erik hansen

The fact that Hansen's pictures were achieved in a dark room and not with photoshop or digital manipulation is remarkable. The ambient lighting that he is able to create gives it a quality of another world. I found the rich blacks and pure whites that he uses and the range of grays in between satisfying to see. The fact that the pictures were black and white gave it a sense of realism, but at the same time they retained a sense of wonder and question. The pictures seemed heavily produced, as there was much intentional composition in the sets that he creates. Hansen's pictures, while visually stimulating and satisfying, didn't really hold my interest for very long. I didn't feel as if they were much more than an aesthetic thrill, and a demonstration of masterful printing technique.