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Analysis, Contextual Studies, Research

Variation And Similarity

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Regarding the topic titles given to us for our exam , variation and similarity, the use of these binary opposites imply something like a topography, where the different types of a specific object are photographed. To broaden my understanding of the words variation and similarity I will be exploring the meaning behind each of the words.

Variation (noun):

  • A change or slight difference in condition, amount, or level, typically within certain limits. ‘regional variations in house prices’.
  • A different or distinct form or version of something. “hurling is an Irish variation of hockey”.

Here are some examples of types of variation I could explore in future photography shoots: Some of the ideas above consist of variation such as buildings, animals, shops, lights, people, city landscapes, coast landscapes, natural environments and roads. All of these topics for me would be accessible to photograph in Jersey due to its wide range of varying landscapes. Personally the appeal of variation in animals for me would be the most effective, especially since Jersey has a world-renowned zoo that looks after endangered animals.

Similarity (noun):

  • The state or fact of being similar. “The similarity of symptoms makes them hard to diagnose”
  • A similar feature or aspect. “The similarities between people of different nationalities”

Like variations I will be exploring a few examples of types of similarities in photography to help broaden my perspectives regarding the topic. Here is a few images I have chosen to look at:Looking over the examples present the topics I found most interesting were comparisons between natural objects and the form of human bodies, natural objects and their influence of the man-made world and similarities between random objects and surrounding environments.

Overall I found the most appeal to come from variation of nature such as animals, and the similarities between random objects and the world around them. This is probably because of the huge variety of landscapes in Jersey which I could relate many objects and their uses too, linking it in with the different patterns that are present within these specific areas.

Analysis, Developing, Experimenting, Planning, Recording

My Response to Lewis Bush/Michael WOLF

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This shoot draws inspiration from Lewis Bush’s ‘Metropole’ as well as Michael Wolf’s ‘Architecture of Density’ and aims to show some of the repetition and symmetry in blocks of flats and offices whilst at the same time showing the difference in designs between buildings.  Going into this shoot I had the vision of photoshopping the photographs that result to create compositions that are full of patterns and are illusion-like.  Lewis Bush’s ‘Metropole’ came to me as an inspiration because it explores the fact that there are an increasing amount of large buildings for offices or flats taking away from green land and so the landscape in which we live is turning into a repetitive view of similar flats and offices leaving citizens with a feeling of monotony as everything is being redeveloped to serve the same purpose.  Bush’s work on ‘Metropole’ shows a lot of emphasis on the repetition between buildings and I have tried to replicate this in this shoot. Wolf’s work has inspired me as he essentially does what I am attempting to do in this shoot but on a much larger scale by photographing the density of high-riser apartments in Hong Kong.

One way in which I could develop on this shoot in the future is by looking at typology, which would involve me researching Bernd and Hilla Bechers, of high rise buildings in Jersey.  I could approach this by finding the 14 high rise apartment blocks in Jersey and photographing these in a similar style to this shoot and then creating a typology page of these different buildings.

Contact Sheet

Edited Photographs

After going through all of the photographs that I produced on this shoot I selected some of the best that I could edit.  I edited these photographs by putting a black and white filter on in order to allow the viewer to focus on the shapes within the photographs rather than the colour.  I then used a perspective crop on the majority of the photographs in order to make the photograph completely straight on in order to further emphasise the symmetry and patterns within the photographs.  As well as the black and white filter I increased the contrast, used high highlights and whites, used low shadows and blacks and adjusted the exposure accordingly to create a composition that is mostly over exposed but the features such as the windows are emphasised to help the shapes within the buildings to come forward.

Edits

After editing the individual photographs I brought the photographs into a blank photoshop document and duplicated it.  After the duplication I then messed around with the layout of the multiple photographs to create illusions that show lots of repetition and some symmetry.  The result is montages that emphasise in blocky shapes and use a black and white filter to bring contrast into the photographs.

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Analysis

I captured this photograph in a natural lighting in order to bring out the natural shadows and shapes within the building that I was photographing.  There is a wide tonal range due to both the nature of the building and my editing to the photograph.  The bright whiteness in the walls of the photograph contrasts greatly with the dark black shadows on the balconies.  I took this photograph on a bright day where there was plenty of sunlight so only needed to use a low ISO of 100 along with a shutter speed of 1/60 to capture this photograph.  The low ISO paired with the quick shutter speed allowed for the photograph to be as high in quality as possible as well as not being overexposed (even though I edited the photograph to increase the exposure.  I edited this photograph by using a black and white filter to bring out the shapes in the windows as well as the shadows and then I increased the contrast, highlights and whites whilst reducing blacks and shadows to create a composition that had high contrast between the black and whites.  A depth of field of f/16 was used to capture the photograph which can be seen as the whole of the photograph is in focus.  The photograph has a slightly cold colour cast to it due the bright whiteness throughout it.

