I took this photograph in response to Michelle Sank’s image of the two elderly figures. I decided that I was going to photograph my parents in a similar way, however, in a different area. An area where they both spend most of their time together. The garden was handmade, from the benches to the tables, the cooker, shelter, planting area and floor. This is another element that I really like about this image and I think that it is very powerful because it shows how things have become damaged and used. The wear and tear over the years has never been fixed and rarely nothing has refurnished. This is very important to me as it is the home that I grew up in, one which my father practically built.
The image was taken spontaneously and in my opinion, I think that it has made the image more powerful. I was arriving home with my camera as they were chatting away, they both stopped what they were doing and became distracted by the camera for a split second. The image was taken with a faster shutter speed and so it is all in clear focus. I wanted to make sure the photograph was all in focus as everything in the garden has it’s own story and builds up to my childhood. The red bags in the front of the image have wood inside them. I had just brought these bags home for my father to make us food on the grill outside while my mum used the cooker. This image made me realise that my father could potentially have built all these old fashioned styled things in order to bring our culture back into our home.
The colours in this image are very saturated and I did this to show the colour in our lives and the festive feeling of the portuguese culture. I also did this because I love the idea manipulating the colours in an image to give them a meaning. In this case, the brightst colours are red, green, blue, yellow, and white. All of these colours are in the Portuguese flag and therefore I though it would be a good idea to bring these colours out as much as possible.
I also noticed a similar pattern in Mahtab Hussain’s images and therefore wanted to ideas of my chosen photographers into one photograph.
I chose this image because it was brought to my attention that Michelle Sank mainly photographs younger people in their bedrooms. Bedrooms full of posters and alternative colours, non of which are the same. The images were of more messy rooms and typically unique for every individual. I used this photograph as a visual inspiration because it was different from all the other images produced by Michelle Sank, I think it is a very powerful image with a lot of meaning behind it, from the colours, to the positioning of the subjects.
It shows an old couple sat the end of their bed in a very clean and tidy bedroom. They are also well dressed which may hint that they belong to the upper-middle class. There is a lot of daylight coming through the window behind and to the left of the camera creating a shadow on the other side of the bed. Overall, there are not too many shadows and the photograph is very bright with high exposures, as shown on the corner of the bed where only white can be seen.
Followed by a light tonal range and there is a lot of repetition in the colour range; beige, yellow and whites. This makes the photo very warm which could potentially reflect on the personality of these two elderly figures, expressing love and warmth. The image is unsaturated and consists of low contrasts. However, it still remains sharp, clear, and all small textures (i.e. the carpet) are enhanced. The photo also seems very empty, other than the very limiter furniture seen and the fluffy toy on the bed, there is not much story to the image. Of what is seen, we can say that this old couple live on their own and the emptiness in their room can also indicate sadness. Both figures are making subtle physical contact where they are both resting their hands on each other, showing affection and unity.
To begin editing I needed to organize all my material to make it easier to edit my photos into gifs. I used Adobe Lightroom because it has more editing features that best fit the way I need to edit. My plan is to make gifs from my photoshoot of each movement my subjects made while talking, so I have to edit photos in groups according to what movement they belong to. I grouped all pictures of one movement into one folder after sorting through my usable and non-usable material. After putting my gifs/movements into separate folders, I would highlight all the pictures from one folder so my editing would be synced. This meant every change I would make to a photo would be applied to all. This allows the final gifs to flow, especially when using the the cropping tool, with every frame matching the same editing style.
syncing photos
First I cropped the photos. I used the rule of thirds grid to adjust the position and focus of my subject in the photographs. I want the viewer’s eyes to adjust to my point of focus straight away when they look at my work. I decided on each point of focus for each set of photos by picking out the most interesting movement of my subject, no matter how subtle it is – the point of my project is pointing out the smallest or most interesting characteristics of animation in individuals that would otherwise go unnoticed during one’s everyday interaction with other people. The picture below is an example of hand movement. I made sure the point of interest was where the intersection of the horizontal and vertical lines were.
