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AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Arnold Newman

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Arnold Newmans Photograph of Alfred Krupp (1963)

 

The context behind this image is Arnold Newman essentially was asked to photograph Alfred Krupp (by himself). However when Alfred found out that Newman was Jewish he no longer wanted to be photographed him. Newman insisted of Krupp looking at his portfolio before making any final decisions. Finally Krupp just agreed and the photo was taken and published in 1963. This image was taken in front of whats believed to have been a train factory which was used to deport Jews off to concentration camps. Krupp allegedly used slave labor to make weapons and help the Nazis with the extermination of Jews. However it is believed that Krupp ended up in jail because of his un-thought actions.

Having first looked at this image without knowing any of the background knowledge i wasn’t too keen on it.  I didn’t like it because there’s quite a lot of elements going on in the photo in terms of objects wise. additionally the photo being under exposed also makes me not like as there’s quite a lot of dark and tones you wouldn’t normally see if the image was a happy image.  Looking closely at the mans face he looks like hes scheming something it looks sinister.  Having further investigated the image i can now see that Alfred was actually trying to make himself look evil and that make out to be quite powerful.

The color of the image is quite rusty and dark, by using this effect on the picture it allows the focus to be directly in the middle of the mans face.

Arnold Newman –

Recognized for his incredible ability to capture the spirit and personality of his subjects, Newman is credited for his work in environmental portraiture and having countless world leaders pass before his lens.  Born on March 3, 1918 in New York, Newman began studying painting after moving to Miami with his family.

Newman’s career quickly escalated as he explored the idea of photographing his subjects in their own personal environments. He first began photographing artists, often with their own work, and quickly moved on to photographing some of the world’s most prominent figures. With careful composition and dynamic design, his environmental portraiture managed to evoke a sense of the person’s inner spirit. Newman explained, “I am interested in what motivates individuals, what they do with their lives, their personalities, and how I perceive and interpret them.”

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Uncategorized, Unit 2 Portrait

Mood Board Portraits

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Portraiture

Portrait photography or portraiture in photography is a photograph of a person or group of people that captures the personality of the subject by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait picture might be artistic, or it might be clinical, as part of a medical study.

These images are not mine they are from the internet (from google images)

Every one of these images:

  1. formal
  2. informal
  3. candidate
  4. High angle
  5. Low angle
  6. Headshot
  7. futuristic
  8. high key
  9. colour
  10. black and white
  11. half body
  12. Full body
  13. natural
  14. posed

Environmental Portraits

Image result for famous environmental portraits
Arnold Newman

This is an example of an environmental portrait.

The lighting and exposure of the images is quite low however it highlights the focus on to the man who is wearing white. As shown in the image the man is engaging with the camera, unlike street photography where the person being photographed usually isn’t aware environmental portraits is the opposite and encourages the person to be looking at the image.

Arnold Newman began taking images that were based around on who the person actually is. For this man it looks like his background is something along the lines of being a musician so therefore he’s trying to capture part of his identity. This captures the idea of environmental as its trying to portray the idea that this what they do day to day.

AO1 Develop Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Henri Cartier-Bresson  was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France, the oldest of five children. His father was a wealthy textile manufacturer, whose Cartier-Bresson thread was a staple of French sewing kits. His mother’s family were cotton merchants and landowners from Normandy, where Henri spent part of his childhood. The Cartier-Bresson family lived in a bourgeois neighborhood in Paris, Rue de Lisbonne, near Place de l’Europe and Parc Monceau. His parents supported him financially so Henri could pursue photography more freely than his contemporaries. Henri also sketched.

Cartier-Bresson recuperated in Marseille in late 1931 and deepened his relationship with the Surrealists. He became inspired by a 1930 photograph by Hungarian photojournalist Martin Munkacsi showing three young African boys, caught in near-silhouette, running into the surf of Lake Tanganyika. Titled Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika, this captured the freedom, grace and spontaneity of their movement and their joy at being alive. That photograph inspired him to stop painting and to take up photography seriously. He explained, “I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant.”

