For this photoshoot I wanted to capture images showing my father, my brother, and my brother’s family. I’m planning on taking these images at a bonfire event we will be attending. I think this will be interesting as it will allow me to get some more “natural” looking images since, for the most part, I will not be telling the subjects how to pose allowing me to capture more candid looking outputs. Since it will be dark, I will have to use flash when talking all these images, along with a quick shutter speed as I will be moving around a lot. My aim is to show close bonds between the family members.
Selecting images on Lightroom:
my flagged images.I then colour coded the images in order to find the best images.
Editing my best images:
When editing the below images, I followed very similar steps in order to make sure these images had a more uniform look. I wanted to make sure my subjects stood out amongst the background since we were in public and there was a lot of distraction, and it was important they were the main focal point of my image as my aim was to show a close bond between everyone. I increased the contrast and decreased the exposure the appropriate amount for each image. In combination with this, I also increased the vibrancy to reintroduced some colour into the image, after the exposure was decreased.
Before
After
pictured above (left to right) is my father and brother.
Before
After
Before
After
Pictured above: My brother, his girlfriend and her daughter
Evaluating the shoot:
On the whole, I feel that I was able to capture some technically successful images using my camera, and flash. I think I was able to show key members of my family and also the concept of family. On the other hand, I think that I may struggle to make these images fit in with my photo book narrative because These images are taken at an event, not portraits.
After my close analysis to the work of Walker Evans, I decided to conduct a photo shoot which captured my Grandparents lifestyle, by presenting their narrative through their outfit and emotion through facial expression, like Evans’ imagery of Allie Mae Burroughs. I intend to capture a lot of this imagery outside, using the exterior of my Grandparents house in order to make close contentions with his work and also plan to take a few (not many inside) to experiment with this technique and whether it will withstand the same conceptual representation as it would if the photographs were taken outside. Prior to this shoot, I contacted my Grandparents and asked them to wear an outfit which they believe showcases themselves and their lifestyle. In addition, I asked them to choose areas of their house, outdoor and indoors, which they spend the most time in and feel most comfortable in, which will allow the naturalistic documentary photography to accurately depict their reality. With regards to my camera, I intend to use my DSLR, utilising a quick shutter speed, low ISO, and experimenting with the aperture to add depth of field, and dependent on the natural lighting provided.
Edits:
Edit 1 – Flagged
Edit 2 – Star Rating
Edit 3 – Colour Rating
Outcomes:
In respect to editing my outcomes from this photoshoot, I wanted to produce final imagery which held the stylistic features of Evans’ work. In order to achieve this I made all of my outcomes be presented in black and white, and looked at creating high tonal contrast to allow facial features to help express and convey the lifestyle in which my grandparents live in. To achieve this I looked at adjusting the contrast, structure, blacks whites and shadows in order to achieve this intended effect. My final selection are images which I believe have the same simplistic composition, but still holds strong conceptual and contextual representation, about the life my grandparents live and providing information about how they achieved this lifestyle, which is further explained in my photograph analysis.
Analysis:
The two photographs below is my photograph which has taken inspiration from Evans’ imagery, which I believe shows my understanding and application of Evans’ photographic technique. The framing of the two images are very similar, both present the subject in the foreground, with the background being wooden and simplistic, not distracting the viewers.Similarly, both images are presented in black and white with high tonal contrast, which has allowed the detail and structure of the subjects to clearly stand out to present conceptual representation. In addition, the methodology used to capture both photographs share a lot in common, with a low ISO being used, a quick shutter speed, low aperture due to no significant depth of field, and natural lighting being utilised. Comparing the two images visually, my image shows more structure and detail, which allows a warmer atmosphere to be presented holding ameliorative connotations, which contrast Evan’s image which is a lot more smooth and naturalistic which holds a cold atmosphere, creating pejorative connotations. Along side this, the outfits of the two models are different as it clearly shows two different socio economic status of two people, and showcases their lifestyle.
