Personal Background
Born and raised in Boston Massachusetts, Sam able to attend high school in Boston where he really started to spark his interest in photography. After graduating, Sam would later attend college at Wesleyan University, one of the most liberal art colleges. Sam would learn and study both conceptual sculpture and traditional photography. Sam's photography really trying to use two of his favorite skills: creative problem solving and conceptual thinking. Sam now lives in New York with his wife and lots of books!
Style
Sam has a very interesting style. For example, Sam often uses clean and crisp photographs that includes lots foods, drinks and beauty products. Sam often also creates landscapes out of the foods that he chooses to put in his photos. Not only that, Sam also uses a lot of everyday items such as electronics, sports equipment, pharmaceuticals and tools. He uses these tools and rearranges them into very interesting patterns that you've never seen before. Sam creates some of the most unique still-life photography in the world!
Philosophy
Kaplan believes in a one word philosophy, simplify. Kaplan tries to take away as much as possible until he finds the essence of the image. Sam thinks that by adding too many elements to images, it often distracts the viewer from the point or the message trying to be said. Sam also believes that it is important to differentiate yourself from other artists in some way. Kaplan is a very unique artist that really gets to the point and doesn't have any distracting elements in his work and it really shows that he has some big philosophies.
Influences
Kaplan has really influenced me to keep my photos straight forward and not to add as many distracting elements as well. Not only that, I also feel that I have a better view of photography. For example, I now see beauty out of ordinary objects such as foods and how ordinary things are placed all around my house. I also learned how important it is for how things are placed in photos. This I believe really helps show emotion and make Kaplan's photos a lot more unique from other famous photographers. Overall, Kaplan's work has really made me reflect on my photos and what I can do to make my photos even better.
Untitled (French Fry)probably one of the easier images to recreate, as it is very simplistic overall. The only hard part was finding enough sunlight to recreate the shadow presented in the photo. I really had to take multiple photos in different places to see which one would produce the best shadow.Untitled (Pile of Pretzels)This one was slightly more challenging to recreate as the first image contains lots of pretzels which I couldn't pay for. Instead, I zoomed in on the pretzels and really made the image look like there was more pretzels than there actually was. I also tried to keep the image with only pretzels, so there wouldn't be any distracting parts of the image.Untitled (Kale)
Artist Statement |
Shy Fry (Recreated)
Salty Pretzels (Recreated)Vibrant Kale (Recreated) |
Overall, I really enjoyed taking these photos, even though they were hard to do, considering that there were so many great photos to choose from. I can clearly say that these photos represent me and my life. Shy Fry represents the simplicity of life and how you can find beauty in everything. It also represents me because I am introverted and this simple fry easily represents an introvert. Salty Pretzels represent the fun and life and how colorful the world is. I really enjoyed taking this photo and getting up close and personal to take this photo. Finally, Vibrant Kale represents the variety in life and how everyone is different. It also shows that everyone is unique in there own way.