I opted for a black and white filter over a colour photograph as it helped to bring out the details within the buildings, especially the contrasts as well as a wide tonal range to create a more dramatic composition.  Due to the deep shadows and edges within the photograph as well as the editing of the photograph the composition has a 3D effect as it appears to have different layers which bring the photograph to life.  There is also a lot of patterns and repetition within the photograph, which I aimed to create when setting out on this shoot.  I have placed the balconies on the two horizontal lines of the rule of thirds as I feel that they are the most interesting parts of the photograph so placing them along these lines creates a more interesting composition as well as helping with symmetry.

The aim of this shoot was to create a set of photographs that showed the repetition of shapes within blocks of flats and offices and how this repetition can be aesthetically pleasing.  The overall results shows how even though there is a lot of repetition within individual buildings, each building has its own unique characteristics and shapes and therefore have variance.  The inspiration for this shoot came from photographs of tall tower blocks in cities such as Hong Kong where each floor and flat are almost identical, which is perfectly demonstrated in Michael Wolf’s work as well as inspiration from Lewis Bush’s ‘Metropole’ in which he looks at the development of buildings through a double exposure technique to create a similar outcome to what I have done.

The concept behind this is that there are an increasing amount of these large and repetitive buildings that make way for office buildings or flats due to the ever rising population and urban migration.  The photographs resulting from my shoot show just how repetitive these buildings that are taking space from nature really are and reflect the idea that some residents may believe that the landscape of cities including Jersey is becoming repetitive and monotonous as lots of land is being taken to serve the same purpose of housing or offices.

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing, Evaluating

VARIATION AND SIMILARITY SECOND IDEA OF DEVELOPMENT

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Connecting onwards from the fine art side Similarly from the themes of William Ye, I want to focus on the themes of media, and that of chaos. Chaos formed off the premis of fake news, mass inflictions of terror, criticism of others, lack of trust and the lack of equality and accurate representation fo people. This is a large subdivision for a photography perspective, however, in this blog post I purpose to break down how I found these ideas step by step and the way they too successfully link to fine art.

when I was further considering the themes which are very influential within the media, I began to think distancing myself from more of the chaos, and into more of the long danger causes and pains which the media has causes. The mediation of images which only portray the same similar and very limited appearance to look a certain way, and question the extent, should we and are we expected to look and act the same? this leads me onto thinking that mediation and online influence and if it has led us to the destruction of our own minds and capabilities, due to us being stuck thinking and limiting ourselves to certain consciousness. The media subsequently is taking a percentage of our voice, it is regardless to the balance which we need, its such a staged development of the world, this lack of variation has really inflicted peoples opinions, and thirst for success and personal health and mental health issues within themsleves. Media produces a sense of importance around flaws, faults and criticism of ourselves and others. The power overs girls online is something which is unjust, it gives confidence to have less humanity, and allows groups of people to produce their own  acts of terror and chaos and target others, without the fear of prosecution. Coincidentally this presentation of power can too be linked tho the effect of DNA on people and what they do when they have power. These acts of people could also be used as an act of experiment to see prejudice, racism and discriminatory behaviour, and the scientific reasoning of why these actions are still occurring in 2019. However ‘new media’ is giving people their own large platform on social media states, such as instagram , these influences have the power to promote whatever product of system they want onto larger demographics. Their influence had the ability to change peoples perception of themselves as they have unconventionally large beauty standards. And make their young influential audience believe They should too aspire to look like them, despite even them not looking, or having a life that they are being convinced to want. However, the main primary purpose of media is to be an informative news source, and in order to educate people on real life events and happenings across the globe.  These current events are divided into political, social and cultural issues. Huge monumental political movements at the moment can be found within the discussion of fake news, me too, black lives matter, and general movements of feminism and the stretch for equality. However it is interesting the way the media presents each and every one of these subject matters, and which they deem to be more important than others. The media is a huge part of almost everyones everyday lives, because of tis it also successfully links into the study of each individuals everyday and what their actions do and what their consequences are like.

