It is important we look at other examples of project work for ideas…but also to see how other students have performed and scored across the Assessment Objectives
You must spend some time during Monday’s lesson to complete some peer assessment and must use the table below to complete this simple task…
Start by looking each of these blogs by previous students…
Resource Packs are stored here…
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Portraiture\TO DO
and here : M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Planners Y12 JAC\Unit 2 Portrait Photography
Read and respond
1. Natural Light
Remember >>>Photography is completely dependent on the availability of light.
In most cases we can make use of natural or available / ambient light…but we must be aware of different kinds of natural light and learn how to exploit it thoughtfully and creatively…
White Balance (WB) and Colour Temperature
2. Studio Lighting
Using artificial lighting can offer many creative possibilities…so we will explore
Above : An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” area…try this wherever there are white walls/ ceilings
Using Flash
Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios…we will explore
Evidence of Your Learning
During this week we would expect all students to complete 2-3 blog posts detailing how you are experimenting with various lighting techniques eg CHIARASCURO / REMBRANDT LIGHTING
Add information / links showing how Chiarascuro has been used since the Renaissance in painting…but also how it used now in photography and film
You must describe and explain your process with each technique…add your images to your blog as you progress, print off your successful images and evaluate your process using technical vocab and analysis skills. Think carefully about the presentation of your ideas and outcomes…compare your work to relevant portrait photographers as you go eg
Expected Final Outcomes by Friday 13th December
Think about how you can show evidence of head shots, cropped head shots, half body, three-quarter length and full length portraits.
Show that you can employ interesting angles and viewpoints…
Make sure you ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN YOUR BLOG
Or use light painting techniques…
Independent Study
(Refer to your tracking sheet)
https://www.wefolk.com/artists/nadav-kander/information
Always follow this 10 step process to ensure that you are covering all areas of study for this unit…
Always refer to this to help you with image analysis, knowledge and understanding etc
Street Photography is a sub-genre of photojournalism…
This image below was taken in Seville at the beginning of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s career as a photographer. It has a strong geometric form. The viewer sees the gang of boys through a large hole in a wall which frames the scene. Without knowing the date of the image one might guess that it was taken during the Spanish Civil War (1936–9) or afterwards. The fact that it was taken in 1933 gives it a strange sense of premonition; the boys are playing at war in the ruins of a war that has not yet happened.
Blog Post 1 : Define, describe and explain street photography.
Include images, moodboards, hyperlinks to relevant articles and URLs and add a video or two on street photography if you can
Take care in your choice of images…browse the list of street photographers below and choose from the work to “speaks” to you…
Aim to show knowledge and understanding of how street photography can reflect the life / lifestyle / politics / history / social class of an area or group of people…
Do the images make a statement…or ask a question?
Blog Post 2 :
Create a blog post / case study about Henri Cartier-Bresson that includes…
Discuss in detail the differences / similarities / intentions / outcomes and, of course, the photographers’ technical and visual approaches
Blog Post 3 : Practical Response + Photo-shoot
‘What do artists do all day?’ – Dougie Wallace, Featured on BBC. from Wren Agency on Vimeo.
Marking Criteria
The four assessment objectives clearly outline expectations, so you must provide high quality evidence for each AO…
AO1 : Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations, informed by contextual sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding
AO2 : Explore and select appropriate resources, media, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
AO3 : Recording ideas (taking photos) that are relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work as it progresses
AO4 : Present a personal and meaningful response(s) that realises intentions, and makes connections with other artists
Ensure your process looks like this…
A portrait is a representation of a particular person. A self-portrait is a portrait of the artist by the artist
Portraiture is a very old art form going back at least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago.
Before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone.
But portraits have always been more than just a record. They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter.
Portraits have almost always been flattering, and painters who refused to flatter, such as William Hogarth, tended to find their work rejected. A notable exception was Francisco Goya in his apparently bluntly truthful portraits of the Spanish royal family.
