Inspired By Davis Ayer

American photographer Davis Ayer uses analogue photography to create beautifully unique photos making great use of double exposure techniques to give a really mystical vibe to his work. Ayer's photos have a psychedelic use of colour created through light leaks, solar flare and other manipulations that really has given Ayer a recognizable style to his work. His subject matter mainly features women in obscure poses in surroundings such as foliage, and a lot of his work is also taken around the Mexican desert and in desolate places which really creates this mystical mood along with the use of lower lit settings which to me looks like Ayer makes a lot of use out of the golden hour to

give more of a soft and hazy appearance to his photos in terms of lighting. 

The image above is one of my favourites of Ayers despite being less bright and vivid like some of his more popular work. I just think this photo looks so effortlessly pretty with the use of shadows and the tiny little scratches on the photo which to me really adds texture to this image. I can't tell if this photo was taken through a window with a reflection of the outside or whether Ayer has created a double exposure which he often does. Either way Ayer has managed to create a really eery mood to what I think is really pretty subject matter. I also find this image very intriguing in the way the girl is covering her eyes but it appears to be dusk rather than sun shining in her eyes. Maybe she is stood inside with her coat on waiting for the daylight to go. The girl also looks quite young so the image may be a comment from Ayers about how teens are today, a rather poetic one if it is I must say.

Ayer's use of double exposures and colour has inspired me to experiment creating my own vibrant double exposures digitally with some of the photos I have taken in the past year.

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After

For this image I took a photo of my sister that I took in the summer and put it over one of my street photography photos of a factory in Colne. I decided to lower the contrast as Ayers photos appear to a lower contrast to add to the hazy effects he achieves in his images. I also added chemical burn effects to all of my experiments and played with the vibrancy of colours to achieve the more mystical colours that Ayer uses in his work. 

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After

Before

After - 1

After - 2

This is my favourite from my experiments as I think I managed to create a really mystical feel to this image. I also like how the two photos interact with one another as if my subject is touching the firework.

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After

Through conducting these experiments I've developed my own digital editing skills and found a new way of manipulating images in a style I really like. Now I would like to try creating double exposures in dark room and experiment more with adding texture to film photography.