This then links to my next idea of expression of body and face and the relation and similarity seen between the stories and growth of a family. My final and third idea, links well again with the consideration of fine art, and political chaos, and it is the expression of body and face, and how we act towards and with our family, in groups of people. family is the first identity we are given, it is an almost extension of ourselves and who we are associated with for the first many years of our lives. Family is a primary example once agin our our DNA, and also a similarity we are also associated with having to others. Family should be a shared love of multiple support, however, I believe it is also a struggle of lifting and being there for each other. Family could be an investigation as to why and how forms and bonds are created, and more than just a genetic basis of variation .Artistic inspiration that I have found are the two following pieces, both link to the conceptions of media affecting out behaviour, genetics and have a fine art sentiment to them:

I chose this first piece as I belive it once again shows connotations to both a fine art element of abstraction and a clear artistic influence and quality to the photos. Secondly The element of community being all confined to one bonding image, and also how it forms a cohesion of family elements, and or a joined aspect of suffering in this case. It is a variation of a group of people experiencing the same effects of trauma. Additionally this trauma could have been caused by chaos within media. The effect of media fake news, and the reinforcing and constantly addressing of terrorism acts and focusing on the cruelties of the world, is what is seen within these images. A combination of individual views and variations on what they are seeing from the world. I love the effect that was used in these is, I believe it was over exposure, but covered In different fabrics and effects and then the image were near liquified, and formed into a more soft format of photos. 

I chose this image as inspiration, due to many media related images or influencer images being concentrated on photoshoots with females looking to be the main idea of beauty. However I thought this piece was interesting as the high fashion and fine art feel comes through the interesting composition of clothes, the circular shape shows a fluidity to the images, much like many of the artists I have previously spoken about studying, additionally. The face using the eye for direct contact shows a true reflection of herself. Overall I will use these two development ideas for the effect of: combining all fo my three main perspectives, and use this to combine into five staged shoots. to begin my project.

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing, Evaluating

Tim Booth

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Tim Booth, born in 1963, began his interest and work in photography when he started using his father’s camera at the age of eight.  Booth was inspired by travel and photography to spend several years shooting freelance photographs for a lot of UK weekend magazines as well as newspapers in Africa, Pakistan and South East Asia.  Booth has exhibitions shot all over the world, for example ‘Into the Light’ shot in Africa.  Booth’s work ranges from portraiture to landscape work.  He was been voted the ‘No. 1 Black and White photographer’ working in the UK today by OneEyeLand.

The book that brought him international recognition, which is also the piece of work that I am interested in, was ‘A Show of Hands’ which won awards.  The project spanned over twenty years and features hand portraits of hundreds of people whose hands are intrinsic to their contribution to the world – they show who they are and what they do.  Some portraits are of well-known celebrities and others are from working class people with everyday backgrounds.  Although there is a wide variety in people with their hands photographed,  all of the hands show an insight into the person’s lives and professions through the different markings, shaping’s, scars and lines.  The idea for this project came after he took a portrait of his 95-year-old grandmother’s hands – the photograph showed hands that had lives through two world wars, played the piano, went through art school, cared for the sick and played tennis for the county.  Booth said he was “sitting with my grandmother in her garden, and as always was struck by their arthritic pithiness.  The way they rested on her walking stick showing her wedding ring, so smooth against the rough skin, told a large part of her story”.  Booth says that it was his first ‘hands as a portrait’ and inspired him to carry out more hand portraits.  Booth decided that throughout the project he would shoot in black and white, in natural light and in half an hour wherever his subject found most convenient – I will also try to go by these standards as I seek to draw inspirations from this project.  Booth also says he has “always preferred black and white as a portrait medium.  It enables you to focus on all the detail and form, and not be distracted by skin colour, markers, blemishes and veins” which I completely agree with and believe that it will be vital in my response to this.  When picking his subjects booth would first think of a profession he wanted to feature and then who would best represent it.  In total there are about 115 pairs of hands in the exhibition telling hundreds of stories of people.

I have chosen to focus on hands, especially Booth’s “A Show of Hands” because a pair of hands tells multiple stories of a person’s life and who they are without having to show the features of their face, which many people may be insecure about.  I plan on responding to this work by producing close up photographs of hands in a similar way to Booth but without the props as I intend to create more of a typology style result with my response.  After the first initial response I may create further shoots in order to develop the idea by covering the hands in paints or inks in order to highlight the features within the hands and so a more interesting result.

