CONCEPTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF GAMA PHOTOGRAPHY

Reading: Sign, Meaning and Visual

Abstract

Art photography has become a medium to show the true identity of photography artist. Pre-wedding photography that is used to focus on the beauty of costume, make up, venue and glamorous poses, is now shifted towards conceptual photography. The development of conceptual pre-wedding photography was started by GAMA Photography on their tagline, “Mekenyem Sube Biase” (smiling is too common). GAMA Photography broke the trend of pre-wedding photo by presenting a conceptual photography which is a paradox of the existing photos. Their concept emphasizes on “antique-vibe” in which their artworks look like photos from 1930s. The main characteristics of their work can be seen from the human object where they stand  very awkwardly, not smiling, with old fashioned pieces of clothing, faded colors that tend to be black and white in high contrast, with the addition of texture to add the antique feeling.  Qualitative interpretative method and semiotic analysis were used to find and analyze the photo works by finding the relation between signs, meaning and visual in GAMA Photography. Segmentation of the past from Balinese socialist agrarian societies, as well as a re-enactment of events during the royal period in Bali became the characteristics that distinguish the work of GAMA Photography with other photographers. This resulted in GAMA Photography to be a bench mark as an effort to form a brand image of their photography work.