Conceptually, Evan’s captured Tenant Farmers in Alabama, and their lifestyle through portraits of different families. Where as I have captured my Grandad in order to present his life story, from when he was younger working in finance and making his fortune to be able to live his wealthy and happy lifestyle now a days. Contextually, the subjects in Evans’ imagery had low income and would not be able to change their lifestyle due to their situational factors. Where as, I contextually presented Jersey as a finance institute which holds the most income on the Island, it also shows how my Grandad worked in this field as he know he could make a lot of money for it in order to afford this lifestyle later on in life.
My Imagery
Walker Evans – Allie Mae Borrough
Conclusion:
To conclude, I believe I have reinforced my ability to produce photographs which take on the stylistic features of another artist. In addition, I have also been able to apply similar conceptual representations within my work as another artists, which shows my ability to apply different elements of artists work through my understanding of their methodology. I have been able to explore capturing my subjects in a different environment, which presents them in a new ‘limelight’. Technically, I have shown my ability to capture portraits in an outdoor environment, and have again reinforced my ability to capture high quality portraits. I believe this photo shoot has been successful as I have been able to produce high quality imagery which clearly showcases lifestyle in the stylistic way of Walker Evans.
The book is a soft back with, 161 pages of images telling a story. This book is about a German solider and a women from Jersey falling in love during the occupation, which was a very risky thing to do, meaning they had to keep it one the down low, to make sure no one would find out, otherwise consequences would’ve been big.
The layout of the images change from page to page, which makes the book more interesting to look through. Some of the images within the book were taken back during the occupation period and some are more up-to-date, you can see this through the change in quality, focus and layout. This is similar to what it want to present and has given me new ideas on how to layout my images. He also used documents and other objects that can relate to the two individuals, which allows the reader to get a better understanding of the couple and their life they had to live.
Sam Harris is a British photographer who lived in London, his first apart in the city was turned into a makeshift darkroom were he explored and experimented with photographs. During the 90’s his passion played with capturing portraits and sleeve art for recording artists. Later on in life himself and his family moved to Western Australia for a more simplistic lifestyle, where he photographic book ‘The Middle of Somewhere’ was produced, 2015.
Narrative:
‘The Middle of Somewhere’ is a photographic book which is visual family diary, celebrating childhood, family and love. The book is based around Harris’ two daughters as they move to Australia. The imagery explores the transformation of his daughters, in particular moments of time as they are able to experience freely and wonder in their surroundings. The phonebook covers a 12 year period, as they move after seeking a simpler lifestyle. The images tend to be in naturalistic environment using naturalistic light sources which allow for the ideology of exploration and children growing up to further be emphasised. Inserts are placed within the book which allows for a descriptive perspective of this journey of the girls to be showcased. Overall, the final product is intimate and embraces a memorable collection of images which tells the story of two daughters growing up.
Deconstruction:
Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
The book itself feels quite heavy, the front cover is smooth, with a white fabric taped across the front with the title of the photo book on top of it. The book smells used and reminds of walking past books in a library.
Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
All the images, whether they are in colour or black and white, are placed onto white matt paper which is smooth and reminds me of a photo scrap book which families hold their images in. Inside the book their is also text, which is stuck in on post it notes, which are all hand written, explaining or further reinforcing the girls exploration into the world. In addition, a written diary, typed in a newspaper font is used, which adds context about the moving process from the perspective of Harris
Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
The photo book is presented in a portrait orientation, which is slightly larger than A5 but not quite A4. The shape of the book is rectangle with no vertices, as the corners are smooth and curve. In total there are 94 photographs, 2 inserts, 48 photographs, post-its and notes.
As mentioned previously the book is a soft cover, with no dust jacket and no image wrap. The binding is a saddle stitch, as we are not able to see how the book is put together. However with the inserts they are put into the book using a Swiss stitch, which adds to the scrap book feel and almost creates child like qualities.