Analysis

Booth would always use natural lighting in his hand portraits to create a type of photograph that allows the natural shadows and lines within the hands to be brought forward.  This photograph shows a very wide tonal range as there many dark tones throughout both the chess pieces and the crevices in the hands but at the same time there are contrasting light tones highlighted throughout the hand to create a strong contrast and therefore emphasise the features that Booth tries to capture within the hand.  This photograph has quite a lot of contrast due to this wide tonal range and is exposed just right to the point that this contrast in emphasised more.  A shallow depth of field was used to capture this photograph as can be told by how the hand is so sharp and in focus along with the chess piece that the hand is holding compared with the rest of the chess board in the background.  A low ISO will have been used in order to capture this photograph as the photograph is of very high quality – this low ISO paired with a shutter speed of around 1/60 allow for a technically correct photograph to be created.

There is no colour in this photograph – Booth has purposefully opted for a black and white colour scheme as he says he has “always preferred black and white as a portrait medium.  It enables you to focus on all the detail and form, and not be distracted by skin colour, markers, blemishes and veins”.  This rings very true in this photograph as it makes the details such as the veins and wrinkles in the hand pop in order to create a more interesting composition.  The black and white also allows the texture of the hands to come through more as well as the wooden texture of the chess pieces.  The wrinkled texture helps to create a 3D effect within the photograph, especially as the wrinkles begin to blur closer to the cuff.  The fingers and the chess piece sit on the bottom left cross-section of the rule of thirds and so create an aesthetically pleasing photograph as well as being technically correct.

This photograph is of Lord Carrington who is a renowned chess player.  Booth said that as soon as he got permission from Lord Carrington to carry out the shoot with him he knew that he wanted to bring an aspect of chess into the hand portrait.  Carrington and Booth sat in Carrington’s garden playing with different set-ups of the chess pieces and board eventually coming to a conclusion that they would move the Queen amongst the pawns as a joke as it is something a chess player would never do, especially someone of Lord Carrington’s level.  Booth would take these hand portraits on a Nikon F2 with a 55mm Macro lens on Tri-x (a grainy black and white film).  He set regulations within which he would work on this project – he would shoot in black and white, in natural light and in half an hour wherever the subject found most convenient.

When speaking on why Booth chose to focus on hands he said “My decision to focus on hands was also a deliberate choice. In a pair of hands you can see a whole life, a story if you will, that doesn’t require you to make a judgment about the person, which faces inevitably do.”  This statement can be clearly justified in this photograph as the chess gives an insight into what Lord Carrington does as well as the deep wrinkles and shapes within the hands showing the amount the he has lived through.  Booth aims to keep the photographs that he shoots simple; he says “I only have one goal really when shooting, and that’s to take a photograph that engenders a reaction in the viewer, making them not only remember the image, but want to see it again.”

Analysis, Research

ESA // Eadward Muybridge

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Eadweard Muybridge, originally Edward James Muggeridge, adopted his new name believign it to be the original Anglo-Saxon form of his name. He was born 9 April, 1830 and died 8 May, 1904. He was an English photographer, who was considered important for his pioneering work in photogrpahic studies of motion and in motion-picture projection. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 20. He remained undiscovered until 1868, when his large photogrpahs of Yosemite Valley, California, made him world famous.

Muybridge’s reputation as a photographer grew in the late 1800s, this led to the former California Governor Leland Stanford to contact him to help settle a bet. Speculation had continued for years over whether all four hooves of a running horse left the ground at the same time. Stanford believed they did, but the motuon was too quick for the naked eye to detect. In 1872, Muybridge began photogrpahing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. His intial findings appeared to indicate that Stanford was right, but due to imperfection in Muybridge’s methods, it could not be confirmed with certainty. With the further funding he received from Stanford, Muybridge eventually created a more complex method of photographing horse in motion and by 1879, he had proven that they do at times have all four hooved off the ground during their running stride.

Eadweard Muybridge
Galloping horse

Muybridge was invited to continue his research at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. For the following few years he produced thousands of photogrpahs of humans and animals in motion. He presented his photogrpahic methods using a projection device he had devloped called the Zoopraxiscope.

