Environmental and Candid Photography

What is environmental photography?

Environmental photography is the type of photography which photographers take images in a ‘natural environment’ for artistic, research or monitoring progress/ purpose. Examples of someones ‘natural environment’ could be someone working at work (nurse at a hospital, men in an office, barista making coffee), could also be a genuine natural environment which includes nature and shows progress of climate change etc. A formal portrait with emphasis on environment and setting of the model that may suggest the person’s social, economic and cultural background.

Environmental photographer- Larry Sultan

The American photographer, Larry Sultan grew up in San Fernando Valley in California. He started his career in the 70s as a conceptual photographer, publishing his first collection as a photographer in 1977 called ‘Evidence’ with fellow photographer Mike Mandel. Sultan also worked as a teacher from the years of 1977-2009, first at San Francisco Arty Institute for a year, as well as California College of the Arts, 1989-2009. In the duration of this time he also produced his most known project/exhibition ‘Pictures From Home’ (1992), which includes him using his own parents in the long decade project. The primary subjects of his parents are used in creating familial mythologies. This project was more of a staged photoshoot showing his conceptual photographer side.

Larry Sultan’s Image Mood Board

His style

• Images of people
• Up to date camera
• Posed images
• High shutter speed for fully focused images
• High ISO

Analysation Image

Technical Analysis- Although this image was taken in the 90s, we can see that a good quality camera has been used in order to create a fully focused image, making it a good analysation image. There has been no intended blur used on this image showing that that photographer has likely used a high shutter speed, as well as a fairly low ISO as there is no grain to the picture and it is overall very clear. Exposure of the image also seems to be high which I’m guessing from the lightness out the background white sheet and outside, making the inside of the image a lot darker, showing a contrast.

Visual Analysis- Visually we can see that there is one person in the image who is a male and has previously been mentioned as Sultans father. He is dressed in white shorts and a blue polo neck, suggesting he has dressed himself in golfing gear due to the golf club he Is holding as well as typical golf players wearing white and polo necks. This could symbolise wealth and upperclass as usual golf players are usually wealthy due to the golf clubs being very expensive to purchase which his father has a hold of in his own home.

Conceptual Analysis- Conceptually I think that Sultan was wanting to represent wealth in his image as he has instructed his father to wear certain clothing, hold an expensive gold club and be positioned on his green carpet to represent a field.

Planning my Environmental Photography shoot

For my environmental shoot i am planning to use a Canon Camera on manual focus which will allow me to adjust the shutter speed, depth of field, aperture etc, in order to create a fully focused image. Due to environmental photography being images of people in their environment, i plan to take images of my grandmother in her working environment as she is a house sitter. These images should include the jobs she does for the person she cares for. I also plan to take images of my mother at home. As an extra i will also take images of my friends in their working environments.

Environmental Photo Shoot

Unedited images

Editing my images

What is Candid Photography?

Candid photography is taking un posed pictures which are natural. The nature of this type of photography is unrelated to the subjects knowledge or consent to that the images are being taken.

Candid Photographer- Richard Billingham

Billingham was born 25th September 1970 and is an English photographer/artist who made films and was also a teacher. He is best known for a photography book called ‘Ray’s A Laugh’ published in 1996 which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray and obese, heavily tattooed mother. This project portrayed the poverty and deprivation in which he grew up in, to do so he chose to use the cheapest film and development he could find, again helping to represent his poor childhood. At first glance his parents are presented as grotesque figures as his father was an alcoholic, drunk. While his mother is seen as an obese chain smoker who had a large obsession for ‘NickNacks’. I found that this work was interesting due to the different personalities in the family which all heavily contrast each other.

His style

• Flash photography
• High shutter speed for fully focused images
• Unposed images
• Images of people/ mostly family
• Images usually include food as an extra subject

Image analysis

Technical analysis- This image has been taken with flash lighting which can be seen from the color contrast of the image. We can also tell that the image would have been taken with a high shutter speed to allow the image to be fully focused, as well as allowing light into the camera. The image portrays that a cheap camera has been used to take the image which helps to contrast the quality of the image with the quality of his life/ the environment they are in.

