It is difficult to define Brooks Reynolds with one word. He is a director, but also an author and photographer. Born in Burlington, Canada, Brooks Reynolds first approached photography during his high school years, then over time he explored all the possibilities this art had to offer. Today Brooks spends most of his time behind the lens, sometimes taking beautiful photographs, sometimes shooting short films and commercials. 

In this case we want to focus on a small aspect of his work, which we recommend you to discover on his website, the portraits. Scrolling through his portfolio, or his Instagram profile, among the frames of his shorts and projects for clients, you may come across faces, glances that stand out in the darkness of streets and rooms. 

Many times they are strangers, met by chance, but those of Brooks Reynolds do not only show banal faces, they tell stories, we can perceive people’s moods, we can almost hear their thoughts. 

The main feature of all his shots is a cinematic vision on the stage, developed thanks to his short films and that goes perfectly with an exasperated use of light, which creates amplified areas of light and shadow. 

Below is a selection of his shots, but to find out more about Brooks Reynolds’ work go to his website! 

There is a moment of the day, before the shrill sound of the alarm clocks, in which everything seems to pause. The light is light and reveals only the silhouettes of the buildings and the lines of the streets, the street lamps and neon lights of the signs illuminate the landscape intermittently and even the most chaotic cities look like small, almost uninhabited villages. 

Although it was enough to wake up a little earlier, there are still few people who challenge sleep to discover this urban beauty. One of them is Alessandro Zanoni, a visual designer and part-time photographer, who spent a few months among the most important Japanese cities, from Tokyo to Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. 

Here, before the sunlight and heat flooded the streets, Alessandro, armed with his photographic spot, wandered through the suburbs, taking walks on the edge of the surreal, immortalizing the peace and quiet. 

Thus was born his photographic project “Rising in the Dark“, now in its third volume. A collection of photographs showing empty streets lined with small houses and low buildings and where, from time to time, you can see a parked car. The wires of electricity stand out against a background made by a sky that is clearing and abandoning the darkness for an infinity of rosy and heavenly shades. 

I wandered in the wee small hours, while the summer sunrise bright was approaching fast, trying to catch the suspension of a precious time that gives itself to few, chasing in vain the spirit of the ordinary-life in Japan. 

Below you can find a selection of shots, but to discover them all go to Alessandro Zanoni’s website and his Instagram profile.  

“Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. (…) Choose rotting away in the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself, choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that?”

The purpose of Renton and his friends is clear from the beginning: take heroin. In short, this is exactly what Irvine Welsh tells us in her novel and Danny Boyle later adapted it for the big screen with this film, the solidarity that deeply links those who put drugs before any other interest. The story clearly follows a period in the story of these guys, without taking someone’s side or moralizing, among lies, despair, and even a bit of British humor. What made it a real cult, in addition to the setting and narration of a story on the edge of discomfort, is the stylistic expression of 90s punk inspired by the heroin-chic subculture, expressed by the looks of the characters.

Trainspotting is a real mental but above all visual trip and the use of wide-angle lens and colour manipulation in photography justify its hallucinogenic effect. The director wants to make us participate in what is happening not only by showing it but also by arousing in us the same unstable feelings and moods of a parallel reality.

But this reality “really” existed, sometimes it was hidden, but someone like the German photographer Tilman did not miss the opportunity to document it. From Scotland we move to German capital, the avant-garde Berlin, which in the meantime had also established a sort of unwritten law against photography in some clubs like the Berghain, in order to ensure the protection and privacy of its visitors.

In there everything is possible and everyone can express themselves.

In those years, Tilman made a reportage shot in analogical, of which each frame represents unique testimonies, excited, stoned youths yearning for freedom. His collection contains more than 10,000 images from 1991 to 1997 and, on the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the wall, they were included in the exhibition called “No Photos on the Dance Floor“.

Genre: Drammatico
Director: Danny Boyle
Director of photography: Brian Tufano
Writers: Irvine Welsh, John Hodge (screenplay)
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller

InstHunt Special Edition is the new collection of your best photos that follow a specific theme. Each month it will have a dedicated title and you will give it life through your shots. 

This month’s theme was “Safe place“: we all have a safe place to flee to, and you’ve shown us your. Find out the best photos below and don’t miss the next appointments!

Stay tuned and go follow our Instagram @collateral.photo page to discover the theme of the next issue InstHunt Special Edition. 

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