Eadweard Muybridge
Sow
photograph

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing

IDEA 1 DEVELOPMENT OF FINE ART: ARTIST: WILLIAM YE

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The work of William Ye:

William Ye, 28-year-old multi International award winning portrait and fine art photographer based in Toronto, FAPA student and non-professional grand winner 2017/2018. His passion for fine art photography ignited 3 years ago, under the influences of famous contemporary artists and photographers of our generation, such as Annie Leibovitz, Erwin Olaf, JuliaHetta, Jennifer Thoreson (formerly Jennifer Hudson) and to name a few. Since then, he has worked hard to form his own photographic style and develop his own photographic vision, which ultimately rewarded him with several International photography awards. He has said ‘My favourite subjects are psychology, emotions and feelings. I cannot literally photograph them as they are highly abstract, non-visual and intangible concepts, so instead, I try to photograph the various imageries associated with these concepts to translate something abstract intangible visuals’ He uses photography as a medium of creation. his work is committed yet still limited due to the amount for schooling commitments e is also currently permitted too.The work seen above which I am mostly inspired by is from a collection called ‘ The Wounded’ It is a formation of the tragic events that have made international news, such as mass shootings in or lands everyday struggles that go unnoticed by most people except the sufferers themselves, such as drug addiction, STD, depression, self-loathe, etc. The LGBTQ community is often associated with parties, parades and glamour, but the reality is a lot of people are struggling. Struggle is like a wheel. It goes round and round, peeling of hope layer by layer, like trapped in a maze with no exit. Much of his other work was done by shooting though a beautiful polished glass jar, you see an incredibly distorted world.This is an abstract body of work that depicts daily personal struggle. The inspiration behind the work is Picasso’s painting Guernica, in which distorted forms are painted to stimulate the viewers’ imagination and encourage the viewers to picture together the war scene. His work is implicative and mysterious, which I admire. To create the distorted and abstract human form, I shot through several different glass jars. I found glass jars quite symbolic. It projects rainbows under the sun, but when looking through it in the dark, without too much glare on its surface, you see through it a distorted world. It reminds me of the Wounded series I previously worked on, in which my focus is on the further marginalized LGBTQ community members within the already marginalized community, who live through a lot of pains under the superficial “rainbows”.

Not only is his work a reincarnation of the principles of fine art, but the covering of the face, highlights the lack of identity and too shows an emotional neglect and abandonment. As spoken about in my previous post. I belive fine art is more then the extend to what you see, it is a arrangement of how far an artist can take their work in order to evoke a change or a substantial meaning for themselves and others. Because of this his work has such a strong inspiration of chaos and huge monumental moments in the news, this is interesting as it is a subject that applies to everyone in some matter of wanting change.  His work not only has clear definite links to my first thought of fine art, being inspired by people such as Picasso’s paintings. But this combination of artistic influences is moulded with what he sees and reads in the media, that he believes deserves more exposure and importance, due to the need to change.  His work is entitled chaos. It indefinitely links perfectly with my next influences for this project being, chaos within the media. His work as well as this link so clearly with fine art and the media of chaos, it also has a clear connection to variation and similarity. It focuses on people and spot still possess the use of showing the different ways to show DNA. The lack of individuality also shows the similarity between the outwardly presentation fo people, and the use of their actions that is what separates us as a group. Personally I chose his work as it inspired an artistic love for the effortless and grace which his images hold. The use of the a structured body combines with such a soft flowing wrap yet still make it look like one being or entity within the piece, is so successful. His other works too has such a strong abstract perception of what art is, and I believe I will definitely do shoots inspired by this work of William Ye.

contextual/critical references mentioned as inspiration for William Ye’s work ie. Leibovitz, Erwin Olaf, Picasso: In comparison to the artist Picasso, his work is very much structured in order to create a more mathematical presence of composition. Even the sheet and is an object meant to be fluid, he forms a more secure structure to the piece itself. Everything about this piece is almost mathematically measure out to fit together in a perfect manner. Ye clearly has a vivid influence in the way he too wishes to connote primary colours, in order to inflict and have the persons themselves posses a deemed amount of power. Also seen within his strong juxtapositions of lights and shadows within his other pieces. His demonstration of clear influences is also seen within the similar narrative of his work to that of Olaf, both of them find it important to present that narrative emotions and character of someone. Ye within the vast majority of his work never reveals the identity of  the persons, it is hidden within the fine art aspect of his work, Whereas Olaf is much more of a fashion iconography work. So capturing the emotions, and hidden persona of people within the same mysterious circumstances. Ye has a far reaching understanding of artists and how to combine aspects of chaos and mass media into his work. I believe If I too use many artists to inspire and form my own photography techniques that this will relay be highly beneficial to my own work.

