I wanted to do an abstract light shoot, As I believe it is an explosion of an abstract chaos to life, and the world living around us. I originally Wanted to show this light shoot in two ways, more in a more planned and constructed shoot, creating specific patterns an movements. But for this first shoot I want to show the liveliness in the lights around us, and the world in which we live, This is due to the fact that our life experience is hectic and unplanned, this shoot is more real to that of create a more planned tablo shoot.
On this photoshoot I narrowed down the 400 images I took to 68 so I could look through them am pick which ones I like the most and the ones I want to be my final outcomes. On this shoot I focused on abstract shapes in some of the images and also took inspiration from the photographer Andrew S. Grey where he moves his camera when taking the images, to create a blurred effect which he takes inspiration from early english landscape painters. I think that some of the image I took whilst moving the camera were effective, but a lot of them weren’t as it was only the second time I have experimented with this technique. I chose the ones I thought were most effective and displayed them below. I also displayed the images where i focused on abstract shapes in a separate blog post that have bold solid colours. I separated this into two photoshoots so i could display my experimentation and edits with them and also because I thought that the images I took were completely different styles with different techniques.
Andrew S. Gray Interpretations
When taking these photos I found it hard to create goos compositions of the landscape as I couldn’t see exactly what the final image what turn out like until i had taken the image. This want had had to many different variations of images of the same angle to find a good composition. I also found it hard to fins the right shutter speed to use when photographing so experimented with a variety to find one to make the image blurry, but not so much that you can’t see the outlines of the shapes e.g plants and tress in the image.
I think that this image is a good example of this, as you can still see the outline of the tree on the right see of the image, the bright water, and the trees along the horizon. I also think that the colours in this image complement each other well with the bright pale blue on the water, with the variation of green tones from darker to lighter. I think that this is one of the better compositions i took in this shoot as it’s divided into section, all contrasting one another from the colours. I think that this represents the work of the photographer Andrew S. Gray well as I think resembles the work of early english landscape painters, where the blurred lines look like brush strokes of a paintbrush.
I think the this style of photograph greatly contrasts from the other photos i have taken in this project and portrays nature from a different perspective. Instead of the detailed, sharp, in focus photos i have previously taken where I focus on the outline and patterns, these images are blurred and in the moment shots. I think this gives them an effect like I have taken the photo as I’ve quickly passed the scene. I think that this linked to the photographer Rinko Kawauchi who i have previously looked at as she believes the fleeting nature of these dualities is what ultimately determines our fragile existence. I like how she photographs things that are ‘ephemeral’, that won’t last for long. I think this concept is represented in this style of work through the blurriness, creating movement and represents the ‘fleeting nature’.
I particularly like this image as I like how the lines from moving the camera are even more noticeable than in the other images. I think that this effect takes the bright and darks parts of the image more noticeable as they’re separated from the rest of the image. As the tree was in the foreground when the image was taken with a moving camera this part is more i focus than the background go the image where the trees are completely blurred. I like the colours that are i this image, as they range from brown to green to bright green which all complement each other and emphasise the effect of the natural landscape. I also like this composition the most out of all the images I took with this technique as it was hard to see where the different aspects of the image were placed in the frame. I like how the sections are created by the edge of the reservoir with the two trees in the foreground.
Work by AndrewS. Gray
I think i have successfully taken images taking inspiration from Andrew S. Gray where he creates camera in motion images. A technique called intentional camera movement mixed with various editing processes create his abstract landscapes. Some are recognisable vistas, whereas some form from feeling and emotion as if from a paint brush. I eel i interpreted his work well,even though i haven’t experimented with this technique a lot. This might explain why in some of his image there s more focus in some areas thelawdscape than other, through practising this technique Andrew S. Gray has developed his own style. In my images there are less areas in the landscape that are i focus. Also in Gray’s he emphasises light and reflections, and warm colours, especially in the image above. In my images I tried to emphasises the earth tones like green and brown as I thought the contrast between the sky and the green was effective.
I think that this photoshoot was good in developing the style of images I want to take in my project and allowed my to experiment with different camera techniques.
