Luis Antonio Santos

Luis Antonio Santos (born 1985) is a visual artist who lives and works in Quezon City, specialising in painting and photography. His work centres on the tension between contrasts and explores identity topics through the lenses of time, place, and memory. Oil painting, screenprinting, and digitally modified photography are frequently used as creative tactics, together with the use of daily everyday items as subject matter, to investigate these issues. A statement from his about his work is that his “practice is about the fragility of memories and entropy—what we remember and forget—and how this distortion and deterioration informs our identity and how we locate ourselves.” Luis’s work has been shown in many exhibitions around the world for decades with solo shows at Singapore (Fost Gallery) and Manila (West Gallery, Silverlens Gallery, Blanc Gallery, Finale Art File, MO_Space, Artinformal and the Drawing Room.) He has also been included in several group exhibitions in Manila, New York (Jane Lombard Gallery), Beijing (Tang Contemporary), Singapore, Hong Kong (Art Central), Athens (Athens Video Art Festival) and Malaysia.

Then it Happened, Luis Antonio Santos, January 2013

In this image taken from the series ‘then it happened’ by Luis Antonio Santos, one of the most striking elements is the deliberate obscuring of the subjects face, creating this illusion of dual identities or multiple parts of the self. This intentional blurring and smudge creates this feeling of uncertainty and mystery, leading viewers to doubt the stability of identity and memory. The merging of the soft dark colour pallet in the adds to the images unclear character, giving an antique painted look symbolic of an old photograph/painting. The subdued tones adds to the feeling of nostalgia, as if the memories shown have been filtered through the lens of time. The method of long exposure photography has possibly been used in this photograph by Luis, emphasising this ghostly aspect by blurring the lines between past and present, reality and perception. The subject appears to be in a state of transition, caught between moments of clarity and obscurity, similar to how memory is temporary.

In response to this I aim to try and duplicate Luis’s work through the use of long exposure, I want to try capture the fluent movements of individual faces, creating that ghostly feel.

My responses

B&W - PB09

MILLIE

Canon, ISO-200, f/13, Shutter speed- 4.0

BILLY

Canon, ISO-200, f/14, Shutter speed- 4.0

Canon, ISO-200, f/13, Shutter speed- 4.0

Canon, ISO-200, f/14, Shutter speed- 4.0

LUCIA

Canon, ISO-200, f/13, Shutter speed- 4.0

B&W - PB03 + NIK FILTER

BILLY + LUCIA

Canon, ISO-200, f/13, Shutter speed- 10.0

Canon, ISO-200, f/13, Shutter speed- 5.0

NIK FILTER - EXPERIMENTAL

Canon, ISO-200, f/13, Shutter speed- 5.0

Digital editing process

Before editing (Raw image)

After editing

Firstly I opened up the image in adobe camera raw, I played around with the built in black and white filters until I was set on using PB09 also PB03 I found that these two filters were the closest to the artist and I really like the vintage dusky feel, which made the darks not to dark and the whites not to white. Following this I removed the chromatic aberration and profile correction, this ultimately corrected the images perspective and any lens flaws, making the image look more symmetrical and flatter. When selecting the filter the colour settings automatically changed, but with a slight bit of altering I was able to find the perfect mix of light and darkness of the B&W.

Moving on I began to mask the image in sections starting with the body, decreasing the exposure (-0.10), increasing the contrast (+17), highlights (+3), shadows(+8) and whites (+4), I was able to minimise the depth in colour on the shirt, giving it a slightly washed out look, also dehazing the shirt (-7) helped. Altering the global settings the short lost some dimension, I was able to add this back in by increasing both the texture(+7) and clarity(+12).

I followed this process when editing the subjects face, increasing the contrast (+5),highlights(+15) and whites (+4) enabled me to brighten up any facial features on both the duplicate face and the stationary face. Increasing the texture(+10), clarity(+12) and dehaze(+6) enhanced the fine details and sharped the edges of the subject, lending it a more pronounced and defined appearance. This adjustment also reduced any atmospheric haze or fog while still keeping the face smudge, resulting in a clearer and more vivid representation of the subject with improved contrast and depth.

The final mask I created was of the backdrop, increasing the exposure(+0.20), contrast(+2), highlights(+16), shadows(+7) and whites(+3), made the backdrop brighter, more vibrant with enhanced tonal range and definition. This adjustment helped me bring out the details of the painted wall, intensifying its presence in the photograph while adding depth and dimension to the overall composition. In addition to the previous adjustments, increasing the texture (+10), clarity(+12) and dehaze (+6) on the background further enhanced the texture, sharpness and clarity. This augmentation created a more distinct refined image, emphasising its intricate details and minimising surrounding interference resulting in a clear and visually appealing background that compliments the photographs main subject.

In the final stage of this editing process I went back to the global settings of the photograph and increased all the settings slightly, by doing this I was able to add in lost brightness and highlights, highlights from the Lightsource used to create the subjects shadow. Also decreasing the clarity (-33)reduced the mid-tone contrast and sharpness, resulting in a softer more diffused appearance, creating that dreamy ethereal effect demonstrated by Luis.

THE SET-UP

I took these images in the loft of my house where there is work being done, here I found a wall that had been stripped and had a slight bit of texture to it. I found that this was the closest looking background I could use, I didn’t was to opt for just a plain backdrop as the images wouldn’t have had much character. In this small area of the hallway backing onto the toilet, it was very dark and I was able to use my phone light to add depth and shadows.

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