Pete Ambrose Photography

Photography is beyond a passion or profession to me, it quite simply is a piece of who I am. I derive my work from a visual interest in the ordinary form and structure found in the everyday, a sense of color and gesture which induces visual resonance and long-term memory from the seemingly insignificant, the passion to imagine and express to and from the soul, the will to critique with honesty and help define the social conscious of the individual and the community at large, and lastly the desire to create intensely from a perspective which is not only unpredictable but indelibly identifiable as my own.-------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ -----I am also an filmmaker and a writer having made 10 films (one feature, two award winning) and often writing prose, poetry, screenplays and critically about art and art history.---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------FAQ: TFP/TFCD – Feel free to inquire, but I only trade or test for my personal projects, otherwise I have professional rates and quotes. I've been published, exhibited, and hired by clients ranging from corporate, periodical to celebrity. I do help "build" portfolios and shoot commercial/theatrical headshots, but I NEVER do it for free. I have experience shooting every conceivable style of photography, with the only caveat being all of my work maintains the style and aesthetic that is unique to my eye and interpretation of the medium.----------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------THIS SITE: I actively engage with my community of friends. It is my policy to return all messages and comments left here – you took the time out of your busy life to say hi, I’m always happy to do the same. If for some reason I don't, it's not malicious, I get many kind responses and being a busy person, time can be at a premium. I’m an extremely good natured person so please understand my words are always kind and genuine. Now, the work…Rebel Wonderland – My base fashion and glamour series where James Dean dines with Lewis Carroll. Imagery meant to be as gritty as it is ethereal, as sensual as it is industrial, while pushing the outside of the envelope on both photographic genres.Life in the Death of Fashion - Fashion/Fine Art series attempting to comment on the morose state of progress within the fashion photography medium. Using multiple visual entendres and metaphor, an attempt is being made to re-establish Fashion's voice in the world of social evolution and fine art using original concept, design, and thematic structure...(see blog).Truth to Light - A formal exploration of the potential of the straight photograph. Employing unconventional and unpredictable lighting and make-up techniques, these images aim to speak to the visual potential of the straight photograph as opposed to the photo-illustration. Surreal colors and forms work in unison to offer a vision in art that is both aesthetically pleasing and conceptually sound.Fashion Soup: Available Light = Evocative - Overall, A satirical Fine Art/Fashion Series aimed at reshaping and commenting on the state of commercial photography and it's effect on mass consumerism and Fine Art itself. (Available Light = Evocative) This specific fashion/editorial sub-series was shot at night using only practical or available light to editorialize and evoke a narrative in the images. Subtle plays on pose and wardrobe in the fashion and glamour world created an odd mix of shadow, gesture and color. The noir feel and purposeful use of grain and black to propel the images. See blog.Middle-Class Starlets (Tableaux Series) - Fine Art series commenting on pop culture’s effect on the middle class’ formation of values, beauty, and the female “image”. A series meant to straddle the line between commercial fashion and fine art photography. Each starlet is a metaphorical character void of self-image and reliant on society’s characterization of fame/fortune in relation to social class, self-actualization, and overall happiness. See Blog (archived).Fashion Soup: OMG Headshot/Household Imperative - This series of images are referential to the hoards of surreal headshots that have become staples in many photographer's portfolios. Surreal, pointless make-up and lighting are the norm and of all the listless forms of commercial photography, this one takes the cake with regards to the tired and worn out imagery. The irony is the potential for amazing imagery is endless with the headshot, a chance to peer directly into the soul of beauty at inches distance. I chose to reference the imagery mostly compositionally. The make-up techniques/designs in all of the images take on different levels of meaning and metaphor. (Household Imperative) - This whimsical sub-series contains images that are plays on the ridiculous, sometimes surreal, and trivial use of props in fashion/glamour photography. Meant to have the classic feel of an Avedon and the visual whimsy of a LaChapelle, the viewer should look nothing more into the image then what they want to get out of it.Model Mannequin Series – Fine Art series depicting a melancholy personification of mannequins and blurring the lines with regards to their human qualities – meant specifically to comment on the shocking emotional likeness between plastic and person.Fashion Soup: Colorfully Contorted - This series of images is an attempt to meld figure study fine art with high fashion poses and compositions while employing unconventional lighting techniques in the way of color and shadow. It's meant to allow form and color to get their fair shake in high fashion while the "accessories" of the image become the wardrobe itself, supplementary to only to the formal considerations of the body and image.Erotic Recontextualization – Fine Art series of pre-existing imagery re-photographed using specific aesthetic techniques to comment on the effect erotic photography plays on mainstream imagery and the fine art world. See Blog.Fashion Soup: Color of Night - Flashing B/W - This series of images are shot at night using flash