Monthly Archives: September 2018

Filters

Author:
Category:
Uncategorized

WEEK 3- ALBERT RENGER- PATZSCH

1 Comment

Albert Renger- Patzsch

Albert Renger- Patzsch was born in June 1897 and was a German photographer who was well known for being involved in the “Neue Sachlichkeit” moment also known as the new objectivity.   Albert started doing photography at the age of twelve and by the early 1920s he worked as a press photographer in Chicago. Albert was always very focused on photography which ended up him with him making his best known book ‘ The world is beautiful’. The book contains one hundred photos which are in natural forms which reveal beautiful patterns throughout each photograph. This book was so famous that it made Albert as one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century.

Albert also believed that the value of photography was in its ability to reproduce reality and to represent the spirit of the object.

All of Alberts pictures were taken of naturalistic objects which all were edited with a very dark black and white effect which added a lot of tone and texture to his pictures. He tended to take his pictures very up close to his focus and therefore did not contain much of the background which made him unique from other photographers in his time. Albert also liked to take pictures of plants and i noticed there was a clear repetition of plants in his work. However, he did also take pictures of everyday objects.

There were a number of similar photographers in Alberta time which made it quite competitive. These photographers being Karl Blossfeldt, Laszlo Moholy- Nagy, August Sander and Helmar Lerski.  The photographers didn’t have any public rivalry throughout their careers but it is suspected.

After Alberts career there were a number of photographers who ended up producing work which was very similar to Albert’s. Some of these photographers being Martin Parr, William Eggleston, Keld Helmer Petersen and Peter Fraser.

Albert tended to take a lot of nature pictures, this image being one of them. This photograph is aimed specifically towards the flower which shows nature because of the flower included, however the black background does not as it makes the image seem artificial. The image has been taken from very close up which allows the audience to be able to see every detail of the image ie. the small black dots on the flower which are pollen, as well as the vertical lines on the flower.

This picture taken by Albert in his late career is a very detailed and textural photograph. I think that the organic photo has a lot of tone to it due to the lighting with the black and white edit. The snakes pattern skin is very pleasing to the eye as there is a lot of depth in the middle of the snakes scales which adds a lot of detail.  

I think that the fact the photograph has been cropped or framed to just include the snakes head and part of the tail is a very good idea as it is very intriguing to look at and makes the picture unique.

 

Albert Renger- Patzsch Gallery pictures

Evaluating his work

After evaluating Alberts work i have a clear idea of his thoughts and have used this images to take inspiration when taking my own photos. I have noticed all Alberts pictures are very neat and aren’t over complicated, he tends to focus on one object in the picture. I also noticed his work contains a lot of reflections from glass which i think is very clever and is something i would like to try when taking my photographs.

Planning my shoot

In order  for my images are successful,  I am going to make my images very neat, and show lots of reflections in each image which has been inspired by Albert. Most my images will be taken with the depth of field on the subject of the image ( main focus).

Contact sheets 

 

Editing my best images 

The image was taken in Manual focus with no flash, this being because i wanted the reflection on the spoon to be viable. The image was also taken very zoomed in and the subject of the picture is in the Rule of Thirds. The image is slightly under exposed due to the fast shutter speed and the location which i took this picture having artificial lighting. There is also a depth of field in this image which we can tell from the blurred background and the spoon being fully focused.

I really like this final image as i think the lighting of the image is very complimentary due to it enhancing the reflections and the lighter points in the image. The black and white effect also adds tone and texture to the picture, as well as the image being taken in 3D. There was no cropping of this picture as i quite liked the fact that you could see a small part of a humans thumb as it is quite unique and realistic.

This image was taken in an artificial lighting area and with a manual focus setting, no flash. I took this image zoomed in as i wanted the water droplets on the knifes to be the focus of the image, however this wasn’t as successful as i had hoped. I like how i have edited this image as i found that the overall image appears to look like it has a lot more depth which helps to add tone and texture to the photograph. I also really like the arrangement of the knifes as they are all facing the same direction but are still appear to look very complicated.

This manual focus image was taken with no flash and under artificial lighting . This image is fully in focus in order to capture the whole display ( no depth of field). This image has come out slighting under exposed due to the artificial light it was taken under, as well as the shutter speed being very quick.

I really like the editing of this image as there is a lot of different tone in the image due to the lighting. I think this also adds depth to the image and make sit a lot more interesting to look at.

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Component 2 ESA, Unit 1 Abstract

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Leave a comment

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Albert Renger-Patzsch, born on June 22, 1897 was a German photographer who was heavily associated with the New Objectivity. Renger-Patzsch was born in Würzburg, Germany, and began taking photographs by the age of twelve. After military service in the First World War he studied chemistry at Dresden Technical College. In the early 1920s he worked as a press photographer for the Chicago Tribune before becoming a freelancer. In 1925, publishing a book, the choir stalls of Cappenberg. He had his first museum exhibition in 1927.

A second book followed in 1928, Die Welt ist schön (The World is Beautiful). This, his best-known book, is a collection of one hundred of his photographs in which natural forms, industrial subjects and mass-produced objects are presented with the clarity of scientific illustrations, the intent being to create beautiful photographs out of everyday items. The book’s title was chosen by his publisher; Renger-Patzsch’s preferred title for the collection was Die Dinge.

In its sharply focused on the newly emerging style of the time, The New Objectivity that flourished in the arts in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Like Edward Weston in the United States, Renger-Patzsch believed that the value of photography was in being able to capture the world in a way which displays all the textures and feelings that come along with it, and to represent the essence of an object. He wrote: “The secret of a good photograph—which, like a work of art, can have aesthetic qualities—is its realism … Let us therefore leave art to artists and endeavour to create, with the means peculiar to photography and without borrowing from art, photographs which will last because of their photographic qualities.”

