After completing a series of shoots displaying the depiction of light I wanted to give a direct comparison of how the light alters a landscape and changes our perspective. I thought the best way to do this was to construct a variety of typologies to give a direct and easy comparison of this change. I feel as if this typology method would give an easy understanding for the viewer to see how the landscape can be transformed by these external factors such as light and how it creates a different mood and feeling. To progress further I want to create larger typologies with around 16 images however i need to undertake some more shoots in order for this to be successful. I think this experiment would also work effectively with my images that show a change in water height as the comparison is easily distinguished. All of the typologies below focus on the depiction of light however there is one which shows the power of the ocean shown from a variety of perspectives. I thought it was interesting how the waves look so different from different angles and focal lengths yet they’re essentially the same thing.
Guillaume Amat used old archival images from world war two and went to the locations where they were taken. He then digitally manipulated the images to add the archival images the into the same place in the image where they originally were. I believe he made this set of images as a reminder to people what happened in the war and how the scars of war are still there if you look hard enough.
This is work have recreated from my own images of the sand dunes and archival from the J.E.P archive. I chose the sand dunes (Blanches Banques) as my chosen area as it was used as a prisoner of war camp in war world two. I edited the images in three different ways: The first was in the style of Guillaume Amat’s images, where he roughly blends the two images together. In the second I laid the the old image over the new images with no manipulation to show the whole of the second image. The in the last of the experiments, I superimposed a frame around the archival image like my previous shoot but without the use of a model holding the frame.
Photoshoot Plan: I want to take some simple portraits to edit in the style of Nigel Tomm, I have already looked at his work and the concept behind it using found images from magazine to manipulate the stereotypical ideals of beauty conveyed. I now want to take my own photos which I can edit in a similar way and experiment further with. As a starting point I want to take photos on a plain white background in the style of a model headshot focusing of facial features and angles. I want to use bright natural light to illuminate my models face evenly, the model will be wearing neutral colours which will match the colour scheme.
I am happy with how this shoot turned out, not all of the photos will be able to be used after going through the images I am confident I will have enough to start experimenting with. The lighting on the day was extremely bright, this gave the images a nice glowing colour however it made harsh shadows caused my model squint in some photos. My favourite photos from this shoot are the ones taken from a side angle with the model looking at the camera directly, the one of the model looking back over her shoulder follows a traditional style of female beauty. It gives a feminine, gentle look to the image which can not be achieved as well by portraits taken at a straight on square angle. Many of the images i found in magazines were taken at this angle and i wanted to replicate this in the images I take.
Martin Parr traveled to the Tokyo subway photographing sleeping commuters, many of whom travel for hours every day. Photographed from above, the 24 colour images give the impression that one is standing on a busy commuter train looking down at those lucky enough to get a seat. I have chosen to research this photographer and this particular project of his because it relates well to both my own project idea and the exam title variation and similarity. With my idea to create images using buses as my transportation and location this project gave me some inspiration to think about different ways that i could include variation and similarity within my idea of taking photos from the bus, with this in mind I got the idea to get the variation in my project from photographing a variety of bus routes in different ares, and also at different times of the day, creating the similarity within the photos by always taking the photos from a bus, just like Martin Parr created all these photos on the subway. Whilst looking at Martin Parr’s work I also came across another of his projects which linked well to my project, ‘The Last Resort’, a series of images created between 1983 and 1985 at the seaside in New Brighton.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
GB. England. New Brighton. From ‘The Last Resort’. 1983-85.
Between 1938 and 1941, Walker Evans took his camera underground, where he photographed subway riders in New York City. In order to discreetly capture these candid Subway Portraits, Evans came up with an undercover method of taking photographs. He concealed his 35-millimeter Contax camera by painting its shiny chrome parts black and hiding it under his topcoat, with only its lens peeking out between two buttons. He rigged its shutter to a cable release, whose chord snaked down his sleeve and into the palm of his hand, which he kept buried in his pocket. For extra assurance, he asked his friend and fellow photographer Helen Levitt to join him on his subway shoots, believing that his activities would be less noticeable if he was accompanied by someone. With these methods, Evans managed to capture people immersed in conversation, reading, or seemingly lost in their own thoughts and moods. His subjects’ faces display a range of emotions. He also succeeded in accomplishing a difficult challenge in making truly unposed portraits.
