During military service, August Sander was an assistant in a photographic studio in Trier; he then spent the following two years working in various studios elsewhere. By 1904 he had opened his own studio in Linz, Austria, where he met with success. He moved to a suburb of Cologne in 1909 and soon began to photograph the rural farmers nearby. Around three years later Sander abandoned his urban studio in favor of photographing in the field, finding subjects along the roads he traveled by bicycle.
Sanders set out on a photographic project to document the people of his native Westerwald, near Cologne. Sander photographed subjects from all walks of life and created a typological catalogue of more than six hundred photographs of the German people. Although the Nazis banned the portraits in the 1930s because the subjects did not adhere to the ideal Aryan type, Sander continued to make photographs. After 1934 his work turned increasingly to nature and architectural studies.
MOOD-BOARD:
WORK ANALYSIS:
TECHNICAL:
The image picturing the young farmers is well exposed, slightly on the over exposed side as the bright white sky and highlights are very prominent in this image.
VISUAL:
This black and white photograph is a group portrait of three young men portrayed outdoors on a path in a natural setting. They stand behind each other in single file, their bodies facing in the same forward direction perpendicular to the picture plane, their heads looking to their right straight at the camera. All three of them wear suits and hats and gaze with some self-assurance directly at the photographer. The young man on the left has unkempt hair peeking out from his tilted hat, a cigarette dangling nonchalantly from his lips, and holds a wooden cane at an angle to the ground. The central figure is holding a cigarette in his left hand and clasps a cane in the other, while the man on the right and at the front of the group seems rooted to the spot, his cane held straight to the ground echoing his upright posture.
CONTEXTUAL:
The photograph was taken by August Sander using a large format, glass plate camera with a long exposure time, the kind primarily used in portrait studios. This is one of many photographs taken by him of rural people from the wooded low mountain region of Westerwald in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Westerwald was the region where the photographer was born, and it was where he traveled in search of new clients after setting up his portrait studio in Cologne-Lindenthal in 1910, having returned to Germany the previous year from Linz, Austria.
After contacting multiple people to see who was willing to be involved in a photoshoot, I was finally able to get hold of a dog walker.
WHAT am I photographing?
During this photoshoot I was planning to capture a very regular walk , the everyday typical working day of the subject.
WHEN am I doing the photoshoot?
I chose to do this photoshoot during early/ late morning as I felt that I could get the best, most bright images during this time of day.
WHERE did I conduct this photoshoot?
In order to get the most interesting images, I visited two locations, a wooded area in Trinity and also Bouley Bay.
WHY did I conduct this photoshoot in this way?
I thought that the images I’d take during this photoshoot would be a lot more interesting as there are more than one subject in the image. There are dogs which would add an element of action to all the images.
HOW did I produce the images?
For this photoshoot, due to the bright weather conditions of the day, I used a sun hood on my camera to avoid over exposure of the images. I introduced a power complex to the images, taking the images from a low angle.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IMAGES;
TECHNICAL:
This photoshoot was quite tough in terms of exposure to capture properly. It was early morning when I went out to capture these images. I was expecting cloudy weather, with very diffused, soft natural light, yet the day was only partially cloudy therefore there would be moments when the sun was very strong and I would be forced to manually change my exposure and shutter speed settings. This in turn made a lot of the images have motion blur due to the moving of the dogs and walking to capture the images. I therefore used a sun hood in order to stop this from happening, making a lot of the images very dramatic in lighting. During this photoshoot I also had keep in front of the subjects in order to allow them to look into the camera and make eye contact. There is no real composition to any of the photos as they were captured in the middle of an action, sometimes stopping to again make eye contact with the camera. Also due to the fact that I constantly had to keep in front of the subjects, I had to walk quite a distance in front of them meaning I used a long-focus lense, this allowed me to retain the quiality of the images even when I zoomed in on the subjects. It was also useful as it was a better lense for capturing action shots. As for camera settings, I mostly used the M (manual) setting, due to the constant changing of light in the environment, being dark in the wooded area and very bright on the beach. I used a shutter speed of 1/800 as this allowed we to capture, crisp and clear images even when the dogs and the subject was moving around. I used exposures of f8 during cloudier periods of time and f16 when it was sunnier as this meant that the images weren’t over or underexposed during specific weather conditions. As for white balance, I kept it on the daylight setting as I thought this was the most effective and allowed me to capture images that are balanced.
