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)

Secret -Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.

For the topic of secrets, I wanted to explore mirrors and the way that they can be used to revel areas that would otherwise be left out of the shot. 

http://www.sebastianmagnani.com/

Born 1985 in a small village in Canton Valais, Switzerland, surrounded by mountains, Sebastian Magnani discovered photography whilst training as a media designer in 2006. After 5 years as a creative in an advertising agency, he decided 2011 to turn his passion into a profession. Since then he has been making a living as a photographer and visual artist, based in Zurich, Switzerland. Focused on portraits, editorials, advertising and several personal projects, like the Underdogs and Undercats, where got a lot of media attention and been published on many newspapers, magazines, websites and tv-shows around the globe. He has also won many awards such as  the GoSee Award, Stills, Gold & Public, 2015, OneEyeLand, Fine Art, Abstract, Gold, 2015,  both for his project entitled Reflection

Image Analysis

In this image, the natural lighting that is breaking through the leaves of the treetops has been used to cast light upon the floor of the forest. A shutter speed of 1/30-1/60 will have been used to capture this photograph along with an ISO of 100-200, by using these settings it allowed Sebastian to a high-resolution image with minimum grain whilst allowing plenty of light to enter the lens. The two main colours in this image, are green and brown, which gives off connations of life and death. In the reflection of the mirror, we get a glimpse, to what the top of the forest looks like, which is bright and healthy green leave deflecting off most of the natural light. Which is a contrast to what is in the rest of the frame. Which features earthy tones, of the dead leaves on the forest floor.

Allan Edward Hilton

http://www.allanedwardhinton.com/

Allan is a London based photographer, content creator, social media strategist who quit his London office job as a Digital Marketing Manager to peruse his dream of exploring the world and develop his photography skills.

H has been an early Instagram user since 2011 who has a following of 160+. He has worked with over 30+ content creation slash Instagram related social media and pr campaigns and has consulted on campaigns for TripAdvisor and Huawei Mobile.

Image Analysis

In the image above, the main focus of the image has been highlighted by the use of the natural sunlight which is coming from the left side of the frame.This image is mostly sharp but around the edge of the image, it has started to go out of focus, as on disposable camera setting such as ISO or shutter speed cannot be changed. The visual elements in this image are the colour palette, which creates a vintage look, there are several different textures within the image. This image was taken on his trip across Australia in which he decided to only take images using a disposable camera as he wanted to capture the images which where raw and wasn’t staged

 Conventions The definition of Conventions in society is behaviors and which are seen as acceptable or polite to the majority of society.

Journalism is the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast. Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism

Photojournalism employs images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases, the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media and help communities connect with one other. Photojournalists must be well informed and knowledgeable about events happening right outside their door.I would use photojournalism to present a true view of today society

When researching photojournalism I came across Steve McCurry who is a highly respected photographer but had lost some of his credibility, as he regards his images as being documentary and capturing ‘the  truth’ but on closer inspection by members of the public it can be seen that his work had been digitally altered, or people have come forward to say that they where asked to be in a staged.

So to compact this problem I wanted to shoot my images on a disposable camera.

Because once the images are taken they can no longer be worked back into, so when a disposable camera is used in photojournalism the image will be the real and untouched versions.

Definition – A system of words, letters, figures, or symbols used to represent others, especially for the purposes of secrecy.

Synonyms – Identification, classification, secret language, symbols,  hieroglyphics

Examples – Computer coding, Barcode, QR code, Morse code, passwords, symbols, numbers, letters.

In photography, a code can be seen as either a symbol or some form of object which portrays a message or tells a story. Codes within photography can include symbolic codes, technical codes and written codes.

Symbolic Codes – Setting, Mise-en-scene, acting, colour.

Technical Codes – Camerawork, Editing, Audio, Lighting.

Written Codes – Spoken Language, Written language.

Key Definitions 

Code – A set of conventions or sub-codes currently in use to communicate meaning. The most common is one’s spoken language, but the term can also be used to refer to any narrative form

Secret -Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.

Convention – The way in which something is usually done.

Mind Maps 

Mood Board

My first ideas for this project is to do a separate word that we have been given, one for codes, one for conventions and finally one for secrets.