The cover itself is a piece of soft card, with a green background. On the background is yellow spirals, which is symbolic for the simplistic life that this family have moved on to. These drawings are also ‘basic’ which suggests that the two daughters drew the covers. In a sense you can feel these yellow spirals, creating a slight texture to the front cover. As mention prior, the title is placed on a white piece of fabric, with the title hand written onto the white fabric.
Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
The title used takes a more poetic route to suggesting what the book is. ‘The Middle Of Somewhere’, is Harris’ was of explaining how he moved from London to remote corner of the world, in order to live the simplistic lifestyle, which is also emphasised through him not naming where he has moved to. It also hints at the ideology that his daughters are free to explore and grow up without having to worry, as he is no longer living in a major city. Personally, the title is both intriguing as it makes viewers want to fully understand the context and concept of the book, but the title also has relevance to his imagery that he produces.
Sam Harris – The Middle of Somewhere
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
As mentioned in the narrative section of the blog post, the book explores Harris’ two daughters growing up and exploring the world after they move to Western Australia for a more simplistic lifestyle. The image is told through the naturalistic, documentary style photographs, both portrait and landscape, which allows viewers to visually understand their new lifestyle and the way in which his daughters are growing up and experience the world. This is reinforced through the travelogues within the book, which allows text to qualitatively describe this lifestyle, complimenting the imagery, as well as post-its of different messages the children have written, which also compliment the imagery.
Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative. Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
The construct of the photo book is simplistic, when two images are presented over two pages, the images tend to match in location and through the formal elements of colour, which allows the viewers eyes to easily guide themselves around the book. The larger images represent the key or more substantial moments through the children’s exploration. All the photographs within the photographic book, all have a connection in the sense that they are all naturalistic, and taken in an environment in which the girls feel safe in and call home. The way in which they are sequenced, is in a chronological order in order to show the children’s age and them growing up, emphasising how they have developed and changed into the simplistic lifestyle, as well as showing how their personality has changed through exploration of the area they live in. The first image presented is a landscape of a forest area in which I believe is the place in which his daughter’s are growing up in, which allows a circular plot with the ending image being a sketched map of this specific area.
Page Spread within Sam Harris’ Photographic Book – The Middle of Somewhere
Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
Most of the book, the landscape photographs are presented on a double page spread, with an occasional 3/4 page spread, and half of a single page spread.. The portrait pictures are consistently single page spreads. Each photograph compliments one another and allows the narrative to smoothly flow throughout. The inserts within the book is the travelogues which are all text, with one of them having a few black and white images, which are all clumped together summarising the text in a visual way.
Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any.)
At the beginning of the photo book is a series of 7 short sentences which describe how time goes quickly and how his daughters are growing up so fast, which allows us to consider the conceptual representation of the book. On top of this, as I have previously mentioned the book has travelogues, as inserts, which descriptively explain their new lifestyle, which almost acts as an explanation for the imagery. On top of this, post-it notes are found within the book which helps to explain a specific image and that specific moment, adding context to the imagery.
Video:
Below I have found a video which shows every page of the photo book, which will help to reinforce the comments I have made and illustrate some of the features I have outlines:
After a lot of planning i managed to get some photographs of the home i’m living in and i arranged the different photographs into a sheet where i picked the ones i’m going to use and the ones that are not good enough.
The blue colored areas are where i’m going to crop the photograph, and the red crossed ones are the ones i wont be using.
The book is hard back and slightly heavy, with a subtle sawdust smell. The images in the book are printed on A4 white card, which makes the images look bright. Within the book there is no writing, the story telling is through the images in the book which tell the story of Theo Gosselin who goes on a road trip with his friends and documents it through images, it is showing what he say and the carefree personality that people of that age have, this is really represented in the following images;
There are 112 pages showing how Gosselin lived and the activities he got up to during his time of freedom. Also, the lighting of the images is pure and bright which suggests most of his images where taken at sunrise or sunset, making the images highly focused and giving them natural lighting which enhances their surrounding. There are a few full spread images within the book and the rest of the images are one to a page with a white boarder around them, which makes you focus on the image you are looking at.