VISUAL:
During this photoshoot, the hardest aspect was definitely having reoccurring eye contact with the subjects. Due to the chaotic nature of this photoshoot, and having to run in front of the subject to capture them, it was hard to remind the subject to look at the camera. For the image below, I asked the subjects to stay still and look at me, I felt that this was a very successful image due to the ominous and dark atmosphere it has. There is a real sense of depth in this image, as the first subject is in the foreground of the image, the second being in the miground and the trees in the background. It is in a way a parallel image is it seems like the subject in the foreground is duplicated in the midground but flipped around to make eye contact with the camera. I edited the image and made it black and white as I felt this was the most suitable for this photo and the atmosphere it has. To remain consistent I did this for all my images. This image is extremely dramatic in nature, not only coming from the dim surroundings but also the facial expression of the subject. It is quite blank, with no noticeable feeling being captured, fitting well with the overall theme of this photoshoot. The angle of the image is quite central, slightly upwards facing. This further adds to the powerful presence of the subjects in the image. Both the subjects have a neutral stance, simply standing straight, yet the combined stance of them adds to an overall alluring image. The trees situated in the background of the image, break up the even surface of the coats of the subjects, adding additional captivating elements to the portrait. The light is hitting from the top left hand corner of the image, illuminating the face of the first subject yet keeping it dark for the second subject.
CONCEPTUAL:
During this photoshoot, the main concept I was wanting to capture was lifestyle and class in Jersey. This is island is filled with natural beauty, with beaches and natural landscapes all around. The subject who makes a living, spending their days in the outdoors to me is very admirable, as it is a job unlike most in jersey. Having a notably large financial sector, most people work in jobs which forces them to be stationary, not seeing the real jersey. This ties in to a much larger issue of people becoming disconnected from nature and the outdoors. This having many adverse effects, such as poor mental and physical health. Jobs like this are often seen as low class, yet it is on the simple tasks that often play an essential role in society. Very class, poor and rich have a place in society, being the mechanism which makes it run like it does. I feel as though this photoshoot also has links to gender, and gender roles. It is often expected that women hold lower level, less roles in authority, which this photoshoot enforces slightly. Should we really be enforcing traditional gender roles? It is not always something that I am against for. Different jobs express the true nature of the genders, males being naturally more dominant and lead better, and women generally being nurturing and caring. However it may enforce this, I feel this job is admirable in the sense that it lets the subject maintain good mental and physical health through the constant exposure to nature.
CONTEXTUAL:
Both subjects in this photoshoot are my own personal family members. The woman (my mother) has a big love for animals, especially dogs. She holds a job as a nursery school teacher during the weekdays and choosing to take dogs out for walks on the weekend. She was born in Latvia, in a small town near the border of Russia in the 1970s. Her farther being a forest ranger, she grew up inside a forest, contributing to her love of nature and all things outdoors. She grew up in communist soviet state of Russia, therefore being very limited to any outside knowledge before the 1990s when the state finally collapsed and she was able to travel for the very first time to other European countries. Latvia, after being in financial collapse throughout the 2000s, made it very tough for my family to remain living it Latvia, legally moving to jersey in 2012. The other subject in the photo is my brother. Being a few years older than me, he has started his own professional career in mechanics. Growing up in a rural town, he also from a very young agr acquired love for nature, often saying that he can’t “function before having a walk”.
An environmental portrait is a portrait taken of a person or people in a situation that they live in and a place that says something about who they are. It is often a place of work, rest or play. Images which are quite natural, yet a little staged by the subject making eye contact with the camera. They are making a connection with the camera.
Mood Board:
This mood board displays the general sense of what environmental portraiture is. They all follow a general theme by being staged and the subject making eye contact with the camera. There is a sense of place with the people being in their work, there is a sense of connection by the photographer letting us into the life of the person.