After looking at Rinko’s work I found that she focused a lot on the nature and things that weren’t manmade and had appeared naturally. So I thought that it would be best to do this shoot in a woods, however on the day that I was planning to do the shoot the weather was very over cast. So if I had gone to the woods it would have been very dark, which isn’t what I wanted. So instead I went to Queens Valley Reservoir which is very open had has no trees covering it, the light here wasn’t that good but it would have been better than what would have been in the woods.
As this shoot was meant to focus on photograph the small little things that I was normally pass by without thinking, it made me look at the environment surrounding me in a way that I’ve never seen it before. It made me slow down and really look around and appreciate the beauty of the things that were around me. I think that this shoot was successful, but I do wish that the weather had been sunny as I think that this would have enriched the quality images.
When looking at Rinkos work I found that it all has this style which, is very bright and light, so when it came to the editing process I wanted to experiment with this technique. But I still wanted the images to have their natural colours and not be too manipulated, so they still had this sense of pureness to them.
This was the first image that I took when doing the shoot, at first I passed by these bunch of roses that appeared to be dead on the side of the path. Because they looked like they had been stood on, but when I picked them up they were not destroyed at all. I thought that by having my hand in the shot gave the image a human touch which I really liked. To edit his image, I slightly increased the vibrancy of the image and increased the contrast to make the image more appealing. Lastly increased the lightnes of the image, this has given it this slightly hazy effect, I have dont this with all of the image from this shoot. I did this to keep the images to be in the style of Rinko work.
The below edits are the results of my shoot in which I photographed steel as a surface in order to capture its texture. I have layered the building face photographs from previous shoots over the steel photographs as a hint at how buildings such as office blocks are now being developed. In the top three edits I have made the composition by removing the natural frames from the photograph to reveal the scratchy steel texture in the background – I have done this previously to show granite and find that doing this with granite in the background looks much more effective due to the unpredictable shapes and colours within the rock whereas the steel is slightly boring and predictable. In the later edits I focused on creating them through using double exposure methods on photoshop – I edited the blending options to blend the two photographs together resulting in the building structures being clearly shown with the texture of the steel being shown at the same time to allow consistent contrast.
Analysis
When capturing this photograph I used the natural day light to capture the natural elements of the building face. Using natural daylight on the steel rod used for the background allowed for the reflections to be seen in the rod to add further contrast and tones within the photograph. The photograph is slightly overexposed but when layered over the darker steel it creates a composition that is abstract in which the overexposed building face does not look out of place. I used a deep depth of field when capturing the photographs used in this composition to ensure that all of the photograph was sharp and in focus. A shutter speed of 1/60 was used as well because the steel and building face were both still objects which didn’t require very fast shutter speeds – when this is paired with the low ISO of 200 used it allows for the best quality composition possible with the correct amount of light entering the lens from the surrounding area. The rust and reflection in the steel rod creates a slightly warm colour cast and creates on old-fashioned eroded feeling in the composition.
The black and white building face contrasts with the warm rust on the steel in a very complementary way as it creates a damaged dynamic to the photograph and really brings the texture of the steel to the forefront to create an interesting composition. There is a wide tonal range in the composition because of the reflections and scratches in the steel. The building face captured is a very flat one and so the photograph is very flat and two-dimensional – it almost looks like a screenprint. The photograph fits in with the rule of thirds as the building face merges into the steel rod on the top third of the photograph to create an aesthetically pleasing photograph along with the man-made shapes such as the windows.
