Inspiration

Research into photographer:

Corey Wolfenbarger is a 28 year old professional photographer from the United States of
America, specifically Knoxville, Tennessee. Corey shoots for streetwear and lifestyle brands
such as ‘Carhartt’ to make a living out of photography. However, most of the images he
shoots in his free-time and the ones he personally feels most proud of are his landscape shots.
Those are what he truly loves shooting the most, yet it’s harder to make a living off of that.
Wolfenbarger is a true believer in the creative process and this is definitely reflected within
his work. He typically likes to shoot on film, whether it be 35mm or medium format
(120mm), because it forces him to slow down mentally and physically; it makes him focus on
getting a perfect shot on the first attempt. The cameras he uses most often are the Mamiya 7
or the Pentax 6x7. The film stock he usually choses to shoot with is Portra 400 because of the
flexibility of the highlights and shadows. Additionally, it has the most pleasing colours to
look at.

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Photograph 1

As mentioned beforehand, Corey’s main photography love is landscape photographs and I

think that this one perfectly encompasses everything in his creative ethos. From what I’ve
noticed, Wolfenbarger likes to keep his subjects in his landscapes in the distance, allowing
for a great amount of foreground, which in this case is the trees and river, and the clouds in
the sky as the background. In the middle sits the mountains, which are the subject of the
photograph. They’re aligned on the left-hand side of the photograph, leaving the right-hand
side to show even more mountains in the background.

This photograph was taken on the Mamiya 7, which is a medium format (120mm) film
camera. To get the colours in the image, the photograph was taken on Portra 160, the daytime
ISO for Kodak’s Portra film. This film is widely used because of the colours it produces. It’s
beautiful pastel colouring is almost impossible to replicate with any other film stock or digital
processing.

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Photograph 2

This photograph is also a landscape photograph. However, it’s composed in a more

minimalistic form factor. The image is split into two clear sections; the grassland in the
foreground and the sky in the background. Each is almost a fifty-fifty split, allowing the
smoke stacks to stand out as the subject of the photograph. Interestingly, the smoke stacks are
almost identical to the grassland in colour, meaning there is only two, maybe three, different
colours within the image. This is crucial to mastering a minimalistic composition as too many
colours would take away from that feeling.

Again, this photograph was taken on the Mamiya 7 using Portra 400 this time instead of
Portra 160. The difference is that Portra 400 is more sensitive to light than Portra 160,
meaning that it can be used in slightly darker conditions. This setup was used for the same
reason as the last photograph; to capture the detail in the colours and get that specific look.

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Photograph 3

As stated beforehand, Corey also shoots fashion and lifestyle photographs as a way of
making a life out of being a professional photographer. In this photograph, he’s
photographing one of his friends, Joe Greer, in Carhartt clothing. The composition is very
simple, as he is stood in the middle of the frame, clearly making him the focus of the image.
However, it’s paired with a fast aperture, meaning that the background scenery is nice and
out of focus, allowing the model to stand out in the frame.

This photograph was also taken using Portra 400 because of the characteristics of the film
stock. However, this time, it’s the camera that has changed. The camera that was used to take
the photograph was a Mamiya RZ67, a different type of medium format camera. However,
unlike digital cameras and the different sensors they have, the main difference maker for film
photography is the film stock and lens you use. Because of this, Corey is able to maintain a
specific look for his photography over many different cameras by using the same Portra film
stock.

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Online presence

Outside of social media platforms, Corey has a website where he showcases his work. Inside
of the website, you can also find a print shop, which is another way he is able to make a
living out of being a freelance professional photographer. In my opinion, it is important to
have a website where you can post your work in it’s highest quality as social media platforms
tend to be on the lower end of the spectrum quality wise.

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Mood board

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Test photographs