose. I can also see that his style sometimes involves making his images black and white or making the saturation level really low. His style really pleases my eyes because I can really see the contrast in my photos.
Philosophy: When Jim Dratfield is taking his photographs, he isn't think about politics or sociality, all he is thinking about is his love for animals. Jim Dratfield didn’t become a pet photography for anyone, he became it for himself. The major ideas for his work is to give animals a personality and show people that they aren’t just animals, they are your friends. In his photos he is trying to make you laugh or smile, or just feel happy because he believe that animals can do this for you. He want to convey a feeling of warmth and love when you look at animals, not just another picture of a cute dog.
Influences: Jim Dratfield has influenced my work in so many ways. First he made me understand that I really need to focus on what is going on around my image. Is the background distracting? Where is the focal point or emphasis? How well is the lighting in the photo? Are you truly conveying a message in your photo and does the viewer see the message? All these questions he has made me ask myself about my photo. He made me understand that it is important to capture something and have a message instead of just taking a random image. By looking at his images I realized that my images has to have a meaning to them just like in his.
Sources:
http://petography.com/dog-photographic-portraits
Compare and Contrast: Something that is similar about my images compared to Jim Dratfield’s images, is we both created are images in the same way. each photo has the same amount of dogs in the Jim Dratfield photo. Also the images I took, my dogs are in the same pose as the ones Jim Dratfield took. Also, we both tried to convey the same message. Things that are different about the images I took and the images Jim Dratfield took are that we have different backgrounds. Although I tried my hardest to make the backgrounds the same, I couldn’t travel to the exact place I took them. Also I don’t know the dogs he took picture of so I took pictures of my dogs. All together though, I believe that our images are similar and we have a very similar style.
Personal Artist Statement: When you look at my images I am trying to convey a feeling of love and warmth; when you look at these images, I want you to see how amazing and inspiring animals are. My first image is about my dog seven and how strong of a bond they he has with my mom. I tried to use balance in this photo. I wanted you to feel like it had a little bit of symetry. The image I took of dog, Seven, looking out the window, i loved because it show his sense of curiosity just like Jim Dratfield’s photo did. I tried to use the natural light as an advantage to light up his face. I also cropped it a little so the background wasnt distracting. My final photo is of my puppy named Riker. When you look at Riker, all you want to do is give him love because he just looks at you in that way. I tried to convey this because this is what Jim Dratfield’s photo did to me. I also used a pattern and made Riker the focal point to make both the images similar. These images mean a lot to me because they tell a story about my beloved dogs.
Sources for information:
http://wildapple.com/artist/33620/jim-dratfield
http://petography.com/jim-dratfield-petography-bio
http://danaroc.com/inspiring_040306jimdratfield.html