This photograph is the result of an edit from a shoot focusing on the texture and properties of steel. The composition was made by blending together the face of a building and a close-up photograph of a steel rod. I have looked at contrasting man-made building faces with natural granite rock faces in my previous shoots. This has led to me thinking, as I was focusing on the material of granite, it may be interesting to contrast man-made structures with eachother by focusing on how the materials used to make houses have changed overtime. Traditionally granite has been used in Jersey but as office blocks, such as the international finance centre, have been developed there has been an increase in more ‘modern’ looking materials, such as steel. Therefore I have captured close-up photographs of steel objects to capture its texture, which by itself makes for quite a boring photograph, but I will experiment with layering the building faces over the steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon and because of its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, cars and other items. Since it is used so much in the world around us, as granite is, I believe that it is important for me to include the exploration of this material in my project. I plan on presenting these photographs in a typology grid or possibly as GIF’s in the future as well as creating more edits in a similar style.
This exhibition featured the works of Carinthia West, Mike McCartney and Rupert Truman. The exhibition explores Britain in the 1960s-70s when Rock and Roll made its revolutionary impact on music.
Carinthia West is a photographer and journalist, whose credits include Marie-Claire, Harper’s and Queen, Harper’s Bazaar, Tatler, the LA Weekly, The Independent, The Telegraph, Saga and US magazines, covering travel, lifestyle, humour and (her least favourite subject!) the celebrity interview. She has been friends with some of the 20th century’s greatest names from music, film and society. Anjelica Huston, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, Ronnie Wood, Robin Williams, Paul Getty Jnr, Neil Young, Helen Mirren, David Bowie, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon, James Taylor, King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan, are just a few of those she photographed at both casual and private, intimate and poignant moments in their lives.
Mike McCartney was born in Liverpool 1944, he is a British performing artist and rock photographer and the younger brother of Paul McCartney. He attended the Liverpool Institute two years behind his brother. He was a photographer during his entire musical career, and has continued with photography since then. Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein nicknamed him “Flash Harry” in the early 1960s because he was always taking pictures with a flash gun. He has published books of photographs that he took of The Beatles backstage and on tour, and he recently brought out a limited edition book of photographs he took spontaneously backstage at Live8. In 2005, McCartney exhibited a collection of photographs that he had taken in the 1960s, called “Mike McCartney’s Liverpool Life”, both in Liverpool and other venues, such as The Provincial Museum of Alberta. In addition, an exhibition book was published of the collection.
British photographer Rupert Truman began working with Storm Thorgerson in the late 80’s shooting most of the studios output. When Storm died in 2013 he left the StormStudios to Rupert Truman, Peter Curzon and Dan Abott. They have collectively created album covers for some of the most celebrated bands such as Pink Floyd, Biffy Clyro, Muse, Pendulum and The Steve Miller Band to name a few.
Mick Jagger ‘Diamond Smile’ Malibu, California 1976
My favourite image from this exhibition depicts Mick Jagger on Malibu Beach in 1976. The image is a black and white cropped headshot. Although simplistic, this image appeals to me as it appears relatable in that Carinthia West captures casual moments when spending time with her friends. The freedom of capturing with little time to compose or adjust settings gives the image a feeling of spontaneity. The image is also one of Carinthia’s favourite shots as a result of nostalgia:
“Not only does Mick look incredibly relaxed, but the day-old growth reminds me that he had probably been up all night, jamming with other musicians at Ronnie Wood’s Malibu Beach house. I took this shot in the early morning after one of these sessions. See if you can spot the diamond flashing in his smile.”
Biffy Clyro: Opposites 1, 2013
My least favourite image from this exhibition is the album cover of Biffy Clyro’s Opposites, produced by Rupert Truman. The reason I do not like this image as much as the others is due to the combination of reality and simulation, I cannot tell what is real in the image and what is fake. After researching the process, it becomes more clear. The cover is supposed to depict the oldest living tree in the world, located in Chile. Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil said: “I loved the original image of the tree, and I got thinking about how strong the roots must be, and how strong my band is”. They decided to include variations in the different albums by having two different locations with different objects hanging upon them: one to represent the interconnections of things – tree of life, positive – and one to represent the disconnectedness – tree of death, negative. So, mirrors which reflect, and scissors which sever. Biffy Clyro suggested the bones, to make a third variation. The tree had to be man made and taken to Iceland or it wouldn’t be the same tree on both albums. The hanging objects are central – many cultures have them – often called votive or wishing trees, intended to warn visitors of sacred ground or as offerings to appease the gods.