Moodboard

In this picture, you can clearly see the rubble of what were once houses, and the victims of the attack gathered around. It’s a grim sight to see, however while some of the children are staring at the camera glumly, other in the background seem to be ignoring what was around them and continuing on with their day, playing around and throwing things , seeming unaware of the photographer. The boarder draws our attention to the destroyed buildings in the background.  Changing this photo into one without colour adds a strong emphasis to how grim this scene is. They’ve lost their homes and it seems like Bresson wanted to make their feelings obvious to the viewer.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Unit 2 Portrait

Street photography Practice

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Contact sheet

 

Best outcomes

Editing

Firstly, I used the quick selection tool to select the person in the image. I then inversed it so that the entire area around his was selected instead. After, I turned the hue and saturation right down while also decreasing the brightness a tiny bit. Below is my final outcome:

My initial final outcome.

The reason that I thought I would do this is because it would make the person stand out more against the plain background. I thought this would be a good idea because it would help to bring out people’s personalities and individuality out a lot more as that is what I personally thinks makes street photography interesting.

I also wanted to experiment with making the entire photo black and white also as I thought this could make my image look more like the ones Sander took. To do this i inversed the selection again, so that it was around the person and turned the hue and saturation right down. I kept the brightness at 0 so that the person would still slightly stand out, but not as much as before.

My second outcome, experimenting with black and white.

 

 

 

EditingI edited this image using Lightroom. As the image was overexposed along the top, I lowered the exposure, shadows and black shades and increased increased the contrast, highlights and whites. This helped not make the people in the image too overexposed.
Lastly, I cropped the image to get rid of the left part as I thought it was quite unnecessary since it was quite distracting. This way you’re able to notice the main subject of the image more.

 

original image
edited image

 

 

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Artist research – Rankin

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Rankin (who’s full name is John Rankin Waddell) is a British fashion photographer and director. He has done photo shoots with numerous celebrities and other influential figures; including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Queen Elizabeth II and the spice girls.

This is a photo of Rankin.

 

In his portrait photos he tries to bring out and exaggerate the emotions or personality of the person he is photographing, he also encourages and tries to boost the confidence of the person. These two factors combined result in the photos looking very natural and genuine, instead of giving the effect of forced emotions. The exaggerated emotions also make the images more appealing as they stick out from the majority of photos which aren’t as expressive.

He is best known as the founder of the ‘Dazed and Confused’ magazine. His work has appeared in magazines such as GQ, Vogue and Marie Claire. In 2011 Rankin started the biannual fashion, culture and lifestyle magazine, Hunger and launched Rankin Film to produce and direct his own commercial and editorial film work.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Street Photography

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Definition
Street Photography: Street photography, also sometimes called candid photography, is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places.
Mood Board

Threshold Concept
Threshold Concept 7: The meanings of photographs are never fixed, are not contained solely within the photographs themselves and rely on a combination of the viewer's sensitivity, knowledge and understanding, and the specific context in which the image is seen.
Articles etc

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/the-ultimate-beginners-guide-for-street-photography/

https://www.bjp-online.com/tag/street-photography/

https://www.complex.com/style/greatest-street-photographers/

Action Plan:
When:  Friday afternoon
Where: St Helier
How: Using a Canon camera with an 18-55mm lens
Who: Anybody on the streets of St Helier

Why: To capture pictures that are unique and are  'in the moment'
The Photoshoot:
Selected Images to Manipulate:
These are the photos that I believe are the most in focus, more technically accurate and interesting photos.
Manipulated images:

The Editing Process:
To maniplate these images I used adobe lightroom. I cropped many, adjusted the vignette, contrast, exposure, vibrancy, clarity and saturation. To some images I also applied the black and white preset called "punch".
Reflection and My Favourite Images:

These are my favourite images. While taking my photos, we were approached by a homeless man asking for money. While my teacher had a chat to him, I decided to take photos of him. I love both the concept and result of the photos. Later on I saw the man again outside a shop so I decided to talk to him about his life and outcome whilst once again taking photos of him. He was happy to have his photo taken and it seemed like he didn't even know I was taking them. I also love the vibrancy of his eclectic gold leggings he seemed to wear alongside his black fur coat and hat. I also like the photo of the florist because although she is surrounded by happy items such as vibrant flowers and happy statues, her facial expression is contrasting the mood as she looks concerned. 

