I am really happy with the outcome of my mounted photos as I think I was able to capture intimacy quite well. I also believe that I could’ve mounted them a bit better but I’m still overall happy with how they look.
For my photo book, the main theme was intimacy and young love. I wanted to explore my relationship with my boyfriend and show a series of different styles of images. I called this photo book “Espera” which means to wait in Portuguese, as this word (besides love) is a word that both Jack and I use frequently.
I put the definition of wait at the beginning of my photo book to start the narrative of waiting and longing for something, and showing the connection I have to that word and its definition.
Additionally, I wanted keep the pattern of the colour scheme to be one normal coloured photo then a neon coloured photo. I think this worked well in my book as I had a purple, red and pink theme mixed with neutral toned images, which created a nice visual.
Throughout my photo book, you can see that I have tried to put a image of an object next to a portrait image in some of the pages. This gives the sequencing fluidity and shows the narrative of Jack’s living space, further showing his personality.
Here I couldn’t find images that fit with the sequencing so I tried to match the colour of the images background to the colour of the blank page.
Finally, I am really pleased with how my photo book came out as I was able to showcase my idea and theme of intimacy and young love. I also think I was able to sequence it really well and you could see there was a narrative in my book. Moreover, I think the overall aesthetic of my book was really well done and looks visually appealing for the viewers of my book. I hope that I was able to show my relationship and put across the idea that it’s okay to express love for others and that intimacy is good. Additionally, the theme of occupation and liberation guided me and gave me inspiration for my book at the thought of being in a relationship can be really liberating and free. Overall, I think I was able to capture raw moments of intimacy and young love and showcase those ideas into my photo book.
https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/8565044/66bc0744ecfad1db5ec8d9d401af9c438dff9837
“A lot of people seem to think that art or photography is about the way things look, or the surface of things. That’s not what it’s about for me. It’s really about relationships and feelings… It’s really hard for me to do commercial work because people kind of want me to do ‘Nan Goldin’. They don’t understand that it’s not about a style or a look or a setup. It’s about emotional obsession and empathy.” – Nan Goldin (1)
My intention for my personal study is to show the pejorative and ameliorative sides of a romantic relationship. I am going to investigate what a ‘healthy relationship’ and an ‘unhealthy relationship’ is as I want to show the contrast of the two. I also want to investigate the intimacy of young love and show the difference of different relationships within my friendship group. Another idea that I want to investigate is the relationship between myself and my boyfriend, as I have never looked at myself and used me as a subject
This area of work interests me as I am in a relationship myself and would like to show people what my relationship is like. I would also like to show other relationships as every romantic relationship is special and different. I want to challenge the idea of teenagers thinking love is ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ as I have seen this myself amongst my peer group. Especially in Britain, we do not like to talk about the subject of death, love and intimacy, but I wish to talk about this and convey this in my essay and my photographs.
I am going to experiment my camera skills by using the manual mode setting and aperture mode on my canon 1300D camera to capture my images for my photo book. I am going to be using ISO, white balance and shutter speed to experiment with how the photos are going to look. In light room, I will be experimenting with different presets such as ‘Colour’, ‘Creative’, ‘Grain’ and ‘Sharpening’. I will also be experimenting with photo shop to edit skin complexion and other things that I can edit out of the photos. Additionally, I will be experimenting with ICM (Initial Camera Movement) to achieve a blurry and distorted image and to make the image abstract and unique.
The photographers that I would like to analyse are Nan Goldin and David Kirscher. I am analysing these photographers because they both work with the ideas of love and intimacy Goldin’s work portrays a more pejorative view of relationships as she tackles abuse from her boyfriend and shows the life of the LGBT community in the 80s and the prejudice they suffered. Whereas, Kirscher’s work portrays a more ameliorative view of relationships as he follows couples around different cities and photographs their intimate moments such as cuddling in bed and lounging around the house.