Visual analysis- Visually we can see that there is one person in the image who is obviously female and can be seen to the right of the image, making it an uneven photograph. The woman can be seen as dressed in her pyjamas/ house wear which is a flowered long dress which comes to her ankles and her slippers. Her hair is also in a short curly bob with either intentional or unintentional black eye makeup around her eyes. These aspects suggest that she is quite lazy, hence why her makeup is smudged under her eyes, she has her hands behind her head and feet up on the sofa suggesting she is tired and is resting. We know from background information that these images are unposed images as this is ‘candid photography’.

Conceptual analysis- The underlying concept of the image is general family life, as the image is representing the mother of the family.

Planning my Candid Photography shoot

For my environmental shoot i am planning to use a Canon Camera on manual focus which will allow me to adjust the shutter speed, depth of field, aperture etc, in order to create a fully focused image. For the images I plan to take images of my brother at home on his playstation, and this will be a good candid image as he is always very focused on the game he plays. I also plan to take images of my friends, mostly at school as well as in their working environments but as a candid image. I also plan to take these images with a flash to show the Billingham effect.

Chosen Unedited Images

Edited Images

Finished Images

With the school we visited les Landes bunker side we were given a tour off the whole under ground bunker systems by Tony Pike a local historian. He has been working closely with an extensive team to restore these under ground tunnel systems. We were the first school allowed to go and see the restoration and given an insight to what it was like back in the times of the war.

We got took look at the old ammunition reals and bomb towers that had be restored to there former glory. When restoring the bunker system they tried to match it as close to the original system as possible from the materials used to the colors of the paint used on the walls. I found the iron strains up to the main outdoor gun very interest the contrasts of the bright white with the rusty orange iron stairs.

When in the tunnels we looked at a-lot of entrances and exits many behind bars. These images for me out of the whole shoot i did seem to be the most powerful. The give of strong connotations of entrapment, imprisonment and occupation. The strong structure of the iron gates with the glowing light from outside makes the images have more context because it shows the cliché “there is alway a light at the end of the tunnel” or even that not to lose hope as many people tried not to do through the gruelling years of occupation of the war.

When walking through the tunnels there were rooms were they had sent up recreations of what the tunnels looked like being built and occupied. These rooms when you walked in were so silent, it almost felt like you couldn’t speak out of respect. It gave a sense of realisation to how harsh the conditions were and how much struggle the people had to deal with. I tried the make the candle the main focus of my images because of the element of respect lighting a candle for all the people who lost their lives in the war.

Also in the tunnels there were many authentic artifacts that were restored and put back in their original places in the tunnels. Many images are also displayed in the tunnels showing exactly what they looked like and the area looking like through these historical documents.

During the autumn term we will set you a weekly photo-assignment which compliments the other work we are doing in class. More importantly these assignments are designed to improve your photographic skills, allow you to be creative with a camera and bulk up your image archive which will help you build a coherent body of work from which you can develop personal stories, interesting visual narratives and refine different outcomes such as designing zines, photobooks and presenting final prints.

In these tasks you will be assessed on effort, camera skills, creativity and overall aesthetic quality of your photographs. You are required to make a self-assessment of each of your shoots using mark sheet at the end of the post.

PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 1: Home Sweet Home
Environmental Portrait – RULE: Use tripod
Candid portrait
DEADLINE: Wed 25 Sept

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT: A formal portrait with emphasis on environment and setting of the model that may suggest the person’s social, economic, cultural background.

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Larry Sultan: Pictures from Home

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Recent interview in New York Times with Alec Soth about his new book I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating and a review by Sean O’Hagan in The Guardian.

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Daniel Meadows: Middle England, 1973-79

Read Fieldwork a study on Daniel Meadows by curator and academic Val Williams

CANDID PORTRAIT: An informal portrait that presents a ‘natural’ look and capturing a moment, seemingly without artifice.

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Richard Billingham: Ray’s A Laugh
Read article in The Guardian by Tim Adams

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Sam Harris, The Middle of Somewhere

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Anthony Haughey: Home, 1989-1990

PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 2: Home Sweet Home
Establishing shot — RULE: Use tripod
Detail shot
DEADLINE: Wed 8 Oct

ESTABLISHING SHOT: a group portrait of two or more members of the family where you are constructing an image that tells a story. This image can be naturally observed or staged. The main focus is conveying a sense of narrative.

