Personal Background
Sam Kaplan was born and raised in Boston MA. He then went on to pursue his education at Wesleyan University. He studied Art History and Sculpture and walked away learning the most from his sculpture classes. Sam Kaplan is very well known for still life photography. Whether that is his projects that he enjoys producing or commercial photography. He loves to shoot the images and always produces crisp clean shots of all of the still life objects he shoots. After he graduated college at Wesleyan University he moved to New York where he met his wife and assisted photographers. He has now grown a photography business based in NY with the help of his wife Laura Kaplan whom he calls a "Creative Engine". Her creativity mixed with his has created a very successful photography business. Sam Kaplan is now a commercial photographer who has shot for many brands with the help of his wife.
|
Name of Artist
Sam Kaplan
Dates of Artist's Life
Communication Arts Photography Annual 2018, 2017, 2015 PDN Photo Annual 2018, 2017, 2012 American Photography 33, 31 - Selected American Photography 29, 28 - Chosen PDN's 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch 2012
Style
Sam Kaplan has been one of the creators of Modern-day art. Kaplan likes to shoot still life objects and has paired with many brands to do that. He has paired with Budweiser, Gatorade, Google, Kraft, Men's Health, and The New York Magazine. Sam Kaplan is hired a lot to find the "Visual Solution" and "Problem Solving" for the brands that have paired with him. The article Sam Kaplan's Still Life Series said it best, "Sam Kaplan has captured everything from flowers to birthday candles, but his most interesting works are those that feature an abundance of mundane objects arranged in repetitive arrangements." His style is based around shooting still life images and what makes his work special is how he arranges his objects when he has multiple. When Kaplan shoots he moves his objects in places that please the eye and draws a focal point. Most of his pictures are foods and drinks or still life objects to which he adds effects.
Philosophy
Kaplan's work is based on beliefs. The article Art Producers Speak: Sam Kaplan, provides a quote that Kaplan has said, "Buyers want to see your voice and that comes through in work you’re passionate about" and Kaplan goes by this in all of his work. His favorite thing is being hired to show his personal opinions on projects and also being able to take into consideration how every shoot you take and produce could reach buyers. Kaplan works around shooting for himself and knows that it is very important to do so because it allows for him to be responsible and be the one in charge of his work. He and his wife have a studio in New York that has all the equipment Sam Kaplan needs to shoot motion videos and still life photography.
Influences
Sam Kaplan is one of the most modern-day influential photographers I have ever researched. Kaplan introduced another kind of photography to the world that shows how far art has come. He has created crisp, clean, and bold images that are bright, colorful, and attract the eye. When Sam Kaplan moved to New York he was able to assist artists with their shoots and ideas. He was extremely influenced by the photographers and learned about commercial photography. Kaplan says most of his inspiration comes from himself and the leadership he gives himself in his work. While researching Sam Kaplan showed me what the future of photography can and will look like. It has also shown me how it has changed from the past history of art.
Re-creating Sam Kaplan's close-up peanut was the hardest image to re-create. I took this image multiple times trying to get as close as I could get to Sam Kaplan's version of close-up peanut butter. I scooped creamy peanut butter onto a plate and used a carving utensil to make the peanut butter look glossy and movable. Sam was able to make his image look shiny, glossy, and shimmery with his cameras and editing. I shot it on my i-phone 11 and edited my image on Photopea.com. In Photopea.com I adjusted the curves, brightness, contrast, and exposure. I got as close as I could to Sam Kaplan's image and it turned out very nicely.
For my second image of creating one of Sam Kaplan's many food images, I choose Peanuts. Sam shot this image with a very high-quality camera to get maximum quality and definition. Sam made his final image look like he was shooting close up but at the same time, he was able to capture many of the peanuts. I used my i-phone 11 to create an image of peanuts that you can compare to Sam's. I took my picture in portrait mode which allowed me to have a lot of detail and outline of the peanuts. I then edited this image in Photopea.com using adjustments. This consisted of brightening the image to make it light look like Kaplan's image and using contrast to define the image and bring out the shadows. In the end, my image got very close to Sam Kaplan's, but if I could change one thing it would be to make the image more orange-like Kaplan's so all the peanuts are the same color.
Sam Kaplan has a "Fully Equipped" photography studio. Having this allows him to produce this image of close-up but far-away pretzels. I choose to shoot this picture that he took because I love pretzels, they are one of my favorite snacks and are very salty. In Sam Kaplan's image, he was able to get many pretzels in the image while at the same time making it lookup close because of the detail that is in the image. I shot my image of pretzels on an i-phone 11. This allowed me to get up close, allow the detail on the pretzel to show, and try different angles until I got the closest I could to Sam Kaplan's angle. Even though my image turned out longer and not as many pretzels, I was able to arrange the pretzels into the order I wanted and edit them so the image was as bright as his. In the end, I believe I got as close as I could to Sam Kaplan's image by adding my touches to make ours relate and stand out differently.