Fibonacci Spiral:
While the rule of thirds is the most widely known composition rule, there’s another principal that plays a big role in composing images with that wow factor; the golden ratio. While its basis does lie in math and numbers, the golden ratio is really about what the human eye sees, and composing an image that immediately demands attention. This photo also follows the Fibonacci spiral, it follows the composition which makes this a very effective and balanced image.
The golden ratio is actually a number. It’s found by taking a line (or sometimes another shape) and dividing it into two parts. When a line or shape is divided into two parts based on the golden ratio, it will be divided in such a way that, if you divided the length of the longest section by the length of the smallest section, it would be equal to the original length of the shape divided by the longest section.
The first initial response that comes to mind when looking at this image is the serious expression on the face of the man. he is making clear eye contact with the camera which makes a direct connection with the viewer. He is in as sense staring into your soul. The addition of the shadows and darkness even further add to the dramatic theme of the photo. The facial expression on the mans face gives him a very intimidating look. It also makes the viewer feel very uneasy and question the image. What is the man thinking and feeling? Why is he in this environment? The overall dark and saturated tones of the image further allude to this and create a very strong emotional response in the viewer. It is also a very industrial environment where the image is staged in therefore it further makes the image feel cold and unwelcoming. The man is also wearing a suit which gives him a position of authority and power.
Visual:
Pictured in the image is an elderly Caucasian man, roughly the age of 70, with his two hands intertwined with each other. He is wearing a formal uniform, possibly a suit. He is sitting inside a train facing the camera. Behind him is a window, through which we can see the inside of a train assembly factory.There is a wide field of view in this image with elderly man being in the foreground, the window being in the mid ground and the train assembly line being in the background. The lines on the ceiling guide your eye into the center of the image where the head of the man is, making it the focal point of the image. Focal length is also used in this image with the face of the man being most in focus and the background being a lot more blurry. It is a very busy photo with many geometric elements filling the space. The editing of this photo means that it is slightly over saturated with the mans skins glowing an unnatural green. The lights on the top of the ceiling also create a sense of pattern and repetition. The man is sitting in the center of the image meaning that this is what you’re drawn to most making him the first thing that your eyes are drawn to. The most prominent color in this image is the black which gives an overall dark and deep aura to the image. This image is well exposed, with the dark and light being balanced out, yet it is clear that two light sources have been used. Behind the window inside the factory, natural light is coming in through the windows which illuminates the space, yet in front of the window where the man is sitting, an artificial light source has been used so that the mans face can be seen.
Technical:
The exposure in this image is very balanced, with the highlights not being overly prominent or the shadows being too dark. The light coming in from the background is also not overpowering the foreground. The image does not have any motion blur meaning that it is very likely that the camera was propped up on something or a tripod was used. It is also clear that this was used as it is a fairly dark environment, meaning that if there was any movement, it would be very blurred. Behind the tripod was likely an artificial light source which illuminates the face of the man. The facial expression and pose of the man is very clearly unnatural, therefore this image was staged in order to make it as dramatic as possible.
Conceptual:
Krupp, long-faced and bushy-browed, is made to look like Mephistopheles incarnate: smirking, his fingers clasped as he confronts the viewer against the background of a assembly line in the Ruhr. In the color version his face has a greenish cast.
The impression it leaves was no accident: Mr. Newman knew that Krupp had used slave labor in his factories during the Nazi reign and that he had been imprisoned after World War II for his central role in Hitler’s war machine.
Contextual:
Mr. Newman was credited with popularizing a style of photography that became known as environmental portraiture. Working primarily on assignment for magazines, he carried his camera and lighting equipment to his subjects, capturing them in their surroundings and finding in those settings visual elements to evoke their professions and personalities.
The “environmental” approach was what largely distinguished Mr. Newman’s portraits from those of his contemporaries. Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, for example, preferred to work within the bald white arena of their studios.