Experimentation
I wanted to try and experiment with different hues in the images to create more abstract appearance with bright bald colours. I edited the same image and created different variations with warming colour colours. This edit makes the image less identifiable as a natural landscape, making it more abstract as it hard to tell what it’s taken of. Some of the patterns and textures are still shown in he image, but the image looks unnatural through the bright colours that wouldn’t necessarily found in a natural landscape. I like these edits of this image, but think that my project will be most effective you can see more of the natural aspects the abstract landscape.
I also experimented by slightly adjusting the tones and colours in the image to more natural colours, so that the landscape is still recognisable. I think that these images are more effective for my project and touch on concept of spirituality through the blurred light lines on the landscape to me looks other-worldly, especially with the warm colours emphasised. I also think that these edits interpret the work of Andrew S. Gray more effectively sin many of his images he uses editing to emphasises the natural colours and brighter abstract colours to make the landscape stand out more. I found that liked to emphasise warm colours within his work which is what I tried to do in these experimentations. I also think that these works represent the of the early English painters more as the lines created by the movement of the camera is further emphasised by the shadows and highlights I emphasised.
Evaluation
I think that this shoot was successful in interpreting the work of Andrew S. Gray and in experiment with different camera techniques that I haven’t tried before. These photos are completely different from the detailed and focused images I normally take which is why I enjoyed this shoot as it allowed me to experiment with a different style of image. I also think allowed me in a different light, emphasising the ideas that things are ephemeral’, that won’t last for long emphasising the fragile existence of nature. I think these images link to this idea of fragile existence’ as the blurred effect makes the plants and natural objects seem momentary and delicate, which is an effect that wouldn’t be achieved through in focus images. In future shoots I want to link in humans to this existence and how they are connected.
I think that some of the final images from this shoot could be used within the final photobook and final images of this project as although they are different from my other images, they could create a different aspect to my work that makes my final project images more interesting.
Plan: capture images with varied colours, shapes and sizes.
Influential photographer: Siegfried Hansen
Contact sheet:
Edited:
Images analysis:
This images was taken in Barbican, London of an apartment complex, It was taken around midday under a cloudy influence of natural light. The images is very well composed with strong, even and symmetrical lines. This influence came from Siegfried Hansen and his photography using lines within the image. It shows an apartment complex, with barricades, that is yellow and white in colour. The barricades added an interesting pop of colour. I liked the look of the yellow and white together so i aligned the camera up to capture the building in an almost abstract way. Much like my photographer reference.
After further research, I have realised the strong connection between psychology and colour and therefore will associate psychological theories and therapies to my work.
In particular, Freud’s psychoanalysis theory which deals with curing people of their traumatic experiences and anxieties by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations.
This also links to the particular treatments that Freud used including the famous Rorschach test and dream analysis.
Concept: To capture any objects of a particular colour that stand out to me.
Lighting: I will walk around the area at night time so will have to rely on artificial light
Location: The area by my house
Camera Settings: Flash to expose the colour in objects. A larger aperture to allow in more light as it will be dark, however this will depend on whether the subject I am capturing is being lit up by artificial lights such as lamp posts.
The term psychogeography was invented by the Marxist theorist Guy Debord in 1955. Inspired by the French nineteenth century poet and writer Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the flâneur – an urban wanderer – Debord suggested playful and inventive ways of navigating the urban environment in order to examine its architecture and spaces.
“the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.” – Guy Debord
Guy Debord, Guide Pychogéographique de Paris
As a founding member of the avant-garde movement Situationist International, an international movement of artists, writers and poets who aimed to break down the barriers between culture and everyday life, Debord wanted a revolutionary approach to architecture that was less functional and more open to exploration. The reimagining of the city proposed by psychogeography has its roots in dadaism and surrealism, art movements which explored ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination.
One of psychogeography’s principle means was the derive, or drift, defined by the situationists as the ‘technique of locomotion without a goal’, in which ‘one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there’. The dérive acted as something of a model for the ‘playful creation’ of all human relationships.
Psychogeography gained popularity in the 1990s when artists, writers and filmmakers such as Iain Sinclair and Patrick Keiller began using the idea to create works based on exploring locations by walking.
Patrick Keiller’s 1994 documentary, ‘London’ consists of many simplistic shots that acknowledge the often unnoticed scenes of London.
