Continuing with practitioners whose work could be located within the realms of the uncanny, I have returned to Jan Staller, who like Crewdson has previously influenced my work and encouraged me to work at night. "On Planet Earth" is a book that was recomended to me during my Ba in Photography, and while it may have influenced the aesthitcis of my final work, I did not take the time to read through the book carefully as I only had access to it in the very final weeks of my degree, and only on return to the book did I read the afterward written by Staller himself. He explains that his work does not not attempt to recreate the landscapes as they existed, but that through framing, lighting and colour he seeks to imbue them with "mystery and foreboding".
Stallers work was of great interest to me as it did not include figures, instead using the landscape as he found it, only modifying it with colour and light, and presenting it to us as something almost unrecognizable. As with Crewdsons work, there is a clear connection to the uncanny in the way Staller uses settings from the vernacular, industrial landscapes we all have scene, and presents them as unfamiliar. Stallers work is somewhat more saturated in colour compared to Crewdson and aligns more with my own previous style, though I find that I am moving away from such vibrancy to something more muted in order to not distract from my subjects as I begin to work with figures. For Staller this is not a problem as the colours are a key part of his subject.
STALLER, J. (1997). On planet Earth. New York: Aperture, p.95.