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing

VARIATION AND SIMILARITY

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  • To start off this project I first want to expand on the ideas given to myself through the introductory exam spectrum, and additionally doing research into the meaning behind the words themselves, in order to achieve the most accurate representation of the topic I will be looking into.
  • variation  – is a change or slight difference in condition, amount, or level, typically within certain limits. ” regional variations in house prices” this could be further divided into the consideration for words such as: difference,  dissimilarity, disparity, inequality, contrast, disc-repay, imbalance, dissimilitude, differential, distinction. 
  • This portrayal of variation being something which many people have yet only a small occurrence of changes. To my mind, this is quite interesting as not only does variation symbolise change, but, it also must first have the premiss of belonging to a similar group.  Variation is also of great importance, as it has many different meanings dependent on the subject matter, such as; in science it is a difference between individuals, However in music it’s a formal technique repeated.The second way of consideration is: a different or distinct form or version of something., “hurling is an Irish variation of hockey” : variant, form, alternative, alternative form, other form, different form, derive, form, development, adaptation, alteration, modification, revision, revised version. This portrayal of difference and similarity of something that already exists could come under researching into different disorders which people have, and how this affects their personality traits. looking into the development of how people change and act dependent on their environment and the success or downfall of their upbringing. These small experiences and traits which have such a large control upon how people vary and change from each other.
  • Variation is considered to fall under the categories of human, species, biology, and evolution.The definition of similarity is: the state or fact of being similar, a similar feature or aspect.”the similarities between people of different nationalities” resemblance, likeness, sameness, similar nature, similitude, comparability, correspondence, comparison, analogy, parallel, parallelism, equivalence; “the similarity of symptoms makes them hard to diagnose”
  • Despite the clear oppositional differences between similarity variation, they are both depicted in the same manner. This being they both are established by the same defying  factors of humans, DNA and language. This means that both are deemed to be very scientific. However this does not mean to have this project has to remain scientific, if anything, it lends to be  more interesting to see the development of how these factors have the capabilities to change and evolve throughout the process.
Below are some artistic inspiration of possible effects which are artistic and I could too link to variation and similarity. 

like Matthew Brandt: used by Sally Mann via Edwynn Houk Gallery: The artistic above are listed here, and I have also included some links of inspiration for my

project. http://www.houkgallery.com/news

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing, Experimenting

Lewis Bush

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Lewis Bush (born 1988 in London) is a British photographer, writer, curator and educator.  Bush studied history at the University of Warwick and gained a master’s degree in documentary photography from London College of Communication, where he lectures on photojournalism and documentary photography.  In his work bush seeks to draw attention to forms of invisible power that operate in the world – such as finance.  Bush has the standpoint that ‘power is always problematic because it’s natural resting state is arbitrary and untransparent’.  Bush’s projects tend to incorporate writing and he has written about photography for a range of national and international print and web titles.

In Bush’s ‘The Memory of History‘ from 2012, he travels through a range of European countries to document the way in which the past was being politically manipulated in the context of the economic crisis and recession.

Bush is a photographer in residence at the Societe Jersiaise in Jersey where he is working on his project ‘Trading Zones‘ in  which he looks at the international finance industry.  It looks at the global economic crisis that began ten years ago and the resulting financial sector. Finance has been very unrepresented in documentaries due to its complexity and stature meaning that there is plenty of potential for investigation for documentary photographers such as Bush.  The project ‘Trading Zones’ is a result of six months spent as the 2018 Archisle photographer in residence at the Societe Jersiaise in Jersey, which is currently undergoing huge renovations in the financial sector.  Bush says he has used this time to “establish the foundations of what I anticipate will be a long term photographic inquiry into the financial services industry” as the project comes under documentary photography so this project will be ongoing over a long period of time.

Bush’s work on ‘Trading Zones’ interest me as he had a section in the gallery in which he showcased cards showing what the public though of finance.  This idea drew inspiration from a project by EJ Major, who sent out cards asking ‘what love is’, expecting people to respond in whichever way they felt appropriate.  I could possibly respond to this idea as I have considered exploring the variety in people’s handwriting – everyone has their own unique style of writing and especially ways of drawing specific characters.  I believe that by asking multiple people to write down what ‘Variance and Similarity’ means to them I will be left with a collection of cards covered with unique handwriting styles and so will be able to show how characteristics as small as handwriting can show the differences in people’s personality traits.

