Digital photo manipulation – photography with an alluring difference

Oct 27, 2019 News

By Anasa Williams

Generally, people are accustomed to seeing photos in maybe a nature scene, at parties where one is caught off guard or even a planned and perfected model shoot. While all of these are great, there is a side to photography that not many people are exposed to. It’s called digital manipulation.

Shamer Hescott, the man behind some extraordinary digital photo manipulations.

According to Wikipedia, digital photo manipulation is transforming or altering a photograph using various methods and techniques to achieve the desired results.
There is a photographer in Guyana who is well known for such photography and this reporter recently caught up with him. What is interesting about this photographer is that he doesn’t only do this type of photography but he is self taught and very good at what he does.
Shamer Hescott is his name and he is a young man seemingly of few words but indeed a great deal of talent. Born in Antigua, Hescott migrated to Guyana with his parents as a baby since they both are Guyanese and since his birth has lived here.
It is easy to see that Hescott not only has talent, but charisma and style. Growing up in a home at Duncan Street Georgetown, he described his childhood as simple but comfortable as he was surrounded by a lot of love.
Even as a child, he had an eye for art and would look at things and sketch them. “I could say I drew a lot, I would watch at things and draw them. Unfortunately, times change and I don’t draw as much now,” he said.
School for him was pretty much like every other child but he had a bit of a shift in environment when he was transferred from the public to the private school system. “I transferred from a public school to a private one at the end of Third Form. It was at the private school that I became interested in doing graphics on my laptop,” Hescott recalled.
Hescott during his interview with me talked about his preference with his art and how he became interested in digital manipulations. Seeing his work one would want to surmise that he has a ‘doctorate’ in graphics.

Some of his handiwork

Upon inquiry, however, it was discovered that he had never studied art, photography or graphic designing for that matter in any way or form and has no plans to do so in the near future. This was clear when his replies to having studied and if he has any future plans to do so were “no and no”.
His love for digital art developed during his high school years when he saw a tutorial from a YouTuber in relation to using Adobe Photoshop. Since he was already doing graphics to an extent, this was an added bonus.
In the beginning, he was mainly recreating movie covers and after a lot of experiments and failures in between, now, several years later, the work he puts out is a result of raw talent and tons of YouTube tutorials.
“My first graphic piece was probably a recreation of a movie poster; however, I can’t remember exactly which one or where it is,” he sheepishly admitted. Ads and other digitally created pieces are part of his inspiration. Every time he saw something of that nature, he would ask himself: “how can I do the same?”
This was the driving force that fuelled his passion. “I’m inspired by a lot of things like art. I have several artists who I look up to in the same field of work like I do. I’m inspired by myself every time I create something new it inspires me keep getting better,” Hescott said.
A majority of Hescott’s work are themes applicable to nature and space; however, he comes up with ideas depending on his mood. “It’s like a mood thing. Like a theme I was going for when posting…”
People’s reactions to his work are mainly positive and Hescott certainly thrives on this positive energy. “People’s reactions are always positive and mostly amazed by the things I create,” he intimated. Many have concluded that being the type of person he is, it is expected that he will go on creating beautiful pieces, which helps to put smiles on the faces of many.
To see more of Hescott’s unique work that he is constantly posting, you can checkout his Instagram page @ShamerHescott.

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