Overall I found at the start taking photos awkward, however I warmed to the oncept and ended up really enjoying the shoot. I feel with more practice I will be able to contruct and create better images. I need to focus on improving my technical skills and perfecting the focus of the camera.
AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Henri Cartier-Bresson

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Photograph of Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a french photographer who was considered a master of candid photography. He was also a huge influencer of street photography, helping to make it a recognized form of photography. He photographically reported  places through sensitive times, such as the soviet union after Stalin had died.

After World War 2, in which Cartier-Bresson spent most of his time as a prisoner of war- he founded the Magnum photo agency along with other people such as Robert Capa. The Magnum photo agency is a community that allowed photo journalists, who were interested in events happening around the world, to reach big audiences through magazines.

 

“Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually”

– Henri Cartier-Bresson

 

 

The Magnum agency is committed to being authentic in its truthful,storytelling images. Magnum is responsible for documenting most of the world’s most important events like political affairs and disasters and conflict since the 1930s. All the photographers Magnum represent have a shared interest in photographing people,places,cultures and possible powerful and historical events.

Henri Cartier-Bresson mood board

Analysing 

Context

This image was taken in London on Trafalgar square on May 12th 1937. Cartier-Bresson said that some people had waited all night, and some people even slept on benches in order not to miss the coronation of George VI.

Visual 

Visually, I think the way Cartier-Bresson has chosen to frame this image is very interesting. I like the way the photo has almost been sectioned into layers with people standing on the top third, a line of people sitting on the second third, and finally someone lying down on the bottom third. I think this was a very interesting way to frame the image as it makes it really pleasing to look at, as it looks very organised. I also think there is a very interesting contrast with the person lying down on the newspaper, as the person is dressed darkly, and the newspaper appears really white on the photo. This is interesting because it means that the person stands out really vividly on the photograph.

Technical

On the technical side, the image is very successful also. The image seems to be taken during day as the sky appears white. The image is also not over or underexposed, meaning that the quality of the image is good  and it is very sharp so that everyone in the image can be seen clearly.

Conceptual analysis

I think that there could be an underlying  meaning of community and also the importance of politics and history. I think this because the image shows a lot of people all gathered closely together, which gives the sense of community. Cartier-Bresson also mentions how people had slept there all night so they wouldn’t miss the ceremony, I think this image shows that politics is important as people were very dedicated to seeing George VI being coronated as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and would be an important part of their counties history. Because of this, the image also gives a strong sense of patriotism.

Comparison to Bruce Gilden

Bruce Gilden who was born in 1946, is an American street photographer who is known for his very close up portraits of people using a flash gun. He purchased his first camera after seeing Michelangelo’s film “Blowup” in 1968, and he later began taking photography night classes.

Gilden mood board

 

Similarities to Cartier-Bresson

Like Cartier-Bresson, Gilden is also represented by Magnum Photos, and has been since 1998. He also photographed interesting things  and people around the world like homeless people, Yakuza mobsters in Japan, prostitutes and voodoo rituals in Haiti. They both also had black and white photo outcomes.

Differences to Cartier-Bresson

Unlike Cartier-Bresson, Gildren takes a more notifiable approach to his street photography. Instead of taking candid images of people passing by, Gilden is known for getting very up close into people’s personal space and using a flash gun in their faces. Their intentions were also quite different. Although they both had a very keen interest in different people and capturing interesting things on the street, they each took an individual approach.

Outcomes

As they both took their own approaches, their outcomes are very mostly very different.

USA. New York City. 1992. Women walking on Fifth Avenue by Gilden.