For the following edits below, I wanted to concentrate on developing images which are more within my new themes of the evolution of life seen through religion, but presented in the silver and black tonal range. So I re-edited some photos from my previous haiku shoot that are the most relevant to that of my new narrative. I used the previous edited process of turning to black and white, flattening, inverting the images and then further editing that is the most appropriate for the specific image itself. I chose images which are more abstract, however, Connoting more themes to do with life and birth, so closer to the beginning of the book itself. Due to me knowing I wanted to create a book from the beginning, I am slowly adding in my images, in order to start creating a successful narrative. At the beginning of my book it is all about, birth, creation, innocence and nature, looking conceptually about the narrative and growing of life itself. I want my images much like the artists’ I am inspired by, To attract that abstract vision of the wonderment of life. I want the images to be more conceptual so they allow a subjectivity of others putting their own meaning onto the images themselves. Overall I believe so far there is a real delicacy within the narrative of the book and a true beauty. My book will be much longer than my previous, as I want each page to have an image, alongside this, I want the narrative itself to be long, to almost keep a true sense of time of life.
Within these book page developments, you are able to see me adding in four shoots, haiku, water refection, macro and abstract light shoot. All of these show a re-birth and smallest details of beauty, this experience of life creates a sentimentality of love and desire for the world. I belive with the many more images I wish to take My work should really show an evolution of life. When further looking at the book development itself, I wanted to make sure I was thinking of each images tonal capabilities. Many fo the images are more inverted than others, and I do not want two very light images next to each other, I wanted a passing of colours narrative throughout. Another area I need to consider, Is where and how I should add in portraits in the best flowing manner, to fit in with the primarily object and landscape oriented book.
To my mind this shoot is much more successful edited into a more sophisticated black and white, it allows a focuses on the actual construct of the image itself, and shows a more successful narrative for the book as a whole concept. With this project I really wanted to create something which I have never focused on previously, Because of this, every page is a development of life having a narrative, which I have never done previously within my photography, Too in this project it shows a more conceptual view of how to take photos, showing themes other than surrealism of the use of props and tablo shots.
During my first shoot I will try to capture images that explore colour in landscapes and objects.
Image analysis:
This image was taken in liberty warf and it was taken under the influence of artificial lighting from the electric lighting on the roof. I shot diagonally down to the right to capture the feeling of depth in the image, This makes the shapes in the image more interesting and full. In the foreground of the image is a bright red table i shot this as my focal point as it is so loud. Then in the mid ground are the multi colour tables and chairs. This fills the mid range will varied colours and shapes.
This image shows the variation and similarity between the sizes shapes and colours of the chairs because although they look they same each one is unique and important in the image.
As I stated in my project specification I intended to explore how Jersey’s trade has developed over time from past to present and then looking into future projections. As part of this I have gathered a selection of Archival Imagery from the Societe Jersaise Photo Archives that show forms of trade on the island from the past, which I am going to use in photo montages as a way of looking at the past of Jersey’s Trade with other places. These photographs were taken by four Jersey based archival photographers: Ernest Baudoux, Francis Foot, Percival Dunham and Albert Smith. These photographers documented the people, the buildings, events and just the general goings-on of the island in the late 19th and early 20th century. Percival Dunham was Jersey’s first ever photojournalist. In 1913 and 14 Dunham worked for Jersey Illustrated Weekly and then the Morning News, which was the main competitor for many years for the Evening Post which is now the Jersey Evening Post (JEP) which has now been Jersey’s only daily newspaper for several years. Ernest Baudoux was originally from France and worked in Jersey from 1869 as a portraitist, taking pictures of important islanders’ houses, he also took a large number of pictures documenting the outdoors of Jersey. Francis Foot had an interest in photography in the early 20th century after being born in 1885, his family were known as those who owned the HMV franchise for Jersey selling gramophones and records, notorious for its F.Foot HMV sign which has recently been restored in 2018. Some of Foot’s photographs were published as postcards around this time. But eventually the gramophone and record side of his business became more important and took over the larger shop in Pitt Street, where Francis was still selling records in the 1950s and 60s. The fact that this was the story behind Francis Foot is something which I believe nicely fits into this project as I have been looking at trade on the island.