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Daniel Meadows: June Street Salford, Manchester, 1973

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Sian Davey, Martha
Read interview here in The Guardian

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Alain Laboile, La Familie

Masahisa Fukase: Family
‘My entire family, whose image I see inverted in the frosted glass, will die one day. This camera, which reflects and freezes their images, is actually a device for archiving death’. – Masahisa Fukase

For three generations the Fukase family ran a photography studio in Bifuka, a small provincial town in the northern Japanese province of Hokkaido. In August 1971, at the age of 35, Masahisa Fukase returned home from Tokyo, where he had moved in the 1950s. He realised that the Fukase Photographic Studio, which his younger brother managed, combined with the growing family members, constituted the perfect subject for a series of portraits. Between 1971 and 1989, he returned regularly and used the family studio, the large-format Anthony view camera and the changing family line-up as the basis for the series. True to his style, Fukase often introduced third-party models and humorous elements to juxtapose the ineluctable reality of time passing and the dwindling family group. He continued the series through his father’s death in 1987, up until the closure of the Fukase studio due to bankruptcy in 1989, and the consequential dispersion of the family.

DETAIL SHOT Focus on a detail of a person or close up of something that conveys something about the individual character or identity eg. age, race, gender, sexuality, fashion, hobby, lifestyle etc.

Martin Parr: Common Sense

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David Moore: Pictures from the Real World, 1987-1988

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Natasha Caruana: The Other Woman, 2005

Sarker Protick: What Remains

PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 3: Home Sweet Home
Interior — RULE: Use tripod
Exterior
DEADLINE: Wed 22 Oct

INTERIOR: Photograph your home with no people in it. Choose the locations where you shot your portraits. Make sure to consider rooms with interest, eg. space, decor, furniture, objects on display etc.

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Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen: Byker, 1975-1980

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Anna Fox: Mum in a Million, 2007

EXTERIOR: Photograph your home from the outside, using different points of view from the garden, road. Consider different angles, details as well as deadpan approach. Include fences, hedges. Produce a typologies of every house on your street photographed from the roadside.

Stephen McCoy: Housing Estates Box Set, 1985

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Robert Adams: New West

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Robert Adams: Summer Nights

For further inspirations: See exhibition Home Sweet Home and book of the same name (see in class). Read feature here on Lensculture

GUIDELINES
Consider the following

• LOCATION: at home in the living room, kitchen or bedroom, consider natural light (window light) and backdrop. Location can also be outside of the house during daylight

• MODEL: family members, parents, brother, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends.

• POSING: ask model to try out different poses and control how you set up the people you are photographing choosing appropriate location and backdrop.

• FRAMING: full-body, half-body and head-shots, experiment with different angles and use appropriate focal lenght (ie. wide-angle lens 18-35mm, standard lens 50mm, telephoto lens 70-300mm).

• LIGHTING: consider source and direction of lighting

• INSIDE: use natural light through window as side light

• OUTSIDE: Avoid direct sunlight or dull grey overcast light in the middle of the day. Choose softer light, early morning/ late afternoon, sunlight diffused by clouds etc.

EVIDENCE
From each assignment complete the following and publish on blog:

• EDITING: Upload and process images from each photo-shoot using Lightroom. Make a rough edit of 8–10 images and evaluate. 
• EXPERIMENTING: Show experimentation with different adjustments/ techniques/ processes in Lightroom/ Photoshop appropriate to intentions.
• ANALYSIS: Select at least 2 key images and analyse in depth using this methodology: TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL. Compare with examples of artists references where appropriate.

• EVALUATION: Evaluate your assignment and make a self assessment based on the criteria, EFFORT, SKILL, CREATIVITY and AESTETHIC using this mark sheet and post on the blog.

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Born in 1885 Jersey Channel Islands, Francis Foot’s desire to be a photographer started when phonogram records were realised and no noticed he could make a career out of it, therefore leading his family to open up a second store after his fathers occupation being a glass and china dealer at the time St Helier was affluent. He worked at the second store as a photographer and sold both photogram and gramophone records.

