Response To Modern Day Photography Conventions

Photo shoot Plan

Genre /  Artist – Landscape Photography

Concept –  Capture images to portray modern day conventions of photography

Location – Town, Liverpool City centre, Corbiere

Shot type – Landscape, varied angle dependent on subject matter

Lighting – Natural lighting for outside shots, creating correct exposure for sky and not worrying about the foreground as it is easier to adjust the foregrounds lighting without losing quality compared to the sky.

Settings – 30 second exposure for light trail photographs,

                        F/16, 1/30 shutter speed with iso of 100 for sunset shots.

Contact Sheet an Edits

Location 1 

I think these edits are very effective in representing the constant movement and rush within town centres and the chaos associated with them. I believe the use of three prominent colours help to make this image visually pleasing and the composition and use of leading lines draws the viewer around the picture to key aspects of the images. These photos most definitely  link to modern day photography conventions in the way there is a use of shutter speed to create a sense of surrealism and the vast alter of colours and lighting to add to this.

Location 2

Location 3

These edits are personally my favourites due to the vast change of colours in which I added to create a more interesting sunset and the realism it continued to carry. Also I think the use of leading lines in the bottom photo helps to captivate the viewer and then lead them down the water to the main focus of the photo, this being the sunset.

Location 4

Again, I believe these edits are very effective in portraying a sense of modern day photography. Many people, enjoy photographing the sunset, more recently it is a very popular subject matter with many people capturing the sunset on their phones for social media sites such as Instagram. People always imagine and dream of the ‘perfect sunset’ consisting of pink/orange and teal colors however this is a very rare thing to actually come across. Therefore people often will edit their photos to portray this dream sunset and create a more interesting photo like I have tried to implement into my photos.

Here are a few comparisons between the original photographs and the post production images.

 

Inspiration 1 & Conventions Of Photography

The History Of Photography

Photography was first developed as a way for people to document and record how things in the world happened or what they looked like. Photography was originally used to give a true representation of something and there were no photo manipulation or editing involved. Mo-Ti was the person who came up with the idea of photography and the camera obscura, or the pinhole camera. It was used by Joseph Nicephore Niepce  to make the first ever photograph, or more specifically, the earliest known surviving photograph made in a camera in 1826. Since then photography has defied these early day conventions and now photography is an art form in which people manipulate their images to try and portray what they wish was there or perhaps what looks more aesthetically pleasing. Most of the commercially used photographs in modern day society have been strongly edited to visually please the audience.

My Intentions

Linking to the ideas of conventions, for this photo shoot I intend to defy the traditional conventions associated with photography and therefore follow the conventions of modern day photography. I will do this by taking simple landscape images focusing on composition and framing and then edit saturated colors into the images to create a more visually pleasing image.

Micheal Steric

Michael Steric is best known as an Instagram photographer who was born in United States on in 1997. Michael is currently 20 years old living in LA but travels around the world to capture incredible images to share daily with his audience. He mainly photographs during golden hour, when the shadows are the longest and the sun is rising or setting. He also focuses on night photography because of the ambient vibes he is able to absorb and portray.

Before and After Editing (Micheal Steric)

Image result for michael steric with and without preset

Image result for michael steric before and after

Image result for michael steric with and without preset

Brutalist Architecture

What is brutalist architecture photography?

Brutalist architecture started in the early 1950s, the term brutalism refers to its dynamic geometric like appearance seen as massive, monolithic and blocky. The style itself was popular until the mid 1970s and was first introduced by Le Corbusier an architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter who liked design in its simplest form. Interest arose around the concept when his street building in Chandigarh, India which was long, with horizontal concrete slabs forming composed six eight story blocks that are separated by expansion joints.

Originally the term ‘brutalist’ was used by Le Corbusier to describe his own work, but was later coined by British architects Alison and Peter Smithson, leading to the eventual use of the now common term when Reyner Banham used it in his book ‘New Brutalism’. Brutalism has been criticized for its uncommunicative and ugly style, but also has been attacked for ignoring historic architecture as well as lacking empathy for its surrounding environment. However, Banham says through his book that the qualities of the style are plain and comprehensible, with no mystery, romanticism or obscurities without a function and circulation. Really brutalism is summed up as an architectural style with no sense.

Here are some example of brutalist architecture below:Once looking over the images I decided to analyse one of them to identify common features or styles that each possesses.When looking at the style of architecture I found that all the buildings were based on a geometrical structured design, by doing this the outcome would look artificial and almost surreal to images and passers-by due to how these houses and offices would not match the environment surrounding them. Each building was made to look displaced and abstract, whilst many incorporated nature into the designs. Symmetry, pattern and randomness I found was the most common influence over the structures, due to how it gave the place an aesthetically pleasing look. As a result to this many viewed this style of architecture as a form of art.

After looking over this I found that I would be able to incorporate brutalist architecture into my photography through the use of harsh photographs taken in concrete jungles within urban areas. This form of exaggeration combined with possibly singular light sources could be used to emphasize the idea of abandonment within certain areas of choice, allowing me to present a more brutal representation of buildings that are perhaps abandoned or deserted.