Rule of thirds:
Arnold Newman has used the rule of thirds in order to create this very successful image. The body of the man is withing the center column of the image therefore this is the first thing the view is drawn to, also due to the fact that he is in the foreground. More importantly his face is located in the very middle of the image, meaning it becomes even more intimidating as he is the focal point.
Traditional or Classical portraiture would refer to an image where face is the predominant element. The purpose of the photograph is to depict visual representation of that person. Subject is expected to be looking directly at the camera. With what is described as a head-shot, two thirds or full body framing can be used
2. ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT.
The term Environmental Portrait refers to an image where the subject is photographed in person’s natural environment. For example, a worker photographed at the construction zone, teacher in the classroom, sculptor in a sculpture studio and so on. Surroundings are used to compliment the subject and to emphasize his character. Subject and setting are chosen by the photographer.
4. CANDID PORTRAIT.
A candid portrait is taken without a subject expecting or acknowledging the photographer. This style used in photo journalism, travel photography, street photography and event photography. As opposed to an environmental portrait this image is captured at the moment rather than set up.
The term Lifestyle Portrait refers to portraits where emphasis is given to suggest the “style of living” of the individuals depicted. Technically it is a combination of environmental portrait and candid portrait. More weight is given to communicate the feeling of life experience of the subject. Style has numerous implications in commercial and fine art photography. Editorial, fashion, pharmaceutical, and food industries often use lifestyle images to evoke emotions in viewers by depiction of desired life styles. It is common to see this style used in wedding and family portrait photography as well.
7. SURREAL PORTRAIT.
Surreal Portraits are created to emphasize the other reality. A depiction of a person’s interpreted subconscious mind. Surrealism is an art movement started in the early 1920‘s and still alive and well. In photography tricks and special effects are used to achieve a surreal look.
8. CONCEPTUAL PORTRAIT.
Conceptual Portrait refers to images where concept adds a fourth dimension. The hidden meaning of the concept will leave the viewer guessing as it is often open for interpretation. Conceptual artists generally get offended when asked what did they mean in their photograph. It is the job of the viewer to decide. Conceptual Portraits are often used in advertising photography but concepts are much easier to understand.
9. ABSTRACT PORTRAIT.
Abstract portraits are created with a purpose of creating art and not based on realistic representation of a person. Collage or digital manipulation is often used.
These are possible layout ideas for my final images which I selected previously. They range from full image layout, to cropping it parallel and arranging them with additional photos. I have a total of 6 images that I am able to combine and put into a layout. It will be a difficult arrangement as each image comes in a different format, some being more panoramic, some rectangular and some in a regular A4 or A5 format.
This is another possible layout idea which could work for my final piece, but it is difficult to determine whether this will be the right way to do it as the sizes of the photos are not relative to their actual sizes (A3, A4, A5). I like the overlapping of the images as they harmoniously blend into each other. The simple color pallet of all the images means that they can be easily grouped together without clashing or looking out of place, it also allows me to group the images without having to crop any of them which makes the whole process a lot simpler and easier.
Sarah Lamb is a talented and dynamic realist painter. With classical skill—and through transparency, depth and texture—she captures the minute details of everyday objects in her dramatic still lifes and luscious landscapes. She makes us love the familiar and see beauty in the mundane.
Born in Petersburg, VA, with a passion for art and an appreciation for the past, Sarah spent a semester at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy before graduating from Brenau Women’s College with a BS degree in Studio Art in 1993. Following a summer workshop in Santa Fe, NM with renowned classical painter Jacob Collins, she spent two years painting at The Ecole Albert Defois in the Loire Valley with classical realist artist Ted Seth Jacobs.
In 1997 she moved to New York and spent the next 6 years studying and painting under Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier. During this time, she had successful one-woman shows in major galleries in Atlanta, Houston, and San Francisco and was represented in art galleries in Alexandria, VA, St. Simon’s Island and Gainesville, GA, Sag Harbor, NY and Madison, CT.
More recently, she has had sell-out, one-woman shows at the Spanierman Gallery in NY, the Meredith Long Gallery in Houston, TX and the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. She has been featured in magazines such as American Artists, American Art Collector and Southwest Art as one of America’s most talented young painters.
