David Benjamin also plays a key part in my influences, for without him, I probably wouldn’t have come up with the base layers for my images and the colour balancing I used on all of them.

I colour balanced each layer using yellows and reds, each layer dedicated to one of the categories, Shadows, Midtones or Highlights.

It is a similarity and a difference between our work, as I filtered 3 images where as he uses only one singular image, and also I used all parts of the colour balance where as he only uses the midtones on a black and white image to adapt the images without darkening or lightening the images too much.

This is a black and white image taken by Erwin Blumenfeld in 1939 showing a model wearing a long dress and hanging onto the Eiffel Tower, the composition on this image is very well thought out, the city of Paris stretching out into the background shows the detail on the buildings at the bottom of the photo and the vastness of the city as you look up the image. Although we can only see a small section of the Eiffel Tower in the right corner of the image we can still tell what it is due to its iconic structure, the geometric shapes and bold lines also act as leading lines in the image leading our eyes up and towards the models stretched out arm. The geometric shapes in the structure are echoed in the model’s long tartan dress which is flowing in the wind. The photographer could have been trying to communicate the idea of freedom and sublime in this photo, with the scene from way above the city it almost gives the idea of separation from the busy life on the streets bellow. The image has two opposing elements, the industrial look of the metal structure and the natural and soft look of the women and her dress, these two ideas are also reflected in the vast scene of the city bellow which I shown from a unique perspective. We are used to seeing images of cities from ground level looking up portraying them as busy, big and important however this image unusually does the opposite.

The women in this photograph is Lisa Fonssagrives, a Swedish model known as the first ever supermodel, she was born in 1911 and was trained as a dancer and sculptor. In 1936 she was first photographed and due to her natural elegance ability to be comfortable in front of the camera. These photos were sent to Vogue who then invited her for more test shots. Over the next tree years she continued to work as a model becoming one of the most sought after models at the time, featuring on many magazine throughout her career. The photo was taken for Vogue for the 50th anniversary of the tower dress by Lucien Lelong. In the 1930’s a new style of women’s magazine was emerging, it focused on female beauty. This photo was taken just before France was occupied by the Germans in WW2 and could reflect the last moments of freedom before Paris was occupied.

Inspired by Michael Marten I have responded to his work by selecting a location and photographing it at low tide and then returned at high tide to take photos in the same position. I feel as if I have displayed a clear understanding of his work through my responses and there is a strong correlation between the images seen above. Without taking Martens image into consideration it appeared we had a similar composition and framing by using the leading line of a man made structure. I like the sense of urban vs rural within this image and the metaphor that the tide could be suggesting that the urban landscape is invading the rural world. There is also an incorporation of the changing light and how it differs at different times of the day. I like how this change in light and tidal movement is directly compared from the same angle at a different time. Usually these changing matters cannot be seen without a photographic/video evidence of it. This stimulates the ideas about what we cannot see in our reality and has these deeper meanings about our perception. This links to the contextual research i have collated about metaphysical and the several theories suggesting whether things exist in our mind or exist independently. I like how within Martens image he has divided the horizon directly through the middle of the image which is similar to Sugimoto’s sea scapes project. I think when I complete my next shoot in this style i will aim to try and take some photos with this incorporation which will link my two artist studies together.