From the project Occupation vs Liberation I have learned a lot of new skills to help me with my future work and personal study. During the project, I have learnt how to photography in low light, which was when I was doing my object photo shoot. I also learned how to use different types of lighting to light an object including back light and how to experiment with background types. I have also learnt how to use a tripod effectively and how to use this to take images from above. I also really enjoyed making my own zines for the first time, I think a zine is a really effective way of displaying and presenting photography. In my personal study I hope to continue experimenting with background and lighting in order to create interesting photographs.
What has inspired me in this project?
This really depends one what part of the project. During the Landscape portion, the artist that mostly inspired my work was Paul Virilio, who took images of war structures, that is why I edited most of my outcomes into black and white. I also was inspired by the montage technique of combing images in an interesting way. I was also inspired by the stories and people behind the places I took images of and showed this in my montages. I enjoyed people and object more. I thought it was brilliant to take images of an actual occupation survivor and the outcomes were really good. The idea of looking at their stories and creating a narrative within a zine has sparked quite a few ideas for me. When looking at people I was inspired by Martin Parr’s saturated images commenting on the silliness of British culture. I found that really interesting and might do something similar in relation to Occupation vs Liberation. I also enjoyed objects and working with the lighting in the studio. I liked using a reflective service to create soft and sentimental appearance to the image. with the occupation objects.
The First March of Gentlemen- Milach Home Sweet Home
These two zines have inspired me with my images for my zine. For instance, the object images I have taken have colorful sugar paper backgrounds like in The First March of Gentlemen and the other images were inspired by Home Sweet Home.
For my zine I hope to tell a narrative about where I live, my house, the objects in it and my parents.
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.
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.
Daniel Meadows
Images from Meadow’s June Street Salford
Daniel Meadow’s considers himself a documentarist, ‘ I have spent a lifetime recording British society, challenging the status quo by working in a collaborative way to capture extraordinary aspects of ordinary life, principally through photography but also with audio recordings and short movies. ‘ (Meadows https://www.photobus.co.uk/daniel-meadows )
He was born in England, Glouschestire, in 1952 and studied at Manchester Polytechnic from 1970-73. During this time he took photos for June Street Salford and collaborated with a fellow student at the time Martin Parr.
1973-73 he toured England in the PhotoBus running a mobile free portrait. He made a record of this journey in his book Living like this- Around Britain in the Seventies which was published 1975.
Daniel Meadow’s Style
Meadow’s style is very nostalgic and reflects on the passing of time, for example, he did a collection looking at how people have aged, photographing them in the same place. His images in June Street Salford tells a story of a family by how they are positioned and by the items around them, but also the number of people or lack of people in the image. He takes the majority of his images in black and white. His images also comment on the structure of the family at the time with men always standing above the rest of the family or at the center of the image.
Analysis
Technical
The lighting is artificial from the light in the room and light coming from the fireplace. It’s a wide-angled aperture because the items around the family are in focus. I think it was taken with a lower IOS sensitivity because the image isn’t grainy.
Visual
There is no color in this image because it’s been done in black and white. There is a variety of tones, there are some really bright whites on the walls and then the dark couch and carpet which creates a lot of contrast. There’s also a variety of texture in the image like the whool of the carpet juxtaposing with the smooth tile.
Contextual
The image was taken kin 70’s to document homes of the working class. At the time documentary photography was becoming increasingly popular and Meadow’s and Parr were part of a new wave of documentary photographers. Meadows asked the families to pose for the photos.
Conceptual
The idea behind the image was to document working-class family life and to tell the stories of those families. It also comments on the social constructs of the majority of the homes in Britain at the time. Meadows asked the families to pose for the photos, he didn’t direct them. In most of the images from this series, the image depicts a family, always with a man at the center or standing over the rest of the family, with the wife sitting down with the children. The eldest child is standing and any animal is on the floor. They almost show the hierarchy of the family in those days which makes sense because in those days the man was the main provider and main decision-maker of the family and the women were encouraged to sit at home with the children.
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.
Common Sense
Information:
He was born in 1952 and is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He had the ambition to be a photojournalist since he was 14. His grandfather was an amateur photographer. He studied at Manchester Polytechnic with Daniel Meadows and Brian Griffin. They collaborated on projects frequently.
His first mature piece of work was in 1975, called Rural Communities. He spent five years photographing rural life in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, and Ireland. His focus was on isolated rural communities that were closing down. He shot in black and white to give the images a nostalgic look.
He then went on to do many other projects including Common Sense. In 1988 he joined Magnum photos. He became a full member in 1994 and was even president of Magnum Photos international for 3 and a half years.
Martin Parr style of Photography:
Martin Parr uses his photography to display his unique view of the world. He uses bright colours which can appear garish, he makes them appear this way so you react slightly in disgust as some of his images like the ones of bizarre people sunbathing in Common Sense. He focuses on the way we live, the way we present ourselves and our culture to others and what we value.
To contextualise his work he has researched leisure, consumption and communication, which is very evident in his works. He shines a new light on normalities in our culture and makes them seem peculiar and ridiculous. Within his images, he manages to create his own view of society which makes you question your view on society.
His style is humorous and makes one question our values and culture within the ideas of leisure and consumption. Within his photobooks, he juxtaposes images that are of completely different things but are similar because of a common colour or subject like below. You have this woman on a blue towel sunbathing which is already peculiar then he juxtapositions it with this image of what looks like blue meringue with a smily face which is of a completely different thing yet is similar.
Analysis:
Technical
The lighting in this image is natural because it’s outside. You can see the light reflecting off the sunglasses. The image was taken with a wide aperture because the items in the background are still in good focus. I think it’s got a lower IOS, it’s got low light sensitivity because the image isn’t grainy.
Visual
The colours in the image are highly saturated. Every different colour catches your eye, from the red rope in the background to the small pink lines of her lips. This is intentionally done by Parr to make our leisure culture appear bizarre and question the society we live in. This image has a lot of variety of texture. You can see the leathery texture of her skin, the wispy texture of her hair, the grainy texture of the dand and the texture of the towel fabric. The image has been cleverly composed so you have this bronze leathery woman haloed with white wispy hair sprawled ly medusa on this bright beach towel taking up most of the image. It’s been taken at just the right time where you can see her eyes within the glasses looking towards the sun.
Contextual
This image was taken in 2019 as part of a Gucci Cruise of the French Riviera#. It was a reminder of his work from Common sense due to its saturated colour and bizarre subject.
Conceptual
The conceptual image behind this is much like the conceptual meaning of his Common Sense work. The idea behind it is to make us be critical of British culture through his satirical eye. This image shows it in the way that yes, she’s this woman in lavish jewellery, glasses, swimsuit and she seems to be enjoying it but the concept is to make us question it. And we do. Why is she such big earrings whilst sunbathing? Why is she sunbathing, she already looks like she’s had so much sun? Is this what I look like sunbathing? This idea behind it is to make us cringe at ourselves and make us self aware of our peculiar culture of leisure. The idea behind it is idiosyncrasy which is to express excentricity and peculiarness.
I’m really happy with the outcome of this shoot. I think the outcomes really reflect the genre of detail shot in the way that I’ve used a close aperture to focus on a small detail of a person or what they are wearing. I think the images also reflect Martin Parr in the way that by editing their saturation and vibrancey I’ve made the images look like his and because I’ve focused on jewelry which is a constant subject in his work.