The main project by Bush that interests me is ‘Metropole’ in which he used a technique of double exposure.   The project looks at the collapse of the British Empire and how in its place globalised capitalism grew as London has been rebranded as “a city of demolition, cranes, and glittering new high rises”.  ‘Metropole’ aims to record the effect of this on London through the form of documentary photography.  This appeals to me and links to the theme ‘Variance and Similarity’ because it explores the fact that there are an increasing amount of large buildings for offices or flats taking away from green land and so the landscape in which we live is turning into a repetitive view of similar flats and offices leaving citizens with a feeling of monotony as everything is being redeveloped to serve the same purpose.  Bush’s work on ‘Metropole’ shows a lot of emphasis on the repetition between buildings due to his double exposure effect.  I intend to respond to this work by capturing blocks of flats or offices, both in day and at night and then altering the photographs in photoshop to replicate the buildings and create a pattern of repetition throughout the edits.  These edits will show how buildings can look different individually but a lot of them can be very boring and repetitive.

Analysis

In this photograph it appears that lighting from within the inside of the building was used in what is possible night photograph. The use of this light is used to Bush’s advantage advantage as he uses double exposures to layer building over building creating a disorientating viewing along with contrast between the over-exposed lights and the dark shadows within the building. There is a wide tonal range within the photograph thanks to the range of shadows and lights within the photograph – this wide tonal range makes the photograph interesting in whichever segment the viewer looks as it creates intricate shapes and shadows throughout.  The lights and shapes are very intense as the viewer has to try piece the photograph together in order to understand it. It is unclear whether a short or deep depth of field will have been used in this photograph due to the disorientating nature of it – this adds to the mysterious elements of the photograph. A fairly slow shutter speed will have been used along with a low ISO in order for enough of the light to enter the lens from the dark environment whilst keeping the quality of the photograph as high as possible.

There is no colour in this photograph – only black and white along with the shades in between. This black and white approach to the photograph is very effective as it allows you to focus on the structure of the photograph and the buildings rather than being distracted by colours. The black and white effect also adds to the disorientating effect of the double exposure technique. Another addition that the black and white effect brings to the photograph is more contrast between the tones – especially between the bright white lights and the black shadows. The bright lights may be representative of a light at the end of the tunnel due to their glow in comparison to their environment. The photograph seems to have the texture of a graphite drawing which creates a really interesting viewing as what the viewer is seeing seems almost surreal. There is quite a 3D effect to the photograph due to the blending of photographs in order to create platforms coming out towards the viewer from the building. This 3D effect is complimented by the wide range of tones within the photograph. There are two points in the photograph to which the eye is initially drawn – these are the bright heaven-like lights and the platforms extending from the buildings – this is due to the lights contrasting in tone to the rest of the photograph and the platforms providing different shapes to the rest of the image. The platforms are also placed along the higher horizontal line of the rule of thirds meaning they add aesthetic to the photograph.

This photograph was taken from Bush’s project titled ‘Metropole‘.  This project looked at the collapse of the British Empire and how in its place globalised capitalism grew. London has been rebranded from “an investment opportunity” to “a city of demolition, cranes, and glittering new high rises”.  ‘Metropole’ aims to record the effect of this on London through the form of documentary photography. The project is titled ‘Metropole’ as London was once known as the Metropole meaning it was the mother city at the centre of a vast empire. These photographs were produced “during numerous winter night walks through the city”.

On Bush’s website he says that he used double exposure to create “increasingly disorientating and threatening as the series progresses” in order to create the “sense of loss that many Londoners feel” in the big city. This theme of a feeling of loss within the city emphasises how cities such as London have changed with the arrival of these repetitive blocks of flats – possibly for the worse. Bush continues this theme in his work on ‘Trading Zones’ in which he studies the Jersey financial sector. I think that through this exploration of disorientation and change Bush is trying to show that people often feel that the world is moving too fast for its own good as people get lost in temporary trends and patterns of life, ultimately resulting in repetition.

