Sam Kaplan
Personal Background
Sam Kaplan was born in 1985. Mr. Kaplan attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut and double majored in Studio Arts and Art History. He was heavily influenced by these classes and they impacted his photography and made it what it is today. Even though this was low-tech schooling compared to many other photographers, Mr. Kaplan still made his way in the photography world. He moved to New York in 2007 and worked as an assistant, then realized that he wanted to strike out on his own. He started photographing still lifes in 2011 and still works in his studio in New York today.
Style
Mr. Kaplan creates a sense of depth with small objects. His photographs make the object or subject look stylized. He arranges them in patterns or deconstructs them. He can make extensive landscapes due to his incredible depth communication. He uses lighting masterfully to shoot motion video while shooting a still life. He uses a special robot to capture many of his images. He enjoys using minimal images and making everything perfect IN FRONT of the lens, and not adding things in in post. His images are intrepid and calculated.
Philosphy
Mr. Kaplan tries to be minimal, only capturing what needs to be captured. He likes trying new ideas that he thinks will be effective. He thinks that adding too many elements to the picture draws away from the subject. He likes the more conceptual work. He likes images that make sense, that have a beginning and an end. He likes having a theme in his images, nothing should be too unrelated, it excites him when there's only one thing to focus on in an image. He likes everything to be precise and perfect...all the time. He says that it's almost like OCD.
Influence
Mr. Kaplan was influenced by the majors he took in college. They challenged him to use only one piece of material to make a sculpture. He was also influenced by the sculptural artists Carl Andre and Sol LeWitt. His sculpture classes started with the customary "chisel a marble block", but then moved to more conceptual work. His photography was influenced heavily by Mr. LeWitt. He said that Mr. LeWitt was able to make a formula and pattern that made sense, and he wanted to do that in his own images. These classes also taught him how to visualize a form, thinking about how materials function, and how they could be pushed in certain ways.
My photo is different from Kaplans because of the types of berries featured and the background. I still have the blueberries, but instead of cranberries and elderberries, I have red raspberries and blackberries. It is still the same colors featured, which is nice. Since it was the dead of winter, there weren't fresh blackberries or raspberries. I don't like that almost everything is frozen, but it is what I was able to do. The lighting was really good for Mr. Kaplan's photo-I tried to emulate that both when taking the photo and when editing it. I don't actually know whether he uses non-natural light, but he shoots in a really cool studio, so my guess is that he does. It's super even, and he was able to get this really cool sheen on all of the berries. I tried to do the same in my photo, and I think it came out really well. I shot next to a window so I could achieve that sheen. For this berries photo, I wanted to achieve that lighting and the overall color scheme with what I had, and I'm super happy with results.
I believe that this photo is deceptively hard to do. I think Kaplan wanted to focus on one subject very specifically (look at that shadow!!!) and make the photo pop, even though it's a very plain background. This photo was probably the easiest one to get (only one subject, that's easily accessible). I really enjoyed taking this photo. In order to do it right, separating the yolk from the white, then putting it on a plate. I thought about doing paper for the background, then realized that it would soak up the yolk, so I used a plate instead. I was able to get that sheen on the egg, and even a similarly shaped shadow! There's a little bubble next to the yolk but I was afraid to pop it because I was afraid I would ruin the yolk. I'm really happy that the lighting looks good too. I was really surprised that I was able to pull it off. I was expecting it to take three or four eggs, it only took one. The sheen and white dot are on opposite sides, and so is the shadow, and the background isn't as white as he was able to make it, but I really like the result of my photo.
Kaplan's photo has a yellow chip with brown chips. It's almost like a mask, and I was drawn to this photo because it was super cool. I love eating chips, and I wanted to replicate this image. I think that Kaplan wanted to advertise some brand of chip in this photo, though I'm not completely sure. I really admire how Kaplan takes an ordinary subject and makes it really interesting and captivating in his images. I actually used blue chips, but I turned up the red colors so that it looked brown. Kaplan lined his chips up perfectly, I decided to make it a little more uneven. I like the orderly image, but I also wanted to bring my own interpretation into the image. I still tried to use whole chips, but didn't line them up in any particular order. In order to make the chips stand up, I had to put them in rice. I tried my hardest to get them to line up well, but it was super hard to get the exact same depth that Mr. Kaplan got with his image. Also, I have no idea what kind of camera he uses, but he must have used some sort of macro lens to get such a wide yet deep shot. I think mine does not look as good, but I think I captured the best essence that I could under the circumstances.
Artist Statement
Mr. Kaplan has a lot of food related photos on his website, but I decided to emulate the chips, berries, and egg yolk. These photos seemed like they could be easily re done, and they had food items that were accessible. I also love eating chips, berries, and I love scrambled eggs (with salt, please!). I don't think I have had so much fun before with photography. The image that easily took the longest was the chips image. I had to get the camera really up close, and then zoom in, and use a manual exposure so that it looked the best. I was so proud of myself that I was able to create depth with my chips photo. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to do that, but I was. I tried to put the yellow colored chip on the left corner, just like Mr. Kaplan. In order to frame the image, I had to use a lot of chips so that it looked like the chips went on forever. The first berries image that I took wasn't good enough, so I shot the photo again right next to a source of light (a window). Finding a background for the berries proved rather hard, but I made do with a black pot. The yolk image was the most fun to shoot, but it was really stressful. I had some problems with the camera shadow getting in the way, but it came out great. I wanted to get that sheen on the egg like Mr. Kaplan's photo does, so I moved my light out of the way and tried to make it look as similar as I could. It doesn't look identical, but it looks super similar. I was so happy when I saw the shadow on my photograph, produced by the egg yolk. Each of these images took a decent amount more work than I'm normally used to doing, so it was a good challenge to try and emulate each of a professional, published photographers' images.
Sources:
Crisp, Clean Photographs by Sam Kaplan
The Kaplans Studio-Info
Sam Kaplan: The Problem Solver
Sam Kaplan's Mesmerizing Patterns
Images:
Untitled (blueberries, cranberries) https://thekaplans.studio/FOOD/62
Untitled (egg yolk) https://thekaplans.studio/FOOD/99
Untitled (chips) https://thekaplans.studio/FOOD/71
Crisp, Clean Photographs by Sam Kaplan
The Kaplans Studio-Info
Sam Kaplan: The Problem Solver
Sam Kaplan's Mesmerizing Patterns
Images:
Untitled (blueberries, cranberries) https://thekaplans.studio/FOOD/62
Untitled (egg yolk) https://thekaplans.studio/FOOD/99
Untitled (chips) https://thekaplans.studio/FOOD/71