Photography 1800’s onwards
We may be used to selfies now, but it’s Robert Cornelius’s 1839 image that lays claim to the first self-portrait. Taken in Philadelphia, Cornelius sat for a little over one minute before covering the lens.
Photojournalism really started to take shape when photographers could easily transport cameras into war zones. The “Golden Age of Photojournalism” is often considered to be roughly the 1930s through the 1950s. It was made possible by the development of the compact commercial 35mm Leica camera in 1925, and the first flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930, which allowed the journalist true flexibility in taking pictures.
For the first time, ordinary citizens could see the impact of the fighting right there in their newspaper. It was a pivotal moment in photography and it became more and more real between the Civil War and World War II.
Documenting the Public The turn of the century continued to use portrait photography for documentary uses. In 1906 Lewis Hine was hired to document the conditions that child labor workers had to deal with in different factories throughout the U.S. His photographs were used to help pass child labor reforms, like the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which banned oppressive child labor.
The stock market crash in 1929 led to the next round of documentary portraiture. In 1935, photographers were hired to document what was going on in the farmlands of America. The Resettlement Administration, which later became the Farm Security Administration, wanted to see through photographs how the farmers were living. The New Deal offered several programs for artists and photographers, such as the Works Progress Administration. People hired for the WPA documented life throughout America. One famous WPA photographer was Dorothea Lange, who profiled the plight of farmers in America.
Put simply, photojournalism is about capturing verbs. This doesn’t mean simply taking an action photo. Communicating the verb is much more than that. Stories are captured in slices while photojournalism strives to convey what is happening in one shot.
Although it is great when it happens, photojournalism isn’t about the best composition, or the best technical details, or a pretty subject.
Photojournalism is about showing the world a story of something that really happened.
“Bearing witness” is a phrase that comes to mind in regards to photojournalism.
Photojournalism allows the world to see through the eyes of the photographer for just a moment. When photojournalism is done right, that one moment conveys volumes of time.
Conveying the full story is part of environmental portraiture where the setting tells us as much about the subject as the subject themselves.
The emotion is often raw in photojournalism. The photographer is not directing the scene as a portrait or commercial photographer would. Instead, the best of them blend into the background and become a shadow figure (unlike the paparazzi). They are there to observe and capture, not become the story or interrupt it.
The photojournalist has a different attitude than other photographers and it’s necessary to capturing those memorable photos. And quite often, that single photo can become a call to action for the millions of people who see it.
Another vitally important part of photojournalism is accuracy. This means that what is in the frame is what happened. The photojournalist is ethically bound not to change the story (though many fall short of this ideal).
Power lines should not be cloned out. More smoke must not be added to a fire scene. What was captured is how it should be. Sadly, the era of digital photography has made it easier than ever to manipulate reality.
The image should be a window into the event. At most, lighten the shadows a touch to see faces or sharpen the image a bit for clarity but do not change the essence of what you capture in the photo. If you do, you change the story.
The four assessment objectives clearly outline expectations, so you must provide high quality evidence for each AO…
AO1 : Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations, informed by contextual sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding
AO2 : Explore and select appropriate resources, media, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
AO3 : Recording ideas (taking photos) that are relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work as it progresses
AO4 : Present a personal and meaningful response(s) that realises intentions, and makes connections with other artists
Ensure your process looks like this…
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Portraiture\TO DO
and here : M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Planners Y12 JAC\Unit 2 Portrait Photography
TASK 1
You must introduce your new topic : PORTRAITS
Remember… your images must include a caption…this is especially important if they belong to someone else (copyright etc), and helps clarify which images are yours for assessment.
Try adding hyperlinks to use websites / blogs / video URLs or embed relevant YOUTUBE clips to help illustrate your key points
CREATE A VISUAL MOOD-BOARD
CREATE A MIND-MAP
We will be studying the history, theories and concepts of portrait making…their purpose and role in our day to day lives too.
We will begin the unit by looking at ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS, which depict people in their…
“An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography”
Here are some examples…
Key things to consider with formal / environmental portraits…
Technical= Composition / exposure / lens / light
Visual= eye contact / engagement with the camera / neutral pose and facial expression / angle / viewpoint
Conceptual= what are you intending to present? eg : social documentary? / class ? / authority ? / gender role ? / lifestyle ?
