Week 6: Christian Benetel

Christian Benetel is a 21 year old photographer living in Australia. When trying to research upon his work there is not much information about him other than just his pictures which he uploads to social media, e.g. Flickr, Facebook.

This image below is the one that captivated me the most. Using some sort of smoke, he almost consumes the whole model, covering the whole background. Benetel titles this photograph, The Passing.

The image displays a stark contrast in exposure. The bright white tones of the smoke against the monochrome tones of the subject make the model stand out. The image creates a dreamy effect and the smoke frames the subject, encouraging the spectator to look straight at the model. The image displays a long depth of field due to smoke filling the background. However, the smoke creates a vignette around the subjects body adding to this fantasy/dreamlike state. 

When looking more into the effect of the smoke, you could argue that the model is being consumed by the smoke-like the smoke has authority over him. The model looks emotionless, like he is giving up, looking down, he looks weak, as if the smoke has taken over him and controls him. The us of black and white tones aid this lack of emotion, the image is stripped bare, allowing the viewer to interpret the image in many different ways. On the other hand, you could suggest that the monochrome features do the opposite. Instead, they encourage the viewer to give more empathy and emotion, it helps them understand the model and what he is trying to convince to the spectator.

For future work, i plan on using smoke to control my model's emotions, the use of smoke can portray the idea that the model feel's trapped and suffocated by their surroundings. I could use the smoke to hide the model, suggesting that they are helpless. The smoke could act a figure of anxiety, depression, consuming my subject, helping to portray the struggle for identity- the struggle to express themselves.

Below-website to purchase smoke grenades