-This photoshoot will be done over a period of time, half term.
-I plan to take vernacular photos of the members of my family who’s photos I collected from their youth and picture of people my age like my sister and my friends. I plan to document the journey of youth. I want to show that the generation are completely different but are the same. They are different in what they wore and sometimes what they do but are the same.
-The lighting will be natural and artificial lights depending on whether I’m inside or outside.
-I think I will use my phone because it’s easier to take personal images of someone where they don’t have a big camera in their face.
-Where? When? Who? The days I’ve planned to take photos are when I go to my friend birthday meal and the cinema and when I see some of my old friends for a meet up and chat.
Vernacular photography is the creation of photographs that take everyday life and events as their subjects. Examples of vernacular photographs include travel and vacation photos, family snapshots, photos of friends, class portraits, identification photographs, and photo-booth images. Almost like a celebration of the mundane.
After looking at Carinthia West and Kristen Lewis I see that the idea of Vernacular photography applies to them in the way that they take pictures of people just living their lives, famous or just a normal family.
I would like to look at the idea of the journey of people and society through generations.
I’ve collected images of my parents and even some of my grandparents of their youth.
The first three image I circled in red was because there was a plug in the image that I didn’t want there. The one after that I circled in red I didn’t like the framing and composition of the image and the two after that I didn’t like the lighting. The ones I circled in green I like because they are interesting in some way or composed well.I didn’t like the first one circled in red because the framing and proportion weren’t the way I wanted. The other two I have circled in red somehow I got my finger in the shot.
West is a combination of a journalist, photographer, model and at one point an actress. The subjects of her photos are her friends who just happen to be some of the biggest idols of the 20th century and possibly all time. They include; Mick Jagger, actress and dame Helen Mirren, David Bowie and Robin Williams. Apparently, she’s always had a camera by her side that is why she is able to take deep personal images of stars in a way that they wouldn’t normally have been photographed. It’s almost as if she’s preserved a special time that will never be seen again. Some of the images are from her subjects most intimate times of their lives. The themes surrounding her images are the journey of youth and life, people and connections and documentary. The message of being young and having fun that comes from her images is completely different from the reality of being young today which is something I plan to explore in my shoots as well as being young and having fun. Being young in the 21st century is no longer just about having fun. There’s exams, social media and lots of other things that distance the youth of our time to the youth of her time.
Art and photography was a constant thing in her life. Her great-grandmother was a keen photographer. At the age of 18 at a bus stop she was spotted by Robert Whitaker, who took pictures of the Beatles, he wanted to get a couple of shots of her which started her modelling career. This then opened the door to a world of the icons we know today. She was even in a movie with Helen Mirren. One of her most famous series is called ‘The Long Night,’ which are photos from when Ronnie Wood’s wife went into labour for 24 hours and West, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, Bob Ellis and Sandy Castle all stayed at the hospital over night.
Lighting: I think this image has artificial lighting because the subjects are indoors. The light is probably coming from the side be cause part of the subjects’s faces are in shadow. There’s a lot of contrast in the image because the tones go from their illuminated faces to dark shadows with out much in between.
Visual: There’s an almost symmetrical look to the image. This is because of the lines in the background and how the subjects in the foreground look similar and take up the same proportion of the image.
Conceptual/ Contextual info: The subjects in this image are of the photographer’s grandma and the grandma’s best friend. At the time the image was taken the two subjects had been friends for 70 years. The photographer said, ” They have taught me that friendships and love are what keep you youthful and happy and they are 2 of the most important things in life”.
I like the images in green. To me they represent the same idea that Lewis’ goes for in terms of a day in the life. Some of them also show the generational journey in the way it shows different generations and the difference between them. The ones in red I don’t really like. The first one is blurry and the three in a row is too staged.In terms of journey these images are important to me because Bingo is my Grandma’s only hobby and she’s been going to that specific Bingo Hall for decades. Back then instead of a massive empty room with hundred playing online, you couldn’t get a seat sometimes. She used to go with her brother but stopped after he died. My Aunt has recently been taking her back to the Bingo after my Grandfather died. What’s also important about these images is how you have three generations in them and you can see the difference between the generations. My Grandma is playing bingo by stamping with a marker like she always has however my Cousin is playing it on an ipad. I like the ones in green because they have good framing and they show what I want to be shown. The ones in red are either blurry or too staged.
Reflection on My Edits
I think my images reflect the photographer’s style. I have taken picture of a family’s journey through a day. I’ve documented events that happened through the day just like the photographer. I made them white because then I could make them sharping by creating contrast and because the photographer edits her images to be black and white a lot of the time. I like my use of depth of field when taking the images because the subjects stand out and there’s a softness to the images.
This is a mood board of Kristen Lewis’ work. Her work is all about family, generational journeys and the journeys we take in our families.
Kristen Lewis is based in Denver and classifies herself as a ‘documentary family photographer.’ Her work centres around families or travel because she is very close to her family and often travels with friends or family. The majority of her work comes from these sessions she does called Day in The Life sessions where she spends twenty four hours with a family and documents their daily journey and what they do for a day.
She’s been using Nikon cameras since 2000 and her dominant lens is the Nikon 35mm f/2.
A picture of her gear from https://shotkit.com/kirsten-lewis/.
I liked a lot of these images because of their composition and their detail. I also like how in some of the street images the yellow street light reflects in the wet ground and puddles.The four I circled red together were taken in an elevator so the pictures are blurry and you can see the smudges on the glass. The ones in orange I like but I’m not too sure about. Those are the ones that I need to crop and edit in order to see if they’ll be any good.The ones I circled in red I didn’t like because they weren’t composed well and weren’t particularly interesting. These are images that I took for my photo shoot two that I believe reflects Antunes’ style. He does a lot of street photography, pictures in the rain and images with a reflective surface.Antunes does a lot of his edits in black and white.