Contextual=add info and detail regarding the back ground / story / detail / information about the character(s) / connection to the photographer eg family / insider / outsider
Photo-Shoot 1
Remember to show your Photo-Shoot Planning and clearly explain :
Candid / informal Portraits
Candid portraits tend be more natural, flowing, unplanned and may even be a form of street photography at times. You should aim to capture the essence of the person you are photographing, say something about them or the moment they are caught in…
Photo-Shoot 2
Follow this 10 Step Process and create a series of blog posts to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :
Photoshoot Deadline = Wednesday 20th November
YOUR FINAL BLOG POST(s) SHOULD CLEARLY SHOW 3-5 POSSIBLE FINAL OUTCOMES, INCLUDING YOUR PRESENTATION METHOD AND AN EVALUATION
We will demonstrate how to measure, cut and combine window mounts, but you should explore other possibilities too…
Research and explore alternative approaches to presenting your final images. This should be an integral part of your concept…not a gimmick…ultimately, the quality of your photography will be the primary focus and your mark will reflect this…
Print Deadline : Friday 25th October
Find the folder : M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\PRINTING
The four assessment objectives clearly outline expectations, so you must provide high quality evidence for each AO…
AO1 : Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations, informed by contextual sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding
AO2 : Explore and select appropriate resources, media, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
AO3 : Recording ideas (taking photos) that are relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work as it progresses
AO4 : Present a personal and meaningful response(s) that realises intentions, and makes connections with other artists
Ensure your process looks like this…
This week we will be focusing on selecting your best images from your first 2 x landscape photo-shoots and then enhancing, manipulating, printing and displaying your final images. Some of you will be adding to these this week.
Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who was inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch, the experiments at The Bauhaus in Germany and by Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Art Institute of Chicago. He achieved fame for his colour photographs but he also published several books of black and white images that explore dramatic contrasts of tone. In some, we are only presented with images that are black and white. All mid tones have been removed. He created and found these images, using both cameras and flat bed scanners to achieve the effects he was looking for. These books are beautifully designed and encourage us to consider the space around the image and the accompanying text as integral to the meaning of the work.
Extension Task
A comment on mass production / mass consumption?
Where do ideas come from? How about through collecting, sorting, classifying. That’s one way to begin. It is an organized method of investigation used in the sciences and the arts. In the field of archeology the exploration of the similarities and differences among the same type of object is called a typology. This same methodology is popular among artists, especially those using photographic processes.
A typology is a collection of a single type or class, with the collection itself being more important than the individual components. According to Marc Freidus, “A typology is assembled by observation, collection, naming and grouping. These actions allow the members of the class to be compared, usually in search of broader patterns.”
Typologies appear to be objective – finding specific items that fit a clearly defined category – but of course, someone has to create that category in the first place, which can be seen as an act of invention. It is here that the artistic mind is located. Stylistically, these typologies try to remove the unique “artist’s hand,” and this may be the reason they are found more in photographic work than in painting or sculpture.
The ability to compare the similarities and differences between the components of a typology is important and for this reason artists often use a grid, book format or a linear layout in a contained space (such as a gallery) to aid in this analysis.
August Sander, “The Farmer”
Working in Germany between the first and second world wars the photographer August Sander undertook a massive typological study called The Physiognomy of Our Time. He classified German society into types based on class and social standing, using the following major categories – The Farmer, The Skilled Tradesman, The Woman, Classes and Professions, The Artists, The City and The Last People (which were further sub-divided.) He wasn’t interested in taking photographs that revealed the uniqueness of each person, rather he saw them as archetypes and employed a style that emphasized this aspect. The photographs were designed as a multi-volume atlas, a reference of German types. (In the image above I have used a grid format to show a small portion of the work but please note that this is not how Sander presented it. He presented it as a book.)