cropping
I originally edited my photos by draining some of the colour out of the picture, by reducing the saturation then warming up the image with yellow tint. I then decided that the image needed to be sharper in tones and contrast to make my points of interest stand out more so I decided to edit my images black and white. This references artists I have looked at like Edweard Muybridge but also, creates more definition in my photo. I think the photos need that definition and contrast in tones because the elements of a person’s being that I am trying to capture are already subtle. This means that my whole subject will stand out from their background rather than blend in and for example, in this photo, her hands are more prominent and forward from the background.
I also experimented with more extreme cropping to see how effectively I could draw attention to her hands, always keeping her hands within the intersections of the rule of thirds cropping guidelines. I quite like the contrast of extreme crops and close ups and the full picture, as if its showing the analysis of her movement and gestures that otherwise becomes elusive in the whole picture.
GIFS
After I had finished editing each of my pictures from Adobe Lightroom ready to create into gifs, I moved to Adobe Photoshop, because it provides the feature of creating ‘Frame Animations’. To create a gif in Photoshop, I first imported one group of photos from my photoshoot into a stack. This means I can upload multiple photos into one document in layers. To create a gif from a selection of photos, they need to be in one document in the form of layers. After clicking ‘create frame animation’, you have to make frames from layers like a filmstrip. In order to keep my animations in a full loop, I copied the frames I already had and pasted them after the original frames so there were two sets. While the second set of frames were still highlighted I reversed the frames so instead of my gifs cutting at the end and restarting from the beginning, making it seem as though the animation is jumping from the finish back to the start, it instead reverses the movement, then goes back to the start.
uploading files into stack
frame animation
make frames from layers
copy and paste
final gif
LAYERING PHOTOS
I wanted to experiment editing my photos like Etienne-Jules Marey. Marey edits his photos in layers, so one movement made up of many different images is shown in one still image.
Image by Etienne-Jules Marey
I Layered images by simply changing the opacity every layer in my document to 50 percent. I then decided to hide some of the layers because there were so many, you couldn’t see the other layered images underneath. I could also select layers that had more of a drastic change in movement and changed the opacity again of the remaining layers. Opacity ranged from 90% to 10% so some of the images wouldn’t be lost behind multiple layers. The picture below is an example of subtle movement; you can only noticed multiple nostrils.
adjusting opacity
selecting hidden layers
layered imag
STRIP SETS
My last technique in editing was arranging a set of photos into a strip, imitating a film strip. This layout of images make it clearer to see movement and displays each picture in one as a still, allowing the viewer to take in each change of movement. I created this by expanding my canvas size. Doubling height and extending the width.
During the ‘variation and similarity’ projects I’ve taken inspiration from many different sources and developed my images over time to create a final piece that I am please with. Originally had looked at photographing front doors however I feel that it was not interesting enough so pursued car boots, taking inspiration form Huang Qingjuns ‘family stuff’.
My initial idea was to show just ‘Variation and similarity’ between peoples belongings and create a Typology such as bag belongings of individuals to give an insight to their lives. After experimenting with this I then decided to visit a car boot to take images of peoples belongings, however I decided to take pictures of each person with their stall as it would tell the viewer more and allowed a contrast of who they were to who they are now, by comparing them to their belongings they were hoping to sell. After this I decided to pursue this idea. At the start I was still planing on making a typology but I felt the photos were better suited to individual or a few prints displayed at a time. I took inspiration for this from Haung Qinjun’s ‘family stuff’. My initial response laid down the ground work for my project and my final pieces. I then experimented with GIFs, Typologies and Layering to further develop my work.
To conclude I believe that I have successfully followed the exam brief and the theme of Variance and Similarity’ which can be seen in my final outcomes. This is shown in the comparison between the photos with the common features of a car and a table. The comparison is aided by framing them together which allows the images to compared by the viewer. Therefore the projects follows the theme.
