9/26 Albert Sanchez

While looking at Ray Metzger’s photos online, I stumbled across Jeff Zaruba. Zaruba shoots a variety of styles including architecture, land/cityscapes, and abstract photography. All the photos on his website are in black and white, with a majority of them having soft focus. Usually when I see soft focus in photos I cringe and immediately think of poorly taken glamour shots usually found in a mall-like atmosphere. Not the case in this situation. Zaruba’s use of soft focus adds a dreamy yet mysterious quality to his photos that makes me stop and think. I’m not exactly sure what it made me think about. I just sat, stared, and let my mind wander. The soft focus distracts from the typical landscape and architecture shots that every photographer has taken at some point in their career and gives it a fresh new (well at least to me) feel. His abstract photos are, from what I can tell, still architecture and vegetation. Soft focus is still used and the objects, mainly the vegetation, in the photos are still representational. The fact that you can still decipher what the object is doesn’t bother me. I’ve been called out on it before, so I know some people don’t like that style. I’m not opposed to it. The photos are still well composed and that’s what keeps them interesting for me. All in all, I found Zaruba’s work to be enjoyable and enlightening. His use of soft focus has intrigued me and I just may utilize it in the near future.