Thursday, December 6, 2012

Robert Benson Reviews David Hilliard



David Hilliard is a photographer based out of the New England area. He has a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and a MFA from Yale University School of Art in New Haven, CT. He focuses on panoramic photography, using 3 or more frames for each photograph. He photographs the people around him, mostly his family and friends using his photographs to show metaphors of emotional turmoil or adoration. In many photographs, you will see three frames, which seem to come from the same larger picture, but one or two frames is different, something is off.  Hilliard uses natural light to his advantage and rather than putting up lights or creating shadows where needed, he allows the light nature provided to do it and works with it, using it to his advantage.

Tepid, 2010
In this photograph, the child is sitting in the bucket, but the reflection is the child standing. I enjoy this aspect of his photography. It trains the eye to see more in the photograph than what you expect.
Looker, 2005
Hilliard’s photograph entitled Looker depicts a typical city view from a balcony who’s occupant is a nosey neighbor, with a twist. A topless woman stands at the window, looking with binoculars at the city in which she resides. This type of twist on Hilliard’s photography is what drew me to him. The unexpected changes in each photograph work well. The way the balcony doesn’t quite line up in the three photographs on the right, coupled with the topless woman, is what makes this photograph pleasing to me.


Extra Cheese, 2004
Not all of Hilliard’s work seems to be a cohesive photograph. In Extra Cheese, Hilliard simply puts together four different photographs, all from different angles as an artistic attempt at piecing together a scene. The way he attempts and succeeds at this different way of panoramic photography is what makes his photographs interesting.

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