For my second shoot I decided to go out in slightly different weather conditions, on this day it was quite sunny which meant that the lighting in the photos was different and that activities going on outside created some more interesting things to photograph, because of the good weather I also was able to go on an open top bus which was particularly useful to get better angles and slightly clearer views of the things going on outside of the bus. For this shoot I went out for a few hours and took 4 bus trips to try and take photos of things happening in various areas. Below are a selection of what I think are some of my strongest images from the shoot unedited, overall I am pleased with how the shoot turned out and how I have succeeded to create some images slightly different to my first shoot, for some of my next shoots I plan to take the bus to more different areas but also to create some images earlier in the morning and later in the day and night so that and can have a final outcome with a progression of images where the lighting changes from morning to evening.

Looking at the work that I have created too far, I am happy with the individual images, the compositions of the images, the quality, the different techniques used , attention to detail. But looking at the overall collections of the images I dont feel that I have an overarching theme to the images and if I were to start making a book down there would be no structure. At the start of this project I wanes to focus on my relationship between myself and this island that I have livecd on for 18 years and trying to look at it a different light. But that I feel that is necessary to change the focus of the project as I don’t think that this message was coming through in the images and it is a very hard concept to translate into a book form.

So I have decided that I a going to change the focus of the book to look at the four elements that hold the world together. Water, Earth,Fire and Air. As when reviewing images I realised that I have subconsciously taken images that focus on Water, Air and Earth already. The only element that I don’t have an images of is Fire, which is because there is not a continual sources of fire, but in my house we do have a coal fire that I will use. Below are the best images that I already have of each element. Looking at these images in future photoshoots I want to focus on photographing the different textures in each element and how they differentiate from one another. And the variety in each element.,

Water

Earth

Air

My plan for this shoot is to explore london during the night to capture colour with a dark contrast.

Contact sheets

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Edited

Photoshoot 1:

For my first photoshoot I want to focus on the theme of Commercialism and Consumerism looking at how brands make up everything we do during our life. For this shoot i want to find lots of different brands in my household environment so looking how different products are advertised such as food packaging as well as clothing and even down to items or objects your wouldn’t think had brands. When editing I will look at creative ways to Collage images or brands.

Photoshoot 2:

Following with the theme I want to create images as a response to pop art and specific artists such as Andy Warhol as his work is highly Commercialised. I want to create portraiture that responds in a very commercialised sense. For this shoot i will take portrait photography that i will heavily edit to recreate a pop art style in the images. I could also for this shoot look at creating images of brands in a pop art style similar to Warhol’s style with his Campbell soup Prints.

Photoshoot 3:

For Another Shoot I want to do an Environmental shoot looking and how people use brands in their clothing or in their everyday life and using editing highlight their brands showing how they make up basically everything they do.

As I stated in my previous post I planned a photo-shoot in which I would focus on structure and form, I stated that in order to balance out the aesthetic of my photo montages, I believed that it would be a good idea for me to produce some images which focus on structure and form in a minimal manner. Producing minimal images with this simple focus would also give me a way of including conceptual and contextual elements to my work as I can photograph subjects which relate to trade and industries in Jersey which link us with the rest of the world. So after planning this photo-shoot I closely followed my plan and overall I believe that the shoot was very successful as I managed to make photographs which will definitely come in use in my photo-montages. I did this photo-shoot over the space of two days as visiting each location in my plan in a single day may lead to me rushing too much which could have a negative effect on the quality of the photographs which I come out with. I managed to focus on the subjects which I intended on capturing. And as I wanted to come out with the photographs certainly relate to trade and industries in Jersey which link us with the rest of the world.

After my initial portrait photoshoot I started editing the photos and decided I needed to take more of different people so that i had a bigger selection to work from. I want to take photos again with a simple background so they are minimal and I can focus on the editing process. I want my models to look real not overdone with makeup or constructed to look perfect. This will work with the concept for my editing which will challenge beauty ideals and myths.

In order to balance out the aesthetic of my photo montages, I believe that it would be a good idea for me to produce some images which focus on structure and form in a minimal manner. Producing minimal images with this simple focus will also give me a way of including conceptual and contextual elements to my work as I can photograph subjects which relate to trade and industries in Jersey which link us with the rest of the world. I feel like it would be appropriate for me to do some brief research on a couple of abstract photographers who’s photographs focus on form and structure as well as other elements, so here are two short pieces of research on two relevant photographers.

Based on this here is a simple plan for a photo shoot which I will do…

Brief: Produce photography which focus of structure and form in a minimal and abstract manner

Subjects: Buildings, Windows, Machinery, Industrial Structures, Boxes, Signs etc…

Location: Town (St. Helier), Harbour, La Collette, Rue De Pres trading estate

Light source: Natural outdoor day light

Lens: 18-55mm

TYPOLOGY:

• A classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences. (Oxford Dictionary)
• Study or analysis using a classification according to a general type.(Oxford Dictionary)

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Bernd and Hilla Becher were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures, often organised in grids. Also well known as the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ influencing generations of documentary photographers and artists. The Couple met as students at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1957 and first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959. Bernd Becher studied painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart from 1953 to 1956, then typography under Karl Rössing at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1959 to 1961. Hilla Becher also studied photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1958 to 1961 but prior to this she had completed an apprenticeship as a photographer where she lived in Potsdam. After their education they both began working as freelance photographers for the Troost Advertising Agency in Düsseldorf, concentrating on product photography.

This contact sheet of photographs by the Becher’s shows typology
photographs which document the similarities between the different
industrial structures. The photographs compare the similarities to the
point where they almost appear as though they are almost photographing
the same structure in each photo as each photo is taken exactly the same
way with the same angle and distance. Also the time of day and weather
must have been taken into account as the sky colour is the same in all of
the photographs.

For my work on Consumerism this would be interesting as i could produce work in a typological format that would represent how all of the products are similar but also to highlight the details of the everyday items. Although this type of documentary photography is of the landscape i would want to produce it in a studio shot photoshoot which would become much more focused on the products themselves.

Contact sheet

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Edited

I took it under natural light influence at around 2pm. The focal point of this image is the felled tree with the writing on the bottom. The composition of the image even with the root in the middle the grass on the foreground contrasting with the brown trunk the the trees in the mid-ground are the trees which add a natural touch to the image. Then the sky is in the background Creating a contrast between the the sky blue and the green in the trees, This is the most naturalistic colour and tone collation so i thought the stop wars trunk would add great context.

This is my favourite edit and image from my 3rd shoot, It shows a tree that has been cut down in hide park. On the bottom of the felled tree is some writing that stop wars. As soon as i saw this i had to capture it. My concept behind the image is that when you read it you look around you and see how amazing life is that there is no need for wars. Its also in a peaceful environment showing us what the world could look like everywhere if we stoped fighting.