Pop Icons
The next exhibition we visited reflected on the Pop Icons of the 20th Century through British & American Pop Art, exhibiting artworks by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Peter Blake, Robert Indiana, Tom Wesselmann, Eduardo Paolozzi, Patrick Caulfield and Allen Jones.
Emerging in the mid 1950’s in Britain and late 1950’s in America, Pop Art reached its peak in the 1960’s and went on to become the most recognisable art form of the 20th century. It began as a revolt against the dominant approaches to art and culture and traditional views on what art should be
Young artists felt that what they were taught at art school and what they saw in museums did not have anything to do with their lives or the things they saw around them every day. Instead they turned to sources such as Hollywood movies, advertising, product packaging, pop music and comic books for their imagery.
Although they were inspired by similar subject matter, British Pop Art is often seen as distinctive from the American version. Early pop art in Britain was fuelled by American popular culture viewed from a distance, while the American artists were inspired by what they saw and experienced living within that culture. In the United States, pop style was a return to representational art (art that depicted the visual world in a recognisable way) and the use of hard edges and distinct forms after the painterly looseness of abstract expressionism. By using impersonal, mundane imagery, pop artists also wanted to move away from the emphasis on personal feelings and personal symbolism that characterised abstract expressionism.
Liza Minnelli, 1978
One of my favourite pieces from this exhibition was created by Andy Warhol. One thing I like about his work is his ability to choose the right colours depending on who he is portraying. Liza Minnelli was a friend of Warhol’s, even going on to create a collection of his works worth over $40 million. Her short black bangs, large dark eyes outlined with heavy makeup, and full lips painted a dark red stood out in the print even before they were transferred to silkscreen, which would simplify them even further.
One of my least favourite pieces is this portrait of Lily Langtry, produced by Peter Blake. As I was not familiar with the history of Lily Langtry, the meaning behind the image became less significant to me. However, after researching, I am now more interested.
Emilie Charlotte Langtry, nicknamed “The Jersey Lily“, was a British-American socialite, actress and producer in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Born on the island of Jersey, she was known for her looks and personality which attracted interest, commentary, and invitations from artists and society hostesses, and she was celebrated as a young woman of great beauty and charm. She was the subject of widespread public and media interest.
Being Human
The final exhibition showcases Feminism and represents the artwork of local female artists.
Maker’s Mark, Pippa Barrow
I liked this piece made from black stoneware, porcelain, iron fillings, glaze, stains and reclaimed ebony due to the meaning behind every feature. The idea for the piece originated from cave paintings and the innate desire to record one’s existence.
The 3 vessels represent 3 women in Pippa’s family, inlaid with symbols of love, life and loss. Above them, hangs a shower of hundreds of tiny ceramic fragments, marked unintentionally with the fingerprints of the artist as they pinched off pieces of clay.
The piece is heavily influenced by Barrow’s upbringing in South Africa, but also aims to represent the common human experience, in particular the limitations and expectations experienced by women of all ages and cultures.
One of my least favourite pieces was this one that looks to be either a biro, pencil or charcoal drawing. I am less interested in this piece as I have seen works like it before, even producing almost identical works myself in my GCSE Fine Art exam. This shows a lack of individuality, however the inspiration may explain the meaning behind it. Both drawings depict two hands pointing in opposite directions. This symbolises the inability for us as humans to co-operate with each other.