Goldin is a contemporary American photographer known for her gritty, intimate and chaotic images of friends, lovers, and herself in the Boston queer and party scenes of the time. Goldin has helped the public to understand that universal human experiences of desire, love, violence, and death are shared between all of us, and to create understanding between mainstream and sub cultural societies. She was very influenced by cinéma verité and was no doubt aware of the work of American photographer Larry Clark.
Goldin took up photography about 1971 and her first published works (1973) were black-and-white images of transsexuals and transgender individuals. In 1974, she began to study art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she embarked on an enormous portrait of her life, making hundreds of colour transparencies of herself and her friends lying or sitting in bed, engaged in sexual play, recovering from physical violence against them, or injecting themselves with drugs.
Kirscher is a photographer based out of Paris and Madrid. His work is very diverse ranging from fashion and editorial work with models to even just photographing his friends in different situations. His passion for photography started when he was 15. Whether he is shooting with professional models and artificial light or with friends and natural light, he says “the bottom line is always the same: how to tell a story with pictures”. Kircher (2) He says he likes to play with the boundary between fiction and reality. He likes to photograph travels, parties, love scenes, black and white or colour photography, mostly analog, but also digital.
(1) Taken from: https://www.azquotes.com/author/28631-Nan_Goldin
(2) Taken from: https://www.arismoskov.com/index.php/event-experience/310-david-kirscher
Realism is a 19th-century art movement, particularly strong in France, which rebelled against traditional historical, mythological and religious subjects and instead depicted scenes from life. The movement began in the 1830s and 40s and photographers and viewers of photography marvelled at photography’s ability to capture an imprint of nature. Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) and William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), both suggested that it is a medium that allows nature to represent itself, seemingly without the intervention of the artist. Photography’s ability to depict people, objects and places realistically made it suitable for trying to record and document scientific discoveries and foreign places. From the early 20th century, photographs were regularly published in newspapers as part of the representation of local and national events. The main concept that Realism photographers tried to show were taking photographs which in stark contrast with Pictorialism, and shows real life. They moved away from trying to make photographs look like paintings and focusing on detail, shapes and images. Realism captures real life society and changes the public’s opinion. This then influenced the movement of photojournalism and documentary establishing them as recognised genres.
Since the 1980s Goldin has changed the nature of art and documentary photography. By taking her camera everywhere she goes and shooting intimate photographs of otherwise invisible, underground moments in her community, she has turned photography of everyday people, of parties, of sexual moments, and private events into something important to explore as an artist. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a deeply personal narrative which portrays the artists’ life events. This project was formed out of the artist’s own experiences around Boston, New York, Berlin, and elsewhere in the late 1970s, 1980s. Within the project, she includes photographs of herself, her friends, her lovers and other close relatives in intimate moments of love and loss. These people experience ecstasy and pain through sex and drug use. They rejoice at dance clubs and bond with their children at home and they suffer from domestic violence and the ravages of AIDS. Goldin states “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is the diary I let people read. The diary is my form of control over my life. It allows me to obsessively record every detail. It enables me to remember.” Goldin (3) In later work she expands her interest in desire, violence, and shows viewers that these interests have always been important to us, whilst also unsettling the languages of desire in paintings by male artists, through her own complex visions of sexuality, gender, and intimacy. The photo above depicts a dark scene of Goldin and her boyfriend after an argument. The tone of the photo shows how severe the conversation was as the image is dim and gloomy, again depicting the severity of their interaction. The fact that “Brian” is looking away from Goldin shows that there is tension between the couple and that he is obviously angry or upset at Nan. Additionally, this image conveys the abusive nature and environment that Nan was in at the time. A quote that portrays her ideology of relationships, ” I often fear that men and women are irrevocably strangers to each other, irreconcilably unsuited, almost as if they were from different planets. But there is an intense need for coupling in spite of it all. Even if relationships are destructive, people cling together. It’s a biochemical reaction … love can be an addiction. I have a strong desire to be independent, but at the same time a craving for the intensity that comes from independence. The tension this creates seems to be a universal problem: the struggle between autonomy and dependency. ” Goldin (4). Also, Goldin looking at Brian shows that even though they had a heated argument, she was still feeling love and fearful emotions towards him. This photo also shows the negative side of relationships and how dark and emotionally painful they can become.
(3) Taken from: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1651
(4) Taken from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/goldin-greer-and-robert-on-the-bed-nyc-p78044
David Kirscher is a photographer based in Paris and Madrid whose work is mainly surrounded by intimacy and emotions. Kirscher works on the assumption that if a picture doesn’t make him feel any emotion, it won’t to anybody. Kirscher also says to create a safe space for his models, communication is the key. Kirscher always explains what he’s doing, and tries to go step by step, and never forces anybody to do anything. When working with couples his main idea that he wants to portray is “definitely intimacy”. Kirscher (5). Kirscher states that he projects his imagery by writing every day, writing ideas, phrases, watching a lot of movies, going to the theater, gossiping on Instagram, going out, listening to music, etc. When he prepares a photo shoot, he takes that mass of information to create visual environments and images. He says that his intention is not to stimulate anyone’s sexual desire and what interests him is to provoke reactions from his viewers. A quote that hones in the ideas that David shows what I would like to present in my photographs is, “I honestly think that love is what we are here for. Not to accumulate more and more belongings, running from one meeting to another, to spend hours in a traffic jam to get to work, first to throw things away just to buy new ones, at the expense of us all, nature, people, animals, the earth. Our home. I honestly think that we are here to love. One person. Many people. The nature. The earth. Our home.” Kirscher (6). The photo above shares an intimate moment with the lovers Mateusz and Giulia. “This set is about heat, longing and trustful love…” Kirscher (7). The light nature of this photo portrays a positive scene and shows the love and relationship between two individuals. It also conveys a sense of trust and loyalty as the two models are holding one another and are close to each other, which also shows intimacy. Additionally, Giulia is smiling at Mateusz which shows her affection towards him and her love for him.
(6) and (7) Taken from: www.c-heads.com › 2018/09/01 › love-is-what-we-are-here-for
To conclude, I think that both artists show love and intimacy differently, one pejorative and one ameliorative. The contrast between the two are very present and by showing this contrast, I can display the different types of relationships people have. Even though both artists take very different approaches at technique and the overall aesthetic of their images, they still both have the main idea of intimacy. Additionally, both artists display a level of passion in their images, which also greatly inspired me to be more passionate and personal with my own work. Nan Goldin’s eerie and ominous approach really helped me take photos that were more dark and gloomy, portraying a more negative feel to the photos. David Kirscher’s caring and loving approach helped me take more luminous and light photos, portraying a more positive feel to my images. I think I was able to successfully present the ideas I had for my photo book in this project as these artists really inspired me to go out of my comfort zone. Furthermore, by experimenting with my photo shoots I was able to figure out if I wanted to do just me and my boyfriend or other relationships, and I settled with photos of me and my boyfriend. Lastly, I am very satisfied with the outcome of this project and the overall aesthetic of the images I produced and how the layout looks for my photo book.
This is one of my favourite images from my first photo shoot as I think it captures the idea of young love and intimacy perfectly. I think by having Jack and I staring at the camera, it makes the photo more intense and personal as it is including the viewer of the photo as well as me and Jack. Moreover, I think this photo portrays an ominous feeling, similar to Goldin’s photos. This image is quite dark and melancholy as neither of us are smiling, just staring straight at the camera with a blank expression. This could be interpreted in many ways by the viewers of the image, which makes them think more about the idea behind the photo. Furthermore, I am placing my head on Jack’s shoulder, which shows my trust towards him. Both of us are also in our underwear, which further conveys our comfortableness around each other as we are not afraid of how we look to the other person. This photo is at the end of my photo book as I think for the narrative, it looked aesthetically the best. Additionally, I have interpreted the concept of love by showing both sides of ‘love’, good and bad. Not every relationship is perfect and there won’t always be happy times, but, as a couple there must be trust and you should communicate with each other. I wanted this ideology to be shown in my images and I think I have successfully illustrated this in my work. I think my work was quite similar to both Goldin’s and Kirscher’s work as they were my main inspirations for this project. I really enjoyed their very intense and passionate work and that really aided me with experimenting with self portrait and work including my boyfriend.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nan-Goldin
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/goldin-nan/
https://www.arismoskov.com/index.php/event-experience/310-david-kirscher
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/education/learning-resources/education-kits/photography/realism/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-sac-artappreciation/chapter/reading-early-photography/
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1651
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/goldin-greer-and-robert-on-the-bed-nyc-p78044
Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper:
Cover is a bit rough, smells like paper and brand new book smell.
Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both:
There is a lot of different textured paper such as normal brown paper, premium lustre and net to strengthen spine of book all colours, also black and white.
Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages: Portraiture, roughly 100 pages.
Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/Swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello: Flat bind with a hard cover and a image wrap.
Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping:
Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing: Literal as he is documenting a part of his life by taking pictures.
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told? : ” I have this desire to sum up my life in the form of a story. My parents killed themselves, one after the other, in the winter of 1998. My mother’s depression led her to take her own life, and my father followed her nine days later. Having suddenly a closer relationship with death at just 21 years of age, I decided to write down the things I saw around me, as they were, and to capture in photographs the emotions I would only be able to feel then and there. I was alone in the house we had all lived in as a family. I had almost completely lost sight of the point in living. But even so, I kept on living.” https://www.photobookstore.co.uk/photobook-picture-of-my-life-_signed%5E.html Told by picture of him and his family, and pictures of the paintings his father did. Also included letters and translations of those letters. Is in chronological order.
Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts: Different every page, single and double page spreads with pages with writing on them, photos on top of photos.
Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any): Letters linked with images, chronological order, at the end of the book there is a short statement from the photographer saying thank you.
Love, intimacy and contrast.
My photo book will be about the contrast of good days and bad days in relationships and showing the difference of a healthy relationship and unhealthy relationship.
For my photo book, I want to show the pejorative and ameliorative sides of a romantic relationship. I am going to investigate what a ‘healthy relationship’ and a ‘unhealthy relationship’ is as I want to show the contrast of the two. I also want to investigate the intimacy of young relationships and show the difference of different relationships within my friendship group. Another idea that I want to investigate is the relationship between myself and my boyfriend, as I have never looked at myself in a project before.
How you want your book to look and feel: I want my photo book to look plain and simple as I think this will look best and is good for presenting my photos. I want it to feel smooth so that it is nice to hold.
Paper and ink: Premium Lustre 148 gsm
Format, size and orientation: Standard Portrait (20×25cm)
Binding and cover: Hardcover Image Wrap with a matte finish and
Title: ‘Espera’ to wait in Portuguese. Links back to the idea of waiting for somebody or telling someone to wait.
For this photo shoot I again took photos in my boyfriends room, but this time I took photos of him and significant parts of his room to show him and his living space.
First I went on the basic setting in light room and pressed the auto button to put the auto editing on.
I then scrolled down and adjusted the settings to get the image to what I wanted it to look like.
After, I scrolled down and went to the lens correction option and clicked on the ‘enable profile corrections’, then clicked ‘make’ and selected Canon.
I then went on the transform section and clicked the auto option.
To conclude, I am really happy with how this photo shot came out as I was able to capture the ideas that I had. I am happy with the amount of photos I took and how they turned out and I really like how I edited these images.
For this photo shoot I took photos of my boyfriend in his bedroom when he wasn’t in the best mood and didn’t really want to take pictures. I wanted to show that in relationships, you’re going to have good and bad days which is normal in a relationship.
As you can see some of these images were a bit underexposed and needed some editing. I then edited these photos of light room to enhance the quality and aesthetic.
First I went on the basic setting in light room and pressed the auto button to put the auto editing on.