The main audience for this book would be the younger generation, as I believe that older people would frown upon some of the images within the book. The images represent a carefree life, and it is encouraging adventure to the audience. The title of the book SANS LIMITES, means without limits, so they are living there life as they please with no regrets, they also stand as role modes to the younger generation to go and enjoy the life. The images are so simple yet captivating, it is as if the images have been taken out of a movie as they tell such a profound story
Christmas is a large event, which everyone in my family looks forward to every year. It is a tradition for my Grandparents to go to church in the morning and then come down to my house at around 12pm on Christmas Day to have a Christmas dinner with us, and exchange presents. The aim of this photoshoot is to showcase how my grandparents lifestyle influences the way in which we celebrate Christmas, due to this day being considered religious celebration. I also want to be able to capture the interaction between my grandparents and other family members, as well as showcasing our ‘traditional’ Christmas. When capturing the pictures I tended to take images of key events, and times within the day, and moments when my grandparents personality is clearly being showcased. The camera settings on my DSLR were kept minimal, allowing for a naturalistic documentary style image to be presented. My shutter speed was quick, with my ISO being low and my aperture also being low, reducing noise, blur and allows enough light into my imagery.
Structure of Christmas:
12pm Grandparents arrive – drinks, snacks are presented as we begin celebration.
12:30pm Present exchange – We provide a present exchange, gifting each other plants, car air fresheners etc.
1pm Dinner – at 1pm we gather round the table, say grace, and open our Christmas crackers as the ford begins to arrive. We usually discuss topics such as work, school, future and how our life is in general.
2:30 Dessert – We light the Christmas pudding, and my grandma provides us with her ‘Blue Peter Recipe’, a chocolate cake.
3pm Queens Speech – We all gather around the TV as we watch the queen deliver her yearly speech.
3:30 Christmas Tree Presents – Each year a member of the family will by a ‘joke’ gift for everyone else and will present these gifts later on in the day.
4pm Leaving – My Grandparents leave with their presents, and left over food.
Edits:
Edit 1 – Flagged
Edit 2 – Star Rating
Edit 3. – Colour Rating
Outcomes:
When selecting my outcomes to edit and adjust to improve the quality of the photograph, I wanted to select images which accurately portray the events and the relationship my family have with my Grandparents, and the way in which this tradition reflects their lifestyle. In addition, I critically chose these photographs to work with as I believed that they helped to tell the narrative of this project. When adjusting the images, I wanted to maintain this simplistic and minimalistic aesthetic towards my work, and so I only present the imagery in black and white or in colour, and the I only focused on adjusting, blacks, white, contrast, detail and sharpness of the imagery. These experimentations are clearly presented below.
Analysis:
The photograph below is my favourite outcome from this photoshoot as I believe it clearly meets the aims of this photoshoot and clearly presents my theme of lifestyle. Conceptually, this is the moment before food arrives and my family are reading out the jokes from the Christmas crackers. It showcases their reaction to the delivery of the jokes. Typically, my brother does not understand the jokes, like this occasion, and requires people to explain. The photograph shows the bond and strong relationship everyone has around this table, as we follow the family tradition, which illustrates my grandparents lifestyle on a major event like this. Contextually, every Christmas we follow the same schedule and repeat the same day essentially every year. Following this pattern is crucial, as it allows my grandparents Christian religious beliefs to fit in with the day, and allows their grandchildren to follow, understand and practice their beliefs and traditions about christianity. Personally, me and my brother have been christened but do not actively consider ourselves as religious people, so this contextual factor on Christmas influences out day and the way in which we go about activities.