This shoot focuses on steel and its texture. I have looked at contrasting man-made building faces with natural granite rock faces in my previous shoots. This has led to me thinking, as I was focusing on the material of granite, it may be interesting to contrast man-made structures with eachother by focusing on how the materials used to make houses have changed overtime. Traditionally granite has been used in Jersey but as office blocks, such as the international finance centre, have been developed there has been an increase in more ‘modern’ looking materials, such as steel. Therefore I have captured close-up photographs of steel objects to capture its texture, which by itself makes for quite a boring photograph, but I will experiment with layering the building faces over the steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon and because of its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, cars and other items. Since it is used so much in the world around us, as granite is, I believe that it is important for me to include the exploration of this material in my project.
The pictures that I have captured in this shoot have focused on the texture of steel and have been captured with the intentions of using it in an abstract approach. The scratches and reflections in the steel create different shades and bring the texture out in the material so I believe that this approach may work well when it comes to using a double exposure approach. Please see my next post ‘Layering Building Faces Over Steel’ for the edits resulting from this shoot and analysis of the work.
Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. Today, Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on ‘Animal Locomotion’ in 1877-78. He used multiple cameras to capture motion and stop-motion photographs that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography. In the 1880s, he netered a very productive period at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, producing over 100,000 images of animals and humans in motion, capturing what the human eye could not distinguish as separate movements. He also edited and published compilations of his work, which greatly influenced visual arts and the developing fields of scientific and industrial photography. Muybridge became successful in photography, focusing principally on landscape and architectural subjects. He converted a lightweight carriage into a portable darkroom to carry out his work while he photographed the American west. Muybridge took enormous physical risks to make his photographs, using a heavy view camera and stacks of glass plate negatives. A spectacular stereograph he published in 1872 shows him sitting casually on a projecting rock over the Yosemite Valley, with 2,000 feet (610 m) of empty space yawning below him.
Muybridge in Yosemite Valley 1872
Eadweard Muybridge – Horse in motion 1886
The study is called ‘Sallie Gardener at Gallop’ or ‘The Horse in Motion’; it shows images of the horse with all feet off the ground. This did not take place when the horse’s legs were extended to the front and back, as imagined by contemporary illustrators, but when its legs were collected beneath its body as it switched from “pulling” with the front legs to “pushing” with the back legs.
In 1872, the former Govenor of California, Leland Stanford, a race-horse owner, hired Muybridge for some photographic studies to scientifically prove how horses moved during gallop. There had been debates about whether a horse were off the ground at the same time as trotting or galloping. Muybridge began to experiment with a range of 12 cameras photographic a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. The human eye cannot break down the fast movement of a horse trot and gallop. Up until this time, most artists painted horses at a trot with one foot always on the ground and at a full gallop with the front legs extended forward and the hind legs extended to the rear with all feet off the ground. Muybridge proved Stanford was right; horses have moments during their gallop where they are completely airborne however, Muybridge hadn’t quite perfected the process of capturing movement quickly.
Between 1878 and 1884, Muybridge perfected his method of photographing horses in motion, proving that they do have four hooves off the ground during their running stride. In 1872, Muybridge had settled Stanford’s question with a single photographic negative showing his horse trotting, also full airborne at the trot. Muybridge later made additional studies, as well as improving his camera for faster shutter speed and faster film emulsions. By 1878, spurred on by Stanford, to expand his experiments, Muybridge had successfully photographed a horse at trot. ‘Scientific American’ was among the publications at the time that carried reports of Muybridge’s ground-breaking images.
Disc for Zoopraxiscope showing the movement of a horse gallop
Stanford also wanted a study of the horse at gallop. Muybridge planned to take a series of photographs on June 15 1878, at Stanford’s ‘Palo Alto Stock Farm’ which is now the campus of Stanford University. He placed numerous large glass-plate cameras in a line along the edge of the track; the shutter of each was triggered by a thread as the horse passed [in later studies he used a clockwork device to set off the shutters and capture the images]. The path was lined with cloth sheets to reflect as much light as possible. He copied the images in the form of silhouettes onto a disc to be viewed in a machine he had invented, the ‘Zoopraxiscope’. This device was later regarded as an early movie projector, and the process as an intermediate stage toward the motion pictures of cinematography.
