“I used to paint when I was younger, I would create scenes that I’d photograph to use as references for my paintings,” says photographer Megan Doherty to the Phoblographer. “That was until I realized I really enjoyed the process of setting up these scenes and photographing them in order to tell a story, that’s when I turned my focus to photography.” Her images are fascinating in so many ways. They simultaneously feel like a remake of 90s movies and the time around Y2K when youth culture embraced ideas around cheering up, experimenting with various things, and AOL instant messenger.
All images by Megan Doherty. Used with permission. For more, please visit her Tumblr
For her work, Megan tells us that she takes a lot of inspiration from movies — which is where the cinematic quality and feel comes from. “I love Kar Wai-Wong’s work in particular,” she relates to us. “A few other films I’ve been inspired by visually are Lost in Translation, Paris Texas and Buffalo 66.” Indeed, we can see lots of persuasion coming from these works and into Megan’s photographs.
To create these looks, she shoots on a Canon AE-1 and a Mamiya RZ67. Then she lights her scenes with portable LED lights. Of course, she often needs to shoot with a tripod. In a way, it’s pretty much like she’s filming a movie. Combined with the aesthetics that film gives, it’s easy to see where these ideas manifest. In fact, pretty much all of her photographs are lit in a very specific way unless they’re shot outdoors. And even then, it seems like we see very specific lighting at play.
Megan’s subjects are often her friends — citing that she’s built up years of trust and chemistry with them. When she photographs new people, she tends to try to create a narrative so they can build a characer. “…in doing so, it allows them to reveal parts of themselves that feel natural and documented, even in a staged scenario,” she tells us.
Indeed, these photographs also look like something that an AI image generator wouldn’t make. Instead, they’re authentically human. To that end, Megan doesn’t put AI and photography even under the same umbrella. “To me, photography is a lens-based medium that requires particular skills and creativity, whereas AI is a tool compiling a catalog of pre-existing images to create a digitally manipulated result,” she tells us. “I completely understand people wanting to experiment with the tool for their own use, however I would describe it as a form of digital art rather than photography.”
Authenticity Statement
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