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Sander influenced generations of photographers, among them the married couple Bernd and Hilla Becher. In the 1950s they began documenting rundown and disappearing industrial architecture – blast furnaces, water towers, foundries. Their work can be seen as a type of industrial archaeology. Presenting the work in a straightforward grid format, each picture was taken under a uniform grey sky at the same time of day, from the same distance and angle – allowing the images to be easily compared and classified. The Bechers endeavored to make dispassionate, objective images. Like Sander before them, the Bechers influenced large numbers of contemporary artists and photographers – Thomas Demand, Candida Hofer, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff and Andreas Gursky – who follow their lead in employing a detached documentary style in their work.
Ed Ruscha, “Every Building On The Sunset Strip”
The artist Ed Ruscha is famous for his paintings and prints but is also known for his series of photographic books based on typologies, among them Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Some Los Angeles Apartments, and Thirtyfour Parking Lots. Ruscha employs the deadpan style found in many photographic topologies. The book shown above is a 24 foot long accordion fold booklet that documents 1 1/2 miles of the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
Jeff Brouws
Twentynine Palms by the photographer Jeff Brouws is a photo book that contains 29 pictures of vintage roadside signs advertising fortune tellers and palm readers – a homage to both Ruscha and the photographer Walker Evans.
Here’s a few more topologies for you to look at:
Karl Blossfeldt
Ólafur Elíasson
Franklyn Swantek
A great resource is the blog The Typologist and its associated website, both maintained by Diane Zlatanovski, the Collections Steward at Harvard’s Peabody Museum. Here’s her description of a typology – “By definition, a typology is an assemblage based on a shared attribute. Patterns, both visual and intellectual, resonate and reveal themselves within collections. Information not apparent in isolation becomes visible in context – only through studying groupings are we able to discern similarities and contrasts. In observing collections of similar things, the beautiful variations become evident. And the closer you look, the more you see.”
The New Topographics
The beginning of the death of “The American Dream”
New Topographics inspired by the likes of Albert Renger Patszch and the notion of The New Objectivity
Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.
The New Topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
History and Theory
Practical Responses…
Urban Photoshoot Due Date Wednesday 23rd October
150-200 images that reflect your understanding of The New Topographics ( reference at least 1 x artist)
You may choose to focus on areas that have a direct link to Occupation / Liberation
Look at how the New Topographics approach has inspired landscape photography and the way we document our surroundings / the way we are using and transforming the land.
You should look at photographers such as…
Research a selection of these photographers and respond with…
Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, 1975, chromogenic color print
Analysis and discussion… starting points and key features of The New Topographics
Remember to use this
Follow this 10 Step Process and create multiple blog posts for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :
This week we will be looking more closely at the concept of altered landscapes.
You will be developing a set, sequence or group of final images to print and display
You can choose from natural, romanticised, urban and altered landscapes for your final outcomes
You may choose to employ a range of creative techniques (digital and traditional) to create your environments…
You may already have a range of suitable images to start your designs…but will need to conduct a range of photo-shoots to ensure that you have enough high quality images to work from:
Here are some examples to help inspire your ideas…
Paint directly onto photographs, as in these works by Gerhard Richter:
Combine paint and photographs digitally, like Fabienne Rivory‘s LaBokoff project:
Overlay multiple photos from slightly different angles, like these experimental photographs by Stephanie Jung:
Cut out shapes and insert coloured paper, as in these photographs by Micah Danges:
Make an photography collage using masking tape, like Iosif Kiraly:
Photograph a single scene over time and join the pieces in sequence, like these composite photographs by Fong Qi Wei:
Inset scenes within other scenes, as in these photographs by Richard Koenig:
Take close-up, tightly cropped scenes, creating abstract photography from surfaces and pattern, like these works by Frank Hallam Day:
Experiment with slow shutter speeds at night, blurring lights, as in the abstract ‘Sightseeing Tunnel’ series by Jakob Wagner:
Essential Blog Posts This Week…
Click this link below for more resources…
Remember to follow the 10 Step Process and create multiple blog posts for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :