Autochrome: an early form of color photography created by the Lumiere brothers in France.
Lumiere Brothers
Emile F.Guiton
Born 1879 in Jersey, he was a member of Societe Jersiaise and was a curator of the museum. He was an amateur photographer who experimented with color during the early days of auto chrome. He had a fascination of how buildings change over times. He recognized the importance of collecting and recording photographers, and donated many images to the Societe Jersiaise .
Emile F. Guiton
Examples of his work:
His Style:
Some of his images are in black and white and other starting to incorporate color in the style of early color photography, auto chromes. His auto chromes are most famously still life images of flowers on tables against black backgrounds. His Auto chromes naturally have a faded looking blur to them that make them look like really detailed oil paintings. In some of his images he includes wilting flowers.
Analysis
Technical
The light appears to artificial and coming from the left side of the image because one half to the image is lit whilst the other part has shadow to it creating tonal range. The color balance is quite warm but that is probably because it’s an auto chrome.
Visual
Because of the fact it’s an auto chrome and looks like an oil painting the image looks quite flat. Because of the flowers there is a lot of texture in the image because he’s chosen flowers with lots of petals and leaves. He’s composed the image so the vase in the center of the shot and has framed it with the black background. The vase is on a surface which he has tried to cover with leaves in order to disguise it.
We managed to get some objects from the war from the Jersey Archive. This included stuff such as a war helmet, tins of bandages, a red cross package, a bar of soap, coupons and much more. We decided to take still life images of these in the studio with two types of lighting – Continuous lighting and flash lighting.
Continuous lighting is what it’s name suggests – lighting which doesn’t change. With this lighting we paired it with an infinity board to make the objects look secluded and in an area bigger than it actually is.
Flash lighting is when the lighting flashes as the image is taken. This is done by putting a sensor on the camera so it can time when to turn the lights on. This type of lighting was more used with a birds eye view angle – the camera was put on a special stand which positions it looking down at the subject from above.
Light room work :
Original pictures
Originally I had taken 60 still life images in total of the objects, and from there i uploaded them onto light room and sorted through them, flagging the ones I wanted to use.
After I had flagged the images I wanted.
After flagging my wanted images I was left with 15 images to choose from. I went and colour coded each image. Yellow means that there’s a chance I might use the image, green means that I will defiantly be using the image for my blog.
Images which have been colour coded yellow
Images which I have been colour coded green
Chosen images:
Red cross package with tins of bandages and an emergency tin.
Two tins with bandages with an emergency tins.
Two tins of bandages
Red cross package with two tins of bandages and an emergency tin.
Red cross box with a crystal radio box and a war helmet.
In a lot of these images I was going for a warm tone. In the images of the coupons and newspaper, this warm tone brought out the yellowing of the aging paper. I also tried getting the objects to stand out against the background, to be bright and focused so it’s the only thing that the viewer can concentrate on. I also liked the look of the reflections on the floor, caused by the infinity board. It makes it look like the objects are in fact on something and aren’t floating in space, but it also doesn’t take much attention away from the object itself.
For the continuous light, my settings on my camera were:
Camera setting: Manual Mode ISO: 100 White Balance: Daylight Aperture: F/16 Shutter: 0.5 sec to 0.8 sec
For the flashing light, my setting on my camera were :
Camera setting: Manual Mode ISO: 100 White Balance: Daylight Aperture: F/16 Shutter: 1/125-1/200 Flash heads set to power output: 2.0
Here is a photo taken of the setup used with colour-block backgrounds. The object is placed in the middle; on top of a colourful sheet, with a second sheet behind it. It is difficult to see because of the flash being on, but there is a small pilot light to the right, which makes it easier to focus and adjust the image when the flash is off. Then there are the two flashes either side of the object being photographed, this helps give the photo bright and even lighting. As this photo was taken using the camera the camera setup cannot be seen in this photo, but it consisted of a camera with a flash transmitter attached, placed on a tripod with a sandbag to prevent it falling over. There was also a shutter cable release used in order to reduce camera shake when pressing the shutter button on the actual camera.
This is an example of a raw image from the colour-block background photo shoot. It is unedited yet extremely vibrant and popping out of the page, this is thanks to the high contrast between the background and object being photographed in the foreground which is possible due to this method.
This is an example of a finished photo from the shoot. I will go into further detail about it in the next blog post.
The cook maid and market scenes, popular in the seventeenth century evolved in the low countries from a genre practiced by Pieter Aertsen ( c.1533 – c.1573) and his colleague Joachim Beucklaear, which combined contemporary kitchen scenes with a new testament episode beyond. Bacon could have been inspired by the work he had seen on his visit he made to the low countries in 1613.
Religiously, this image would have suited the era in which it was painted. Symbolically, the idea that their is a house wife in the kitchen would have suited the traditional values that would have had to be upheld during this time. A woman would always be the one that sat at home and cooks for her family .
Rafal Milach was born in 1978 in Gliwice Poland, and is known as a Polish visual artist/ photographer. He undertakes large-term projects and is known as a nominee member of Magnum Photos. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and studied at the Institute of Creative Photography.
He was invited to take part in the Kolekcja Wrzesnia artist residency program and there was when he became part of the children’s protest which had occurred while the Germans occupied Poland. The town became known for this protest as they attempted to change things such as getting rid of Polish from the school curriculum, which led to over 100 children from Catholic People’s school going on strike as protest of their education and schools.
During this time, there were mass rallies do to the government trying to gain more power, which inspired children to march along with the rallies which was an inspiration for Milach’s most well known book, “The First March of Gentlemen”. This book includes photo montages which show the 1902’s children strike, with characters who lived in the communist era. This book allowed him to create archive images.
The Book “The First March of Gentlemen”
The book was brightly coloured and included a long piece of blue string which shut the book together. Inside, lots of shapes and colours which along with the string make it look like a children’s book which was the overall inspiration for the project.
Mood Board of Inside the Book
Photo Analysis
Technical Analysis- After researching about the work, we known that this book was created using archival images with brightly coloured backgrounds. However, we do not know if this has been done digitally or done by hand.
Visual Analysis- Visually, we can see that the man in the image is dressed in black and white which are typically vintage colours which helps to portray the image of an adult. However, the rest of the image is very colourful and the background is half red and half blue. The colouring helps to draw the audiences attention as it is very overpowering. Their has been a geometrical shape used on the outside of the positioning of the man which could be seen as a symbolism of being trapped. The expression on the man’s face is very calm.
Contextual Analysis- This is an image from Rafal’s book which shows political activism.
Conceptual Analysis- Conceptually, a metaphor is being created by the bright colours and shapes in the image which can be seen as quite childish and this is helping to contrast the old, calm man in the centre of the image.