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing

Huang Qingjun

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 Huang Qingjun is a Chinese photographer who has photographed families posing with their possessions amid China’s dash to become rich.  He has spent nearly a decade travelling to remote parts of China to persuade people who have never been photographed to carry outside all their household possessions and pose for him.  The results of this product are glimpses of the different lives and belongings of different families within China.  The pictures have not been widely seen outside of China although some have been shown at exhibitions in Paris and New York.

 Huang was inspired as a teenager by an uncle when the typical hobbies for the Chinese youth were calligraphy and singing.  The idea for the series about people’s material good, called ‘Jiadang’ (family stuff). first came in 2003 with some photographs that he took for the magazine Chinese National Geography but the project didn’t start properly until three years later, when Huang started travelling around China looking for suitable people.  Huang says that “Most people thought what I was proposing was not normal” but most people understood the point at the end of it.  Most of the people in these poor, remote areas did not have many possessions making the project both simpler and more interesting.  Some of the projects took a couple of days whereas others took several months.  Next year marks the 10th anniversary of the first photograph, and Huang plans to mark it by returning to the places he visited to see how they have changed.  Huang also hopes to broaden the project’s range upon revisiting it by including people from a wider range of backgrounds, such as government officials.

Through this project Huang visited 14 of China’s 33 provinces, which gave him a broad perspective of how the country is changing in different areas.  He is optimistic about the future of China, he says “In lots of Chinese villages, the government has delivered roads and connected them with electricity. This has been a huge change” but the biggest problems in rural areas now are how people can get better education for their children and healthcare.

I plan on responding to Qingjun’s work ‘Family Stuff’ by looking into the different items that people will regularly carry around on them, such as what they carry in their school bag or by looking at the variance between individual items that people carry on them such as their car keys or clothing.  I chose to study Huang Qingjun in relation to ‘Variation and Similarity’ as through Qingjun’s work he shows how much the belongings from family to family can vary greatly due to factors such as personal taste and wealth.  I will also be thinking about these factors when exploring a response to his work as these factors can easily be read just through someone’s belongings.  Personality can also be seen through someone’s belongings – some people may be minimalists and keep everything clean in their school bag so will carry round the minimum whereas other may have food wrappers and unnecessarily items in their school bag showing that they are less organised.  Ultimately the idea behind this is to show the unlimited variety of combinations of different belongings that people can own.

Analysis

In this photograph the natural lighting of rural China has been used, the natural lighting highlights how polluted the air in the country is as well as the neutral colours that run throughout it.  There is not much contrast in this photograph, partly because it is a documentary photograph in a tableaux style so does not attempt to create a dramatic composition.  A deep depth of field was used for this photograph as the whole of the photograph is in focus which allows for all the details of the couples’ possessions to be seen as well as a glimpse of the city in the background.  A shutter speed of 1/60-1/120 will have been used to capture this photograph along with a low ISO in order to allow enough light to enter the lens to create a correctly exposed photograph.  The colours within this photograph are quite cold and grey which creates a downtrodden view of the area.

There is not much colour in the photograph – it is all greys and browns except for a few of the possessions.  This lack of colour represents the lack of freedom for individuals to express themselves in this part of the world and shows how oppressed the world can be.  There is not a wine tonal range in this photograph due to its documentary/tableaux style and lack of contrast – this further adds to the feeling of oppression.  The foreground and background can clearly be made out in this photograph but there is no 3D effect as the different parts of the photograph seem the merge together as one to tell a story.  There are lots of horizontal lines within this photograph which can represent the walls and division of society within China.

This photograph was part of Huang’s ‘Jiadang’ project in which he travelled to 14 of China’s 33 provinces to photograph and give glimpses of the lives of the ordinary Chinese who are not as exposed to modernisation as the rest of China.  Huang waited for the couple in this photograph to move house in order to set up this photograph.  The couples’ house had been slated for demolition to make way for tower blocks and offices along with millions of other homes.  The wall behind them is marked with the Chinese character ‘chai’, meaning “tear down”.

Through this photograph I believe that Huang is trying to show the range of exposure to modernisation across the different Chinese provinces due to the rapid modernisation of the big cities.  At first the subjects within the photographs of the project do not appear to be swept up by the modernisation happening in the cities, but on a closer look the photographs also show the enormous social change that has come with generations, such as the photo of an elderly couple sat with a satellite dish.  The set of photographs show how much people’s lives have changed throughout the different provinces.

Analysis, Contextual Studies, Developing, Evaluating

My Response to Tim Booth / John Coplans

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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.