emphasizing models in unsafe, unconventional and frankly, dirty environments. The physical environment in the compositions are as much the subject of the photograph as the model. A strict adherence to wardrobe complimenting or synchronizing with the given environment and a bold confidence of expression that the models display tonally replaces the need for the studio or golden hour lighting in favor of a grittier, blue collar take on beauty and color. (Flashng B/W) - This sub-series is similar conceptually and certainly with regards to environment as The Color of Night sub-series. The difference here is the homage to vintage rock and fashion photography of the late 60's and 70's.Expressions from My Landscape (Part I) and Seascape (Part II) - A two part, expressive fine art series of dynamic land and seascapes meant to emotionally categorize my given psychology at a point in time through visual metaphor and abstraction. See blog.Expressions: Found (Sky) Art - Fine art series continuing the pshychological examination of the previous Expression series' through found abstraction within non-man made elements -- in this case the textures, colors and forms composed by the sky. Based in formal roots of modern photography but taking on added meaning beyond expressional metaphor into the realm of the banal spiritual gesture...(see blog).Scraperscapes Series – Fine Art series, based in the formal roots of Modern Photography, depicting a dynamic, structural and abstract look at the large, man-made objects that define our culture’s architectural achievements. All are straight photographs.Pop Arc Series – Fine Art series that seeks to categorize the slow integration of popular imagery into contemporary architecture. The classic cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome were defined by their architectural, linguistic, and artistic achievements. This series aims to show contemporary culture’s synergy of all three and the digression of structural form to recognizable image.Structural Familiarity – Fine art series taking a closer look at the unique structural elements that help us identify home and create emotional connections to places in our life. The series attempts to recognize the specific relation between object and memory and our reliance thereof. See Blog.Barack Obama (Obama For America) – Documentary photographs from my work with the Obama campaign. I took the approach of trying to create iconic images and capture the chaotic atmosphere surrounding of the Senator and 2008 Presidential Candidate. See Blog.Passing Face(s) - Fine Art/documentary series composed of clausterphobic, wide-angled, multi-subject photographs empasizing the subtlety of human emotion and gesture in the context of the spacial difference between subjects. A attempt to look closer and the complexities that cross the human spectrum at inches distance everyday...(see blog).Aged Angels Series – Documentary series depicting the captured souls of Los Angeles. I’ve documented people of all ages, but all have come to resemble a people who are “aged” beyond their years…experienced and void of an innocence that once was on account of the city of angels...The (Urban) American Scene - Exhibited body of work shot on large format film referential to the mood and visual structure of classic American scene painters Edward Hopper and John Register's works. The work recontextualizes their visions and as the visuals are brought into the winter and depths of urban despair. The focus pulls away from the human subject and focuses on the structural meloncholy and psychological decay of the inner city's soul.Band Art – My own spin on Musician photography and cover art…more to come…Flags: As We Are - I love my country dearly and it's that affection for what it has afforded me and my family that spawned this series. Flags: As We Are is a fine art series of large scale collages examining the social trends that become symbolic and synonimous within American discourse and debate within the last eight years. No firm political statement here, just common image juxotposition meant for the viewer to examine where we've been and where we are going as a country.MyScapes: Social Context in Social Networking - Conceptual fine art series of stand alone photographs capturing actual portions of pages found on MySpace. As social networking finds a solid prowess as a mode of human discourse, pop culture becomes defined thoughout the various web-based apparatus' for which humans can communicate and express. I mean to specifically focus on current culture's need for personal expression, the need to confide, and in many senses the need for personal attention. Whether through Narcissism or a simply unique personal artistic hub, the MyScapes form a startling photographic glimpse into the evolving psychology of who we are and what we truly value at this current point in time.Angelic Nights - A landscape based fine art series of square photographs, each describing a darker sheen and an objective documenatrian explanation for the human and architectural discourse within the city of Angels. The pieces are meant to fall in and out of focus, motion and light are key, a confused sense of security metaphorical to both the aesthetics of the stand alone photos and the people and places captured within.Floral-reveries - Inspired by the blantant sexuality of an O'Keefe, yet adhering to the texturally exploritory work from the likes of Richter and Sigamoto regarding focus and depth of field, I wanted to create an aesthetically based series that added color to the formal conversation in a collision of artistic worlds. Of course, I choose to explore this in the one photography's most cliche subjects: Botany.A 4-Part, Modern (Domestic) Conflict Resolution - A small stand alone quadtych meant to be an exagerated and whimsical social commentary on the metephorical relation between the stereotypical, hard-edged Type A individuals --America's most coveted and aggresively targeted psychological marketing demo, which often shapes America's popular culture and dominant values.