British-born art critic, John A. Parks, wrote that “Sarah Lamb brings to her work a robustly sensual grasp of the world. Her keenness of eye and joyful brush make the whole enterprise feel freshly alive as she reminds us what the really wonderful things in life are.”
Sarah, her husband, artist, David Larned, and their daughter, Sadie, divide their time between Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley and Houston, Texas.
Classical Still Life Painting Classical Still Life Painting Sarah Lamb
MY PROCESS AND RESPONSE:
For this photo shoot I set up a still life composition to photograph, including many different types of object that you would find classically such as pottery, glassware and fruit. In order to create the dark and atmospheric setting that most still life possess, I laid down a dark floor which would accommodate the objects. This floor flowing all the way into the left top hand corner of the image. Furthermore, I added a fairly soft light source in order to retain the dark atmosphere. I did not use natural light, but instead an artificial white bulb which kept the images very neutral in color.
For my second photo shoot, I also followed a similar pattern of work, selecting objects that would be fir to include in still life, yet this time I experimented with laying down a white sheet to see the effects this would have on the overall outcome of the image. I kept the light source at top right hand corner of the image. I included less richly color objects and decided to stick to a more neutral color palette which in turn made the images feel more light and breezy.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MY FAVORITE IMAGE:
TECHNICAL: In order to retain the darkness in the first photo shoot, the room which I was in was fairly dark therefore i set my ISO setting quite high, to 1600, which allowed me to have a good balance between the dark and light in the images. Again, due to the darkness in the room, I had to use a slow shutter speed to allow as much light as possible into the camera, setting it to 1/15. To avoid the inevitable motion blur, i used a tripod to keep my camera still whilst taking the photos and to have a very central, head on view of the still life. I kept my aperture high in order to allow my camera to capture a large field of view as the still life set up was quite large itself.
VISUAL: The first thing that the image conveys is the darkness and depth of color, the rich, juicy red of the tomatoes and the dark purple of the grapes that hand from the pottery. The light source, coming directly from the top right hand corner of the image casts a strong highlight onto the tomatoes, giving very powerful light reflections. The light also bounces of the walls of the glass, giving it dimension. The darkness of the shadows also creates a depth of space in the image, the glass and tomatoes being right in the foreground of the image, whilst the delicate tea cups are in the background, There is a harsh contrast between the bright white walls and the darkness of the shadows which further add to the mood of the image. The image overall is very busy and crowded, yet the composition of the objects mean that they are harmoniously linked to one another. There is a wide variety of texture, shape and color in the image. The tomatoes: smooth and glossy, the glass: transparent and delicate, the pottery: rough and uneven. A lot of the objects in the image have smoothness of line and roundness which allows the image to flow and intertwine.
CONTEXTUAL: Historically, still life paintings were deeply imbued with religious and mythological meaning. This was a reflection of the times; the Church was the center of everyday life. Class hierarchy was deeply embedded – everyone knew their place and stayed within it. By the 16th century, society was changing. As science gained more of a stronghold, religious themes fell by the wayside. The natural world was now interesting to observe and record in its own right, not for religious or mythological purposes. As history rattled towards the mid-19th century, depicting the natural world was starting to go out of fashion. Now the art world was more interested in exploring our inner world of moods and emotions. As we sped through the 20th century, still life dissolved into geometry as objects were abstracted more and more on the canvas. By the end of the millennium, the object depicted in paintings were exhaled as commodity and recognized for their commercialism, as in the Pop Art and Photo realism movements.
CONCEPTUAL: The main objective which I tried to capture in these images is the complexity of simple objects. Appearing plain and boring but when placed together and put into a composition, they can create impact and surreal.
CONTACT SHEETS:
The set ups which i created for this project were fairly simple, yet i found that new effects were created when pointing my camera in different directions. When I really got up close to the objects, I was able to capture detail withing all the objects, and their texture which created complex and intricate images.
