David Hamilton, the British fine art photographer & the author of numerous creative fine art photography books & fine art projects like The Age of Innocence, The Young Girl, Tender Cousins, A Place In The Sun & a lot more. David Hamilton’s projects focus on tender subjects and treaded a very fine line between fine art photography and romanticism (though this objective has been questioned & debated).
David Hamilton’s career was controversial & also had a lot of social issues in his life & career, leading to a horrifying death by suicide. Though they might be relevant to judging a person, my article in the Opium of Art series is focused on the creative artistry of this photographer.
The creative artistry comes from a very unique look of his photographers. An almost impressionistic appearance that created a halo effect. His photographs appeared to have been snapped as if through a hazy mist. This soft focused, diffused style later came to be known as “Hamilton’s blur”, as if he shot his photos through a lens smeared with Vaseline – a common technique used to create the diffused effect.
David Hamilton also photographed landscapes, still life & nature apart from his usual subjects of portraiture of young women & employed this painting like impressionistic artistic techniques in almost all of them. Describing his creative artistry style, New York Times photography critic Gene Thornton wrote in 1978 “through a shimmering haze of delight, half fatherly, half loverly, as shy, enchanting creatures who live in a world that is several degrees removed from real life.”
Many photographers are known to have worked on similar soft-focus, hazy, dreamy photos that almost gave a very delicate & almost romantic touch, including Ansel Adams (who soon gave up this pictorial approach in favor of sharp & high contrast large format landscapes).
There are numerous techniques by which you can achieve this on films – by smearing a UV lens with gel or Vaseline, using a white translucent glass or plexiglass in front of the lens, using a stocking or muslin cloth over the lens etc.
The simplest technique though is to use a diffusing filter on your lens. When used correctly, this will create an overall halo & soft look. Digital techniques are extremely simple – any photo editor can create a Gaussian blur on your layer and create a very similar dreamy look.