Photographer: Monte Zucker

Monte Zucker(1930-2007) was a photographer from America and he specialized in wedding and portrait photography. He operated a studio in Silver Spring, Maryland, and later he lived in Florida. He was a famous photographer who has worked in several renowned magazine companies such as Brides Magazine and has a monthly columns in magazines such as Shutterbug. He was nominated as United Nations Photographer of the year 2002. Not only was he a mentor, but he is also an inspiration to many young photographer.

From Monte's works, I can see that he enjoyed capturing people's facial expression and their body language. He put a lot of emphasis on the figure's face by adjusting the light that fell on their face and/or body. He used a simple background for a lot of his photos as such the main focus fell on the subject and also he preferred to work indoor using light that he can control rather than work outdoor with distracting background and uncontrolled lighting. In his picture, the subject would stand out, as there was nothing in the background that would take the viewer's attention. He used window lighting  and portable flash for his photograph and that was a very clever ideas. It allowed him to set-up and shoot anywhere in the room with minimal equipment. That became his photography style. 

 As you see the above pictures of brides, the brides became the center attraction of the picture. He played with ambient light and used it to his advantage combined with controlled lighting  to capture the best moment possible.

Besides taking a full body photo, Monte's also worked with close up portraits. Again, he used simple background as to let the subject stand out and manipulate light to highlight the face. He shot women and men differently, with men as the stronger and more masculine subject, he would strengthen the light that fell on the face to create contrast between the shadows and the highlights. While with women, he would bring the face to attention and usually the light will be pointed directly at their knee, not pointed upward toward their faces. That would give the face a little glow from the light, no shadow would form on their face, thus highlighting the eyes and make them more vibrant and alive. Posing the model to a certain angle will create depth and adds more to the dynamics of the photo.

Credits to Monte Zucker, http://www.montezucker.com