The work of Coplans is similar to the work of Tim Booth in ‘A Show of Hands’ in which he photographed portraits of subjects through their hands to show an insight into the subjects lives and professions through markings and objects related to the subjects’ lives, such as a chess piece for Lord Carrington’s portrait. Booth’s work explores the body in detail in the same way that Coplan does and brings emphasis to the small details and flaws within the human body and celebrates the details that make everyone individual. Both photographers also use a black and white filter in order to highlight the blemishes and veins rather than the viewer focusing on colours. These projects fit into the theme of ‘Variance and Similarities’ because they look at how each individual has unique marks, likes and shapes within their body that makes their body individual and unique to them – these may be features that the owner of the body believes is private to them or may be individual but obvious lines such as a person’s fingerprint. I believe that this is what Coplans is trying to show through his focus on his body; he wants to show that everyone has flaws and quirks in their body and they should embrace these individualities rather than feeling ashamed because of them.
My approach in responding to these two artists involves inspiration from both of them as I use Coplan’s idea of creating something unfamiliar out of a familiar subject with Booth’s focus on using the hands to tell a story. The result of a mix of inspiration from Coplans and Booth is an abstract and close-up view of the features within a hand which displays the individual characteristics and tones within them.
Contact Sheet
Edits
After creating contact sheets of the photographs produced on the shoot I carried out editing on these photographs by first choosing a smaller selection of photographs that best fit the aim of the shoot to create abstract photographs showing the creases and marks in a hand. Next I edited features such as contrast and brightness to ensure that the photographs were technically correct and to make the photographs more dramatic in order to bring out the tones and shadows. After making the small selection I cropped each photograph in a way that creates an abstract competition of a subject that is so familiar to everyone on the Earth. This close-up approach means that the features can be focused on in more detail rather than focusing on the hand as a whole.
Typology
As these photographs are all so similar yet so different I thought it would be appropriate to display the photographs in a typology grid. This typology grid allows for the photographs to be compared side by side to create contrast between them as well as highlighting different parts and lines within the hand. Different parts of the hand are clearly photographed here and show how a hand can vary and how different areas are completely different to eachother although it also shows the similarity between them as a common theme in hands are the creases and lines throughout it.
Both Coplans and Booth produced their work in black and white as they believed this allowed the marks, blemishes and lines in the hands to be focused on rather than the colours within it. I agree with this statement but in this instance I believe that the warm skin tones in the hand creates more contrast and familiarity in the compositions as well as being more aesthetically pleasing. I think that producing these photographs in black and white take away from the human element of the photographs as the skin tones give a hint that the photograph shows hands.
GIF
Another effective way of showing the variance and similarity between the hands is through a GIF – this allows the photographs to be shown as glimpses meaning the viewer can see the initial shapes and details within the photographs but has to watch the GIF over and over in order to be able to see the deeper details and to establish differences between each photograph.
Analysis
To capture this photograph I used artificial light from a lamp positioned to bring out the shadows on the hand. This use of light to create shadows has led to an increased contrast within the photographs as well as a wider range of tones as the lighter parts of the palm contrast against the dark shadows. I used a deep depth of field to ensure that all of the details and marks in the hard were clear and in focus for the viewer and so further emphasising them. I used a shutter speed of 1/60 with an ISO of 640. The ISO used is fairly high but it has not had an effect on the photograph as it is noise-free, the shutter speed of 1/60 allowed the photograph to be correctly exposed by allowing enough of the artificial light from the lamp to enter the lens. There is a warm colour cast to the photograph due to the naturally warm colour palette of the human hand – this warm colour palette creates a feeling of familiarity within an unfamiliar composition.
I had experimented with presenting this photograph in black and white in order to allow the lines and creases of the palm to be further emphasised but after experimenting with this I felt that the warm flesh colour was important to the composition as the familiar feeling that it creates contrasts with how abnormal and unfamiliar the composition. There is clear texture throughout the photograph as the crease lines as well as dry skin can be seen in the palm of the hand – there is also reflection of light on the hand from oil/sweat as the photograph is so close up. Due to the artificial light use there is a 3D effect to the photograph as parts of the hand are clearly bundled up and brought closer to the camera, casting shadows onto the rest of the palm. There is no pattern or repetition within the photograph – only lines running throughout it in random directions. This lack of pattern and routine shows how random and unique the features of the hand can be.
This photograph is from a shoot that takes inspiration from artists John Coplans and Tim Booth who have both explored the human body in differing ways. This is my response to their work and aims to show how all hands are similar in the sense that they have fingerprints, crease-lines, markings and blemishes but they are all completely different as everyone has unique fingerprints, size of hands and marks or scars from past events. The features of hands can often be used in fortune telling to tell the future of someone, such as how long their life span will be, through certain lines in the hand – although this may not be an entirely legitimate thing, it shows just how unique and different each hand is.