I feel all of my final out comes are Aesthetically pleasing, which I have created by capturing the images and editing them. All my images were taken outside with natural light, which ensured natural lighting which allowed the natural shadows and contrasts to show in the photographs, as well as a wide tonal range. The contextual idea behind my work was to provide an insight to people how they were compared to now. This shows through well in my work due to the images nature and allows comparison
For my third shoot I used the same location so my photos appear more seamless when looking at my project as a whole. I also made sure to shoot around the same time of day as my previous shoot so the natural lighting was the same. This was around midday which gave me the maximum amount of lighting allowing my photos to come out clearer. This also kept similarity of my subject’s shadow, a subtle aspect that would of made the two shoots significantly different when editing and tying all my photos together. My second subject was more expressive with hand gestures, allowing me to capture sets of pictures just focused on the hands. Throughout my shoot I tried to capture my subject from different distances, from long shots to extreme close up’s of my subjects face to capture movement in facial expressions. One set back while capturing face expressions was the intensity of light. This meant that my subject was squinting from the sun and making her facial expressions less and more rigid. I managed to capture everything I set out to achieve and hopefully the editing process will be the same as I intend.
The point of my project is pointing out the smallest or most interesting characteristics of animation in individuals that would otherwise go unnoticed during one’s everyday interaction with other people. My plan for my photo shoots is to record different subjects when they talk walk and sit. The idea is to capture the mannerisms, gestures and facial expressions that a person makes while they interact with someone. The movements that people make are not consciously done. Instead, the movements a person makes are developed over time from mirroring people they are repetitively around and from self expression.
Following up on my first shoot, I devised a photo shoot that captured the movement of walking, talking and sitting. I set up my subject against a plain wall and asked them to speak about anything they liked. I made sure I engaged in the conversation to keep their movement fluid in terms of mannerisms and facial expressions. At the beginning of the shoot, getting my subject to speak and act naturally was hard because I wanted to capture their movement in its rawest form; the subliminal movements and characteristics everyone performs. I made sure I eased them into conversation to help them forget they were performing in front of a camera and to avoid forced movement or no movement at all. This was hard because of the nature of my concept and the shoot. By putting a camera in front of my subject it made them suddenly aware and conscious of their way of being and how they moved when interacting with someone. The same issue applied to getting my subject to walk and sit as the camera served as a reminder that I was recording their movement, which applied pressure of containing their natural state of being as they were aware of every movement they made that they usually wouldn’t be aware of. These issues eventually resided but watching someone conscious of their movement was as interesting as when they aren’t conscious of it.
For this I have experimented with layering. To do this I have tried to create a new image by layering other images on to of each other, aligning the face to try and make a new one with the characteristics of the other people. by doing this I feel I have created a new story for a new person.
I found inspiration for this from Lewis Bush’s project in jersey ‘Trading Zones’. which he did for the faces of employees at financial buildings in jersey to see what the average person looked like at each firm. By doing this I believe you can find the average look of a person at the car boots.
For the presentation of my final photographs in my exam the first frame up I will be presenting will be an A3 and two A4 photos framed together. I believe that this is an effective way to display my photos as it allows the viewer to compare these similar, and busy, stores. I have used similar methods to display my photographs on past projects and think that is a good display. I believe that this represents the ‘Variation and Similarities’ theme well.
For the second image I have displayed it by its self. I feel that this is a good way to display it as its quite minimalist Photo which tells you a lot about the person who is also quite minimalist, wearing block colour clothing. By putting this image by its self it enhances the minimalist feel which I believe is quite visually pleasing.
For my final image I have put two images one on top one the other. I believe this allows the viewer to compare the two images on this display such as a difference between what the young own compared older generations. By comparing the images I believe that this follows the ‘Variations and Similarities’ theme.