As you can see Gilden’s approach leads to portraits with different expressions, mostly of people looking quite shocked and surprised. Whereas Cartier-Bresson’s approach leads to more natural, candid images, where people aren’t looking at the camera therefore not realizing that images of them are being taken like the one pictured below:

image by Henri Cartier-Bresson

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation

Studio Lighting

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Different Types of Studio lighting 

Flat Light

When you have your light source facing directly at the front of your subject, this is flat lighting. Flat lighting on a face will mean that your subject is well lit and you are unable to see any shadows along their face.

Broad Light

With broad light (a type of side lighting), the face of your subject is at an angle and the most well-lit side of the face is closest to the camera and the shadow falls on the back side of the face. This type of light can make a face look fuller so it’s ideal for those with very narrow faces.

Short Light

Another type of side lighting, short light is the opposite of broad light in that the face is at an angle and the shadow falls on the side of the face closest to the camera. This type of light works well to thin a face and is flattering on most people.

One thing to keep in mind is that shadows draw out textures and imperfections. While broad light is a wonderful way to emphasize freckles, it will also draw out imperfections like acne and scars.

Split Light

Split lighting is another type of side lighting but it is defined as light that hits your subject from the side at a 90 degree angle.

You can easily recognize split lighting in an image by half of the subject being lit and the other half in the shadows. With a face specifically, you’ll see the shadow line straight down the middle of the forehead, nose, and chin.

Backlight

Back light is just that, light that comes from behind your subject. This is commonly seen in photos from the beloved golden hour, when the sun is low in the horizon and starting to set, but can be done at all hours of the day.

Rim Light

Rim light falls under the backlight category but deserves a spot of its own. With backlight you often see the hazy or airiness from the light in the background resulting in highlights but you don’t have that with rim light.

With rim light, you’ll see the light from behind only highlight the edges of your subject (there’s a little haze falling into the top right of the frame below but you can see how the rim light separates the subject from the background). This is great to use when you need to separate your subject from the background.

 

Butterfly Light

With butterfly light, the light is placed above and in front of your subject to create a small shadow under the nose resembling a butterfly (hence the name). This type of light beautifully highlights prominent cheekbones which is why you most often see it used on women.

However, it emphasizes the shadows from deep set eyes. Again, know your subject’s face and how the light will affect their features. Butterfly light is also commonly referenced as paramount light.

Loop Light

Loop lighting is pretty much my go-to when creating light. With loop lighting, the light is about 45 degrees to the side and slightly above eye level. This position of the light creates a shadow just under and to the side of one nostril and the nose. This is a flattering type of light on most everyone.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 1 Personal Investigation, Component 2 ESA, Unit 2 Portrait

Street Photography-St Helier

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Overall the experience was good for my confidence and it put me out of my comfort zone. The anticipation of this shoot was fairly scary as I don’t feel comfortable taking pictures of people that I don’t personally know. I can know say I have huge amounts of respect for street photographers, you need to be confident in your personality and camera skills, because everything is happening so fast and to be able to take a sharp photo which is in focus takes skill. Although I did get some good final outcomes from this shoot there are many photos which were a large part of trial and error. Due to the changing of location from the bright sunny street to the dark dingy market, it made it hard for me to adjust the camera to get the right exposure, so in some of my photos it’s either too dark you can’t see detail on people faces or the light in the background is over exposed and the background becomes too bright. 

In this particular photo it was under-exposed, so i had to lighten the picture in Photoshop in order for the taxi-drivers face to become clear.

This was one of my favourite photos from from the shoot because of the sharpness of the women, but yet again my exposure was faulty and the sky was over-exposed, lucky cropping easily solved the problem.

Final Piece

Although this picture was blurred, unfocused and lacked sharpness, i still liked it. I cropped it to get rid of the negative space on the floor and provide more focus towards the light and men. I liked how the blurriness of the photo represents the constant movement in the street and how everything moves like clockwork in town on the week days with everyone as work.

Final Outcome