Analysis of Chris Nash Photography

Chris Nash

Chris Nash is a London based photographer who splits his time between commercial assignments, fine art photography and teaching. 

After graduating with a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths.

 Chris built a reputation as 'one of the most creative photographers of his generation'  and has held over 60 exhibitions of his Dance photographs in 18 different countries. His work has had such an impact on contemporary dance in England that he is the recipient of a Dance Umbrella/Time Out Award.

Aside from his dance photography, Chris Nash pictures can be found on advertising billboards, in fashion catalogues and on album and book covers. 

This first image created by Chris Nash exposes his use of light in his images and  by having the studio light coming in from the the right hand side it enables the photograph to capture the shadows that have been cast across their bodies and from their rippling muscles to be seen clearly also, rather than washing it all out from a bright front flash. Chris Nash has also explored the idea of timing being of extreme importance, as both women seem to be utterly synchronised in their body language and positioning. Everything appears to be in focus, as he has captured it in a thousandth of a second, even the ruffles on the dress seem to be pin sharp and clear. This is effective because you are able to freeze the motion in time and examine the mood and emotion being expressed in the image easily. 

In this image Chris Nash has used black and white colouring to draw attention to the varying shades and harshness of the white light and creating a distorting silhouette of the dances body as it juxtaposes the light grey background immensely. The light is shone from the top of the studio giving an interesting pool of light beneath the dancer, and anything the is directly underneath the light. The angular positioning of the dancer is easily displayed and the creases in his clothing is highlighted by the lighting and creates quite a surreal and unrealistic position. 

















In this image Nash has arranged his dancers in such a way that they are existing up in the air at the same point in time and they are all captured sharing the same pose. This is interesting as it displays many different people communally sharing a pose together in the air, the flash used enables this image to be in focus and appear pin sharp. The interesting foreground interest of the woman placed directly in the centre of the image makes this the focal point and the use of thirds making the floor less of an interesting section of the image and enables you to focus on the dancers at the top.