Patzsch preferred to photograph items over people, focusing mainly on very ordinary everyday items but captured in a way which makes them extraordinary. A lot of his work also focuses on pattern and rhythm. The plants he photographs are often geometric and contain a lot regular pattern.

Among his works of the 1920s are Echeoeria (1922) and Viper’s Head. During the 1930s Renger-Patzsch made photographs for industry and advertising. His archives were destroyed during the Second World War. In 1944 he moved to Wamel, Möhnesee, where he lived the rest of his life.

ANALYSIS OF HIS WORK:

I have chosen and compare and analyse these two photos from Albert Renger-Patzsch’s work. Both of these photos include the presence of organic items, plants in this instance. Both have very clear and geometric shapes, with repeating patterns of forms. The focal point of the dandelion flower is the round and even tip of the stem, from which a repeating pattern of seeds come from. On the other hand, the image on the right lacks any noticeable focal point. Both images are very dramatic in nature, with deep and dark shadows being cast from the shapes of the two plants. The image on the right is very exposed, and the highlights are very strong, whereas the image on the left has more subtle highlights having an overall dark tone all-round.  The image on the left has a deeper field of view through the use of the dark backdrop, whereas the image of the right lacks this as the light and over exposed backdrop shirks the depth of view. The overall undertone of the image on the left is warm and yellow, and the image on the right is a lot cooler with blue based undertones. Both images have been captured in portrait, unusual yet different and effective for this type of imagery.

RIGHT IMAGE
LEFT IMAGE

MY FAVORITE IMAGES:

This is a collection of my favorite Albert RengerPatzsch work.

RESPONSE AND CONTACT SHEETS OF MY OWN WORK:

This is my response of Patzsch’s work in the form of contact sheets. like Patzsch, I focused on capturing very simple, everyday objects in a way that is beautiful and impressive. I experimented with light, changing the ISO settings on my camera and shutter speed, in order to capture images that are interesting and detailed. I found myself to often be using the macro setting on my camera when capturing up close photographs of plants, this allowed me to have clear and crisp photos that illustrated the detailed line work in the plants.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Leave a comment

Albert Renger-Patzsch was born June 22, 1897 in Würzburg, Germany, he began making photos from the age of 12, then began working as a press photographer and freelancer. He was associated with the ‘New Objectivity’ .  He photographed things that engaged with the world as clearly as possible, such as the natural world and the industrial which presented the world in a distinct modern way. Albert Renger-Patzsch was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. He died September 27, 1966.

 

The new objectivity is a movement in 1920’s by the Germans in reaction to go against expressionism. Artist removed themselves from the romantic idealism in photographs and even called on the public to back them up. The new objectivity changed photography as it allowed people to develop ideas and broaden the photography industry by photographing the world, instead of set up scenes.

In my first shoot I focused on the industrial photos he took. I chose to do this because I like the way how he focuses in on the different directions of lines and the repeat of shapes in the photo, his photos are almost an abstract as he homes in on shapes. In most his photos the whole setting is in focus also his photos are never from forward on angle, most of the time he takes them at an angle, either looking up or down, this adds an interesting factor to the images as it doesn’t look like a normal simple image. His photos introduced a sense of real life to the photography industry, he wanted his photos to have no meaning, but by making this apparent it shows people that his motive was to have meaningless photos, which then makes the viewer question why he has done that. He used natural lighting in his photos and a use of different tones, which were created by the objects in his photos.

First Shoot;

These four images are from my first shoot where I have presented the style of Albert Renger-Patzsch. I mainly focused on industrial images for this shoot as his industrial images were some of my favorites. I liked the way he photographed such simple things but they created such a photo, in a way of shapes being repeated or shapes contrasting each other, also the light and dark tones throughout his industrial images. His industrial images showed the world in a new way, instead of having photos with one specific meaning, he photographed photos that could have multiple meanings and moods.

Uncategorized

Camera Skills

Leave a comment

Standard lens – Contact Sheet

Standard Lens –  Favourite Outcomes

Telephoto Lens – Contact Sheet

Telephoto Lens – Favourite Outcomes

Portrait Lens – Contact Sheet

Portrait Lens – Favourite Outcomes

I really enjoyed using the standard lens as it was easy to focus however I believe the Telephoto lens ended up getting the best photographs.

 

AO2 Explore Ideas, Homework, Unit 1 Abstract

Response To Albert Renger-Patzsch

Leave a comment

The World Is Beautiful

Albert Renger-Patzsch

Albert Renger-Patzsch was a pioneering figure in the New-Objectivity movement 1920’s.  Rejecting the tenderness  and idealism of a previous generation, Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) emerged as a tendency in German art, architecture and literature in the 1920’s.

In 1928 Renger-Patzsch published ‘The World is Beautiful’ which was a collection of 100 photographs whose rigorous sensitivity to form revealed patterns of beauty and order in the natural and man-made alike.  He was adapting a new and modern way of looking at the world using his work and this caused the book to establish Renger-Patzsch as one of the most Influential photographers of the 20th century.

Analysis | Albert Renger-Patzsch

My Own Response

 

Contact Sheet
Edited Contact Sheet

This is a contact sheet of my own response to Renger-Patzsch.  These photographs I developed using manual focus on the camera which proved to be a little difficult for me however it produced some good outcomes, which I intend to experiment with during editing.

Experiments

Own Response | Analysis
Own Response | Analysis
Own Response | Analysis

Final Chosen Photograph

Final Outcome

I chose this as my final photograph as I feel it was my most successful outcome both as a photograph itself and once it had been edited.  I feel it has the most inspiration from Renger-Patzsch and it was my closest representation to his work through my experiments and own work.