His interests in photography is shown within portraiture work where he captured images of Jersey citizens. At the time where he was taking these images it helped to show the cultural aspects of society which makes the work in the 20th century look better. He also looked into family portraiture and would occasionally capture his own family which is sometimes seen. Wealth was sometimes seen in the background of his images, as we;; as personal lives of the subjects.

Francis Foot’s Work

Her style

• Black and white imagery
• Mixture of high and low shutter speeds for different depth of fields
• Old camera with not many settings
• High ISO settings
• Exposure is usually at a high setting shown through the white parts of images
• Images in natural enviroments

Analysation image

Technical analysis- We can see that the camera used in this image was clearly not as good as a modern camera, making it more difficult to analyse the technical elements in this photograph. Due to the no intended blur of the photograph there was likely a high shutter speed used, there also could of been a high ISO used in order to create the grain in the image but this also could of been because of the poor camera quality. Exposure of the image also seems to be high because of how bright the dress looking in comparison to the bottom right of the picture which has created a slight blur. There has been a narrow depth of field used as the focus is on the child and stroller while the background of bushes is blurred. Previously mentioned Francis takes his pictures in a natural environment, thus taken outdoors which is is suggesting natural lighting as also being used to take this image. The image was taken in the 20th century, explaining the black and white.

Visual analysis- Visually we can see that there is one child in the photo, presented a little of the left of the picture and she is dressed in a white dress. The white could symbolise purity in the family giving an idea of upper class and wealth. The positing of the child could be planned as she is looking at the camera and has her hand on the baby stroller which could be seen as a posing position, therefore un naturalistic.

Conceptual analysis- I think that Francis wanted to show the wealth of the child in this image as the little girl can be seen in a clean white dress, a bow in her hair to represent purity, shiny black shoes, and is also captured next to a expensive looking baby stroller. This is showing that the children have a good life due to the financial situation of the parents, showing the contextual factor of how the class system had affected Jersey Channel Islands. This image is showing Francis is proud of his financial situation and what he can provide his children with, almost as if the took these images to brag.

Francis Foot was born in 1885 to the parents Francois Foot and Louisa Hunt. His father Francois was a china and glass dealer in Dumaresq street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier. His son started working as a gas fitter, however he soon became interested in photography and realised he could make a living from this area.

The family took on a second shop in Pitt Street, where Francis worked as a photographer, while his father and mother sold gramophones, records and other wares.

Many of his photographs were portraits of his family, however some were published as postcards.

Stanley’s son John was the one who gave the collection of the glass plates and other photographic material, which has been gathering dust since his grandfather’s death to La Societe Jersiaise.

Francis Foot also took 16mm black and white cine films, some of which are held by the Jersey Archive. These show events such as aircraft landing, a visit by HMS Sheffield, cattle shows, Battle of Flowers at Springfield and the liberation and visit soon after of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Visual

In this image you can see three children in the middle of the image, with one sitting down in a chair and the other two standing, all looking into the camera. They’re all dressed in clothes fit for that time era, and what they’re wearing suggest that they come from at least a middle class family. The image itself was taken in black and white, and it’s a little bit blurry suggesting that a lower shutter speed was used. The arrangement of where the children stood looks like it was thought out, with the tallest child sitting down on a chair to appear the same height as the middle boy, and it seems to go in descending order of height from left to right. The background with the long lane behind the children is blurry enough so it doesn’t steal the viewer’s attention from the children, but solid enough so you can take in the view around them.

Technical

The lighting used in this image seems to be a natural lighting due to the fact that they are outside. The shutter speed used was probably low as the image seems a little blurry from where the children were moving a little bit. The image seems a little bit over exposed as the white clothes worn by the young boys blend in with the white pathway behind them.

Contextual

These children are the children of Francis Foot. At this time, he and his wife Margaret Vernon only had three children, who are all pictured in this image, named George , Stanley and Dora. This was before they had their fourth child, Reg. At the time of this image, George was 5, Stanley was 4 and Dora was 2. Reg was born a year after this image was taken, in 1920.