I then scrolled down and adjusted the settings to get the image to what I wanted it to look like.
After, I scrolled down and went to the lens correction option and clicked on the ‘enable profile corrections’, then clicked ‘make’ and selected Canon.
I then went on the transform section and clicked the auto option.
To conclude, I am really happy with how this photo shot came out as I was able to capture the ideas that I had. I wish I took a few more photos but overall I am satisfied with the outcome of this photo shoot. I am also happy with how I edited these photos.
For my second photo shoot I took photos of my friends Emily and Ana’s relationship. I wanted to be inclusive of every relationship and not just include my own. I also wanted to show different types of relationships.
First I went on the basic setting in light room and pressed the auto button to put the auto editing on. I chose the colour and black and white setting for these photos.
I then scrolled down and adjusted the settings to get the image to what I wanted it to look like.
After, I scrolled down and went to the lens correction option and clicked on the ‘enable profile corrections’, then clicked ‘make’ and selected Canon.
I then went on the transform section and clicked the auto option.
To conclude, I am really happy with how this photo shot came out as I was able to capture the ideas that I had. I am happy with the amount of photos I took and how they turned out and I really like how I edited these images.
David Kirscher is a photographer based out of Paris and Madrid. His work is very diverse ranging from fashion and editorial work with models to even just photographing his friends in different situations. His passion for photography started when he was 15. Whether he is shooting with professional models and artificial light or with friends and natural light, he says the bottom line is always the same: how to tell a story with pictures. He says he likes to play with the boundary between fiction and reality, He likes to photograph travels, parties, love scenes, black and white or colour photography, mostly analog, but also digital.
Kirscher works on the assumption that if a picture doesn’t make him feel any emotion, it won’t to anybody. It is certainly not true, but knowing that he has a liking for extreme feelings, it is quite a challenge.
Kirscher says that Cinema is definitely what inspires him the most. He can spend hours analysing frame by frame the light work in a movie, the color of a carpet matching with a lipstick, an outfit, the shape of a lamp reflecting in an eyeball. His portfolio is rather diverse because this is the way he is. He loves soul, jazz, techno, opera, metal, pop, piano, rock ‘n’ roll. There is no overall message. He just tries to be true to himself. And don’t cheat.
Usually for editing, he tries to make the editing process not too visible. And natural. Natural is intimate. He says even in 2019, with all the editing tools and filters we have, natural doesn’t mean anything anymore. So he tries to make it not too visible. No vignette, over-saturation or HDR look. He likes to work with analogue cameras because depending on the film roll, it naturally defines the look you will get.
Kirscher says to create a safe space for his models, communication is the key. He always explain what he’s doing, and try to go step by step, and never force anybody to do anything. He also likes to put some music on. Music is important, it goes through walls. Information from https://beloved-stories.com/david-kirscher-exploring-intimacy-through-photography/?fbclid=IwAR2LoYfRQmJJskTWK5AG_JS9A_-aqKixJt6TT_489jcDEoPHv1FTK45zUhA and https://www.arismoskov.com/index.php/event-experience/310-david-kirscher
This image looks like it was taken with a red light to capture the raw moment and to create a romantic and sensual aesthetic. The exposure of this photo is neatural which gives the photo detail and sharpness. The aperture for this photo is very quite high and the depth of field is quite sharp. Also, the ISO will be around 400 and the white balance looks to be either daylight or shade.
The colour of this photo is very saturated and is quite dark to give it a ominous and mysterious look to it. Also the cropping of this photo leads the eye to the people lying and hugging on the bed. Also, the people being the main focus in the photo makes it stand out a lot.
David’s work is very intimate and shows raw emotions and feelings. The context of intimacy is prevalent in his work and gives the viewer a feeling of intimacy and closeness.
Natural is intimate. He works on the assumption that if a picture doesn’t make him feel any emotion, it won’t to anybody. No matter who he is working with, he says the bottom line is always the same: how to tell a story with pictures.