Breaking down the visual and technical components of this image allows for the concept and context of the imagery to clearly be displayed. Visually, we are presented with my family sitting around a table, with Christmas hats on as they laugh and look joyous at one another, making this the main focus point of the imagery. The photograph is presented in black and white, allowing clear tonal contrast, and is taken at a straight on angle. In some respects the photograph can be regarded to be using rule of thirds, to create the composition. Further more, the foreground is considered busy and lively due to a lack of space, with the background remaining plain and simplistic, which reduces distractions from the central focus of this image. The main formal elements which are presented in this frame is, space, detail and texture, which are all shown through the way in which the image has been framed. The photograph is sharp and showcases clear detail on the subjects skin, clothes and the table. Technically, the photograph was captured using and quick shutter speed and low ISO, which reduces intended blur and means no noise is presented in the frame. Additionally, the aperture has been set to a medium setting, as enough light is being let in, and a minor narrow depth of field is being presented. Alongside this, naturalistic lighting is being used, which compliments the daylight white balance being utilised.
Conclusion:
To conclude, I believe that photoshoot has been a success. I have been able to produce imagery which meets my artistic aim, and clearly represents my conceptual message of how my grandparents lifestyle influences the way in which my family celebrate major events. On top of this, I have been able to hint at contextual representations throughout my photographs, which adds additional meaning towards my final outcomes of this photoshoot. I have been able to experiment further with different ways of editing imagery using Lightroom, and have reinforced my skill of being able to critically analyse and select imagery which meet my artistic aim.
I went to Jordan over Christmas for a couple of days and collected some data by interviewing some people about my personal project. I did the interviews as one to one interviews sitting down with a notebook in my hand and i asked them the questions i planned to ask them on my planner and recorded their answers. And i’m going to put out my results on this blog post down below.
Hamzah Al-Jazi
Hamzah is Mashhoor’s Grand son also the son of Abu Ali, after asking his permission to interview him about Mashoor i collected these answers from him down below.
-How many years do you remember with him?
“he died when i was only 12 years old so only about since i was 6.” said Hamzah.
– How did his death affect you?
“I was only young when he was in my life but yet i still have felt like there is something missing from my life since the day i died.” He said
– Is there any personal stories you want to share about him?
“One of the very few things i remember still of when i was that young was when he took me hunting with him on the weekends and he’d always make a perfect shot” He said
-How would you describe Mashhoor in one sentence?
” He was a man of power and pride who a lot of people will always remember.” Hamza Stated.
– Are you proud of your family history because of Mashhoor’s accomplishments?
“if their was something that made me who i am today then its Mashhoor’s accomplishments and i’m very proud of that.”
Wael Mattar
Wael was Mashhoor’s best friend in the old days, i went to his home and interviewed him over a cup off coffee and down below is his answered that i recorded.
For how long did you know Mashhooor?
“i met mashhoor when i was only 16 years old in the neighborhood” said Wael.
Did you have any accomplishments with him?
“i used to be Mashhoors first officer in Al Karamah battle and i was his right hand during all the battle.” He said.
Does knowing the fact that Mashhoor was your friend make you proud?
“Yes in fact i still believe the luckiest thing that ever happened to me was when i met him he changed my whole life forever” said Wael.
How often did you used to see him?
“It varied a lot but i used to see him everyday during times of battle as i had to always be by his side” He said.
What did you do when you where with him?
“We used to play soccer together as teenagers, then we used to work together at times of war” He stated.
How would you describe Mashhoor in one phrase?
“A man of pride and loyalty” phrased Wael.
Eman Mattar
Eman is Abu Ali’s wife, so i went to her house and interviewed her about Mashhoor and recorded her answers to my question down below:
How close where you to Mashhoor?
“Mashhoor was my father in law so i saw a lot of him and we were really close, he treated me as his own daughter.” Said Eman
Since your the closest one to Abu Ali how would you describe Abu Ali’s condition was when Mashhoor died?