This image was taken at TATE modern in London, a space filled with abstract and modern day art. I particularly loved this exhibition as the space where the art was exhibited in was flooded with natural light. Combining this with the crisp and clean white backdrop allowed me to capture some truly beautiful images that showed of the subtleties in each image. The space was also very large and open which allowed me to maneuver my camera without the disturbance of other people or pieces of art.
This was in my opinion one of the most successful images from this photo shoot, therefore making it into my final selection. I reflected up on many different photo shoots from the last couple of months in order to make my selection, even going through images which i have previously discarded as i have learned throughout the past couple of months that almost any image can be transformed through simple editing and cropping, Image 1 i thought initially was too simplistic and quite frankly boring, yet i have discovered that minimalism is a very real and valid form of photography therefore i reconsidered the image. After reviewing the image, i found that it actually holds many different aspects and qualities, like the interesting creasing of the fabric and the contrasting textures of the wall and the floor.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IMAGE 1:
TECHNICAL: For this photo shoot I approached each image in the same way, setting my focus to auto as each piece of art work was fairly big and i did not focus in on small details therefore setting it to manual would be totally useless. I kept my exposure throughout the photo shoot at 400 as each large, white hall was filled with natural light, the bright white walls added to extra light bouncing into the camera. I kept it at a stable level as i wanted to prevent the images becoming overexposed. I switched on my white auto balance setting as again the white walls created problems with the colors of the art work becoming washed out and dull. I set the shutter speed 1/60 as i wanted to create very clean and crisp images that show all aspects of the art work.
VISUAL: One of the most notable aspects of this image i find are the shadows created by the large creases in the draping fabric, the intensity of the shadow increasing the further down the fabric that the eye travels. All aspects of this image are crisp and clean, the high shutter speed to which i set my camera meant that the image is sharp. There is contrast in texture all around in the image, from the rough surface of the fabric, the smooth and matte white wall, to the glossy grey-black floor. The rule of 1/4 applies to this image as most of the subject is contains in the first 1/2 and 1/3 of the image. There is also a sense of repetition in the image through the even creases that go down the fabric sheets and the 3 sticks that mirror each other. Although the image is already bright, a lot of the light is hitting it from the top right hand corner, creating a slightly deeper shadow on the left side of the sheet. The colors in this image are very simple, consisting of a slightly blue toned white, a grey-black and caramel beige. There are many sharp lines which cut through the image such as the separation between the wall and floor, but also the 3 sticks which prop up the fabric which gives the image some geometry and symmetry.
IMAGE 1
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF IMAGE 2:
TECHNICAL: For this photo shoot I approached each image in the same way, setting my focus to auto as each piece of art work was fairly big and i did not focus in on small details therefore setting it to manual would be totally useless. I kept my exposure throughout the photo shoot at 400 as each large, white hall was filled with natural light, the bright white walls added to extra light bouncing into the camera. I kept it at a stable level as i wanted to prevent the images becoming overexposed. I switched on my white auto balance setting as again the white walls created problems with the colors of the art work becoming washed out and dull. I set the shutter speed 1/60 as i wanted to create very clean and crisp images that show all aspects of the art work.
VISUAL: This image overall is very busy and overwhelming with the density and contrast in shape, texture and color. Firstly there is a sharp contrast with the texture in the image, with the white, glossy floor and the ragged and varying fabric of the sculptures. Although being very different, create harmony as an image. The light hitting directly above from the image creates depth and shadow which is cast onto the floor, creating a sort of subtle reflection. The larger the shape, the more dramatic and deep the shadows become. There is a lot of repetition in this image, not only through the editing and mirroring the image, but also the varying round shapes of the sculptures that fill up the image. The small white line creating a border around the sculpture in a way breaks the harmony and separates the image from the chaos of the sculpture and the smoothness of the floor.
CONCEPTUAL: Magdalena Abakanowicz began sewing three-dimensional objects with sacking, stockings, rags and rope in the 1970s.
