The Use of Light in Bill Henson and Caravaggios Work Essay

Through the use of light, artists continue to receive a strong emotional response from the audience. This is an essential element of an audience’s perception of a work – it may determine whether the artwork is perceived as happy or depressing, or even provides the difference between whether the work is friendly and welcoming, or shocking and confronting. Artists have used light for a long time to stimulate the emotions of the viewer. Two artists that have used this technique are Bill Henson and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, or more simply known as just Caravaggio. Bill Henson is a contemporary Australian photographer, born in 1955, while Caravaggio was an Italian painter (1571 – 1610). When Henson’s photographs are viewed through the†¦show more content†¦This is why his art was so successful in reaching his audience and connecting him with the art world. This is a similar concept in Henson’s work. Most of his subjects are human figures, assisting him in the representation of his ideas in a confronting, direct, and sometimes controversial way. The way that Henson achieves the same effect of chiaroscuro in his photographs as Caravaggio does in his paintings, is through his underexposure and adjustment in printing. Henson’s work is powerful, creating an illusion of both a painting and a film through a combination of different techniques that make his work unique. The most prominent feature and device of Henson’s work is his use of light. The majority of his work features dark tones and colours, sometimes slightly tinted with yellow, red or blue. The brighter portions of Henson’s photographs and his use of light is tactically well controlled to uncover only crucial details. In some of his photographs, Henson juxtaposes the colourful yet mysterious, distant city lights through the use of bokkeh, with the underexposed, graphic images of the subject in the foreground. Some examples of this in his work include several images from the Untitled 2000/01 series, such as the girl sitting, the girl that is lying down, yet at the same time positioned so to look as if she is in flight, and another image of a girl lying on her stomach,