“Abu Ali was a really strong person who didn’t show much emotion except for when hes falling asleep, even if he had any problems or depressing situations no one would be able to tell as he always puts a smile on his face, but i could tell how he may have seemed alright to everyone when his father died but i knew he wasn’t the same anymore, he always seemed a bit lost. Stated Eman
Conclusion
In conclusion these interviews and answers are going to help me a lot in my project as i have a bigger picture of the story and i have more answers now. I will now be using this data i collected as a guide to what i should include in my project.
After researching Laura Blight, and the way in which she conveyed interior of houses to tell the narrative of the previous owner he has recently died, I wanted to conduct a photo shoot in a similar style which showcases my Grandparents house in order to tell the narrative of their lifestyle. I will be looking at interior, as well as capturing exterior, furthering from what Blight captured. When deciding what to capture I will be looking at different areas of the house which I believe help to capture their lifestyle, from macro images to using the formal elements of space, texture and colour to help convey this. My camera settings are going to be kept standard, with my ISO being around 400-800, shutter speed being quick and the aperture being round f/5.6, with the use of manual focus and natural light source.
Edits:
Edit 1 – Flagged
Edit 2 – Star Rating
Edit 3 – Colour Rating
Outcomes:
When editing my outcomes, I wanted to adjust the images to look like the work of Blight, by allowing the colours to slightly be desaturated, and noise to be presented, and having a natural darkness and somewhat eerie feel to them. I experimented with mainly the contrast, blacks, whites and shadows as well as the structure on lightroom to produce these outcomes. I tended to stick to black and white outcomes for exterior, as I felt the texture and tonal contrast allows for the house to hold more personality and tell it’s story, and the interior to mainly be in colour so that my work had a similar feel to Blight’s imagery. My experimentation can be viewed below:
Analysis:
Below is my recreation of Blight’s image of the chair in her photographic series ‘House Clearance’. The two images hold a lot of similarities, due to my clear understanding of the technique Blight used. For example, the composition of the framing is similar, with a chair in the foreground and windows in the background. Both photographs clearly represent the formal element of space, texture and colour, and represent the personality and characteristics of the room, as well as showcasing traces of human life, a key conceptual factor of Blight’s work. Due to similar outcomes, it is likely that we used the same shutter speed, quick, and a low aperture, alongside a natural daylight white balance.
In my image, the photograph presents the chair at more of a worms eye view/straight on angle, and is darker than Blight’s imagery. In addition, the surrounding of the chair in my image is a lot busier, which creates the representation of life still living in the house, which allows my conceptual representation of lifestyle to be clearly presented in my work. In addition, my image has more ‘noise’ in the sense that I used a high ISO, due to the natural lighting not being bright enough to illuminate the whole chair. On top of this, my image hold more of a modern day feel, due to my subject being more modern and up to date furniture. A final difference between to two images is that my photograph uses more of a wide depth of field, as we can clearly see the background of the image, which showcases my grandparents garden, but still does not distract viewers from the conceptual representation of my imagery.
I believe that my attempt of recreating this photograph is strong, I have been able to apply the techniques of Blight into my work, and have been able to introduce the ideology into traces of human activity and apply it to represent my grandparents ‘luxury’ lifestyle they live.
My Imagery
Laura Blight’s imagery
Conclusion:
To conclude, I believe I have been able to produce strong imagery, which clearly depict the luxury and wealthy lifestyle my grandparents have, trough capturing the interior and exterior of their homes. Alongside this, I have been able to employ the composition techniques of Blight when capturing my images, in order to hint at her conceptual representation of human trace. I have been able to further explore this by applying these techniques to capturing the exterior of my Grandparents house, in order to showcase the size and ‘traditional’ values that the house holds, emphasising the luxury lifestyle they live, based on their upbringing and contextual elements of their past.