These cocoon-like objects reflect Abakanowicz’s interest in biological systems, organic matter and regeneration, topics she discussed with scientists in her native Poland. In response to a commission to represent Poland at the Venice Biennale in 1979, she made hundreds of soft sculptures of varying shapes and sizes, ‘rounded like bellies, or elongated like mummies,’ as she described them. Abakanowicz collected old mattresses, clothing and sacks to create this ‘invented anatomy’ of forms and installed eight hundred in Venice under the title Embryology.
CONTEXTUAL: Made at a time of political tension between the Soviet Union and Poland, Abakanowicz has said the work ‘could be understood as a cry from behind the Iron Curtain’. She had come to prominence in the 1960s with a series of large woven sculptures called Abakans. At the time, the Polish state would not allow her to buy or rent a studio, so she made them on a loom in a friend’s basement, using sisal from discarded ropes. Without a large space in which to work she would often see her pieces in their entirety for the first time only when they were installed in exhibitions.
IMAGE 2
CRITICAL ANALYSIS IMAGE 3:
TECHNICAL: For this photo shoot I attempted as much as possible to recreate Meatyard’s “zen sticks” series. I particularly focused on exposure settings, focus control, and depth of field. The photograph below was taken of a dead tree, of the branches facing upwards towards the sky. Meatyard’s images are all very dark and dramatic therefore I chose to do my photo shoot during the evening, on a stormy, grey day. I increased the exposure to 800 in order to capture the branches in a dark setting yet still have some highlights and shadows. The dark night, and mid-range ISO setting meant that the image contracted a lot of motion blur, the effect which i was aiming to get.
VISUAL: It resembles the work of Meatyard in many ways. The dark evening also meant that the resolution of the images decreased and became more grainy. The branches of the tree were also quite far up meaning i had to decrease the depth of field and zoom in, again compromising the quality of the image. The grainy texture of the image I feel adds to the overall aesthetic of Meatyard’s work: old and worn. The differences in motion blur also create a focal point in the image, with the central branch being less blurred than the outermost parts of the image. The image is also quite underexposed which further adds to the dramatic and intense tone, giving it almost a Gothic aura. There is a very apparent sense of space in the photo as the lack of branches in the top left hand corner of the image freeing up space. There is also a lack of light in this image due to both the time of day the image was taken and the lack of exposure adjustments made on the image during editing as i wanted to retain the dark theme.
CONTEXTUAL: Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925–1972) lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs. Meatyard’s creative circle included mystics and poets, such as Thomas Merton and Guy Davenport, as well as the photographers Cranston Ritchie and Van Deren Coke, who were mentors and fellow members of the Lexington Camera Club. Meatyard’s work spanned many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits—often set in abandoned places—to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. He also collaborated with his friend Wendell Berry on the 1971 book The Unforeseen Wilderness, for which Meatyard contributed photographs of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Meatyard’s final series, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, are cryptic double portraits of friends and family members wearing masks and enacting symbolic dramas.
CONCEPTUAL: Meatyard stated in a lecture to the Louisville Photographic Society, he was involved in working on no fewer than 12 “methods, series, subjects.” Among them were what he called “photographs made under the influence of Zen,” shown here with the title “Zen Twigs.” While the images are very minimalist, they deal with growth and decay, is impressive, they are familiar enough to be looked over lightly. A particularly beautiful one (untitled, like much of Meatyard’s work) shows a young trunk sprouting — or seeming to sprout — a branch that curls around it in a wiry loop, the whole almost a visual haiku. The simplistic tonal range of the image is effective in portraying the theme of deterioration and degeneration. Meatyard has clearly used a very narrow field o view, with a singular branch being in focus and the rest of the backdrop is extremely blurry. The images are in a mid-range of exposure, not too overexposed or underexposed. The light grey tones from the backdrop of the photo, highlight they unsophisticated, dead branch. The upwards growth of the branches, have strong and dark lines which cut through the sea of blurriness. The image also contains various shades of white, black, and grey, all working together to create a harmonious image. The contrast between the blurry backdrop and the foreground give the image a real sense of depth and space.
Franco Fontana was born in 1933 in Modena. He took up photography in 1961 and joined an amateur club. He held his earliest solo shows in 1968 in Modena, his native city, which marked a turning point in his career. He has published over seventy books with Italian, French, German, Swiss, Spanish, American and Japanese publishers. His photographs have appeared worldwide in over 400 exhibitions, solo and collective. His images are in collections in over fifty public and private, Italian and international galleries, including: the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, Rochester, the Musée de la Photographie, Arles, New York, the National Museum, Beijing, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Many companies have asked him to collaborate on advertising campaigns, he has published photographs in Time-Life, The New York Times, Vogue Usa, Vogue France, Il Venerdì di Repubblica, Sette del Corriere della Sera, Panorama, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Class, Epoca and others. Fontana has been invited to hold photography workshops in various schools, universities and institutes such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts, Brussels, the Toronto University, and so on in Rome, Paris, Arles, Rockpot, Barcelona, Taipei, Politecnico di Torino, and the LUISS University, Rome. He has collaborated with the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Japanese Ministry of Culture, the French Ministry of Culture.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
This piece by Franco is very simple in composition, only consisting of simple line work, going along the rolling hills of the grasslands. There are large blocks of color which separate the photo into 3 sections, blocking each color into a section. Even through the photo contains a very simplistic color pallets, the colors merge and harmonize together to create an overalll “tied together”look. There is no real foreground, mid ground or background, therefore the landscape appears 2D and flat. The length and width of each block of color is fairly relative to one another therefore there is a slight sense of pattern and repetition. I believe that during editing, the colors have been over saturated in order to create impact and boldness. The natural lighting coming directly above from the sun, gives the image brightness yet lacks any sort of shadows or tone differentiation. Even though this is a photograph of fields, the image does not feel organic or natural in any sense due to the symmetry and geometry seen within it.
His reasoning for creating these images are “my goal is to interpret reality. Anyone can see the landscapes I photograph, but with my camera I try to capture the details and features that the eye cannot see. Some tell me, “I went to Provence and I saw ‘your’ landscapes”; sometimes they will have seen those places before coming to an exhibition, but only after looking at my work they see that part of reality pinpointing something they had not noticed before.”
CONTACT SHEETS AND SELECTION:
This was a very extensive and thorough photo shoot therefore i ended up with over 200 photos which i eventually cut down to 9 with the help of contact sheets. The plus indicates that the image is successful. The S indicates the need to further saturate the image, and the D indicates the need to lighten the image.
ANALYSIS OF MY MOST SUCCESSFUL PHOTO:
i felt that this photo encapsulated the formal elements that Franco explores best. Firstly, the main focus of the image is the bright and saturated colors of the sky and the yellow building below, which perfectly harmonize to create an impactful image. The light grey and brown roof tones down the image slightly, yet works well together with the blue and yellow. Like Franco, I captured these images on days with few clouds and strong natural lighting which allowed the bright blue sky to pop and provide a clean backdrop for the image. The light was hitting the building from the top left hand of the sky therefore no real shadows are cast onto the building. The image follows the rule of 3, with the sky filling up the top 2/3 of the image and the building filling up only 1/3 of the image. Like with Franco’s work, There is a slight sense of repetition in this image through the evenly spaced roof tiles and windows in the bottom third of the image. The repetition of pattern also makes this image feel industrial and man-made, far from anything organic. This image is also very flat and does not have a clear foreground or background giving it a 2D quality.
Whilst capturing these images, I set my exposure to 600, as it was quite a bright day yet i wanted it high enough to allow color to be bright. As there was plenty of natural light, I maintained my shutter speed at 1/60 which was enough to produce clear and crisp images. I set my white balance to direct sunlight as these were the conditions i was experiencing that day. The field of view in this image is very small, meaning that i zoomed in quite far into the building to capture this image.
This is a selection of my most successful photos from a photoshoot i did focusing on the work of Franco Fontana. All the images below follow a simplistic approach, mainly concentrating on bold color and minimalist composition. I was not able to capture the beautiful rolling hills like Fontana has done, but I still incorporated similar elements into my work in order portray similar images.