After researching LaToya Ruby Frazier, I was able to understand the way in which her conceptual representations were presented within her imagery. Using this techniques of capturing naturalistic portraits in order to portray lifestyle, I conducted a photoshoot with my grandparents. At the beginning of the session I explained the purpose of the shoot and informed them that I would be following them around as they live out their everyday lives, emphasising the importance of them sticking to their true personality to accurately representing their lifestyle as I followed them around. The shoot was conducted during the middle of the afternoon which meant daylight was beginning to become darker, which forced me to increase my aperture in order to let enough light into, for the frame to clearly illustrate their lifestyle. The camera settings were kept basic, quick shutter speed, middle – high ISO and aperture of around f/5.6 in order to capture the imagery.
Conceptually, I wanted to convey my grandparents lifestyle and how their upbringing and past has influenced their life. For example, I focused on capturing the idea of my grandma being a house wife, while my grandad provided and worked for the family. I also wanted to represent the ideology of economic status and the way in which their financial situation has influenced their lifestyle which they thought were large influencing factors during my interview with them. Due to them being financially stable, it has allowed for them to have luxury habits, such as owning a large house, being able to afford expensive furniture and being able to retire early. These factors I tried to portray through my imagery, as well as recreate and produce imagery which follows the same stylistic features of Frazier.
Edits:
Edit 1 – Flagged
Edit 2 – Star Rating
Edit 3- Colour Edit
Outcomes:
When producing the outcomes from this photo shoot, I wanted to keep them simplistic and authentic, in order to clearly and accurately illustrate the lifestyle they live. Due to Frazier’s work mainly being in black and white, lead most of my outcomes to be showcased in black and white, in order to create close connections between mine and my artists work. However, with two of the images I decided to leave them in colour, as they best suited being presented in colour, due to them having a more authentic persona towards them which meant that the colour allowed for reality to accurately be portrayed within the imagery.
Analysis / Comparison:
The image below (Frazier’s) is the photograph which I felt held strong conceptual representation, and wanted to recreate within my work to present different concepts in relation to the subjects I was capturing. The two images follow similar composition, by having a subject present in the foreground and background looking in different directions, with a narrow depth of field being utilised. Both photographs are being presented in black and white, with the detail and structure being high, but the smoothness of the imagery and noise being low, likely done through camera settings with editing complimenting these values. Both photographs show clear focus to the formal elements of space, tone and texture which is clearly presented from the proxemics, clothes and basic background. Another similarity between the two is through the camera settings used in order to capture these images, due to them being alike, it suggests that I used similar settings The lighting used would have been artificial through studio lighting and lighting readily found in that room. The light source is soft and can be considered cold, which illustrates the brutality of this reality and how it has negatively impacted the families life. This works well with the low ISO which is used as no intended noise is being presented within the imagery. As well as the white balance being accurately set to an in door setting allowing for clear colour correction, illuminating the tonal contrast within the frame. In addition to this, the shutter speed is kept to a quick capture as there is no movement or intended blur within the frame of the photograph, which helps to compliment the ISO setting used.
The main difference between the two images are the conceptual representation. Frazier wanted to showcase how herself and her family are being treated as invisible due to their race, presenting political power and situation in their suburb in Braddock. It also illustrates their lifestyle and poverty through the perspective of herself, mum and grandmother, this concept is further explained in my artist research on a previous blog post. Personally, I wanted to convey the social situation which was common in the 1940’s and still present in my grandparents lifestyle today, gender roles. Having my grandad being in the front of the frame well dressed up shows he is the authoritative figure who provides for the household, having my grandmother in the back suggests her submissiveness and willingness to follow instructions from her husband, although this may be considered a bad thing, to them it is normality which they both enjoy.
My Photograph
Latoya Ruby Frazier
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I believe that the imagery produced shows close relationships with Fraziers imagery, through the sense of composition and the ideology that we have both conveyed lifestyle in a similar way. With close regards to the final imagery produced, I believe that the photographs shows my ability to capture detailed portraits, which have clear focus and show my ability to produce a strong composition, which compliments the simplistic edits. In addition, I have been able to provide evidence my reinforces my ability to use Lightroom effectively to produce strong imagery.
