Keld Helmer-Peterson was a Danish photographer who was inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch. He is mainly known for his colour photography, however he also published multiple books of black and white images showing dramatic contrasts of tones.
Keld Helmer-Petersen’s Image
My Images
First I selected the images I wanted to work with in Photoshop. Then I cropped it to the way in which I liked and clicked image, adjustments, and then threshold to adapt where the darkest and lightest parts of the photo are. Overall I feel that they reflect Keld Helmer-Petersen’s photography well due to the way in which i manipulated my photographs.
Keld Helmer – Petersen was a Danish photographer who received worldwide recognition for his coloured photographs. He also published several books full of black and white images where all the mid – tones had been removed.
Photographs captured by Keld Helmer – Peterson
MY RESPONSE
I firstly selected four images from my previous photoshoot inspired by Albert Renger – Patzsch’s ‘The World is Beautiful‘. I then opened Photoshop and experimented with the threshold tool in order to remove all the mid – tones and leave only black and white in the images. In my first photograph, I also experimented with the cropping tool so I could make the image smaller, and so I could get rid of parts of the image that I didn’t like. In the third picture, the threshold tool emphasised the shadows which were present in the bottom left of the image, and created a whole new area of black colour. The same happened in the second photograph, with the shadows casted by the dials on the oven being accented.
A mood board can be defined as an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept.
Below is a mood board to display the theme of ‘Looking and Seeing’.
Ideas
Uta Barth
Uta Barth is a German-American photographer, born in 1958, who is known for her unique outlook on the style of her experimental photography. This is as she states, that her aim is to allow the audience to have freedom with their perception, and the thoughts it produces, instead of being passive to what the photographer wants you to see and feel. Barth does this by experimenting with focus and aperture, taking photos that are mainly blurry.
Saul Leiter
Saul Leiter was an American photographer and painter, born in 1923, known for being a contributor to early colour photography, whilst he documented the streets, architecture and people of New York, usually in dreary weather. Leiter used long lenses to compress space, taking pictures from unique perspectives, using negative space and large out of focus areas.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Ralph Eugene Meatyard was an American photographer, born in 1925, known for his experimental use of exposure in his photographs. Working as an optician, Meatyard was able to see how others perceptions of the world were varied, which is clearly translated in his work, especially in his series ‘Out of Focus’. This selection of abstract photos showcased black and white images of undistinguishable blobs, breaking down the conventional rules of photography. In addition, in his series ‘Zen Twigs’, Meatyard created images that displayed a blurred photograph containing one thin twig in focus which sliced through the image, foregrounding Meatyard’s precision when it comes to aperture.
Image Analysis
Ralph Eugene Meatyard – ‘Zen Twigs’ – 1960
This black and white image by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, which is part of his ‘Zen Twigs’ series, showcases one single twig placed in the centre of the photograph. This placement leaves a lot of empty space for the eye to wonder, at the same time this space allows for a prodiminantly light piece. In addition, this twig acts as a leading line, to attract your attention to the extremely out of focus landscape behind it, which appears to be coastal.
Similar to Meatyard’s other photographs from this series, this image has been taken with a large aperture, resulting in a blurred background and focused foreground. Also, it is clear that this photo was taken with a fast shutter speed, due to the sharp and precisely focused foreground. Furthermore, the lighting of this photograph appears to be natural, as you can make out that it is a coastline landscape in the background and it is overcast allowing for the twig to cast no shadows, causing an image with little intensity.
Moreover, from his dramatic experimentation with focus, you can tell that Meatyard’s profession as an optician has strongly influenced the nature of his photography, as it appears that he is trying to see commonplace scenes from a different perspective. Also, this piece signifies his fascination with Zen as it displays such a peaceful and solitary image.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard Inspired Photoshoots
Contact Sheets
For my first photoshoot in Meatyard’s style, I set out on taking a series of close up photographs of twigs and plants, similar to his ‘Zen Twigs series’. For this I used the Aperture Priority setting on my camera to get the most blurry background possible.
For my second photoshoot, aimed to take pictures of people walking in hard natural lighting, creating silhouettes, to replicate Meatyard’s ‘Out of Focus’ series. For this I planned on switching my camera settings to manual focus, allowing me to control the level of blurriness and distortion.
Favourite Edited Images
Final Image
I picked this photograph from my second photoshoot as my best image because, I believe that it best replicates Meatyard’s style of photography through focal experimentation. Also, I think the shapes created by the people walking are the most interesting, from this shoot especially, as they almost appear alien like. Furthermore, the lighting of this image works best as it has caused the figures to be silhouetted, allowing for a strong and dramatic contrast with the light background.
Evaluation
On reflection, I believe that I have successfully taken a series of images that clearly display that I have experimented with focus and aperture settings, and shown an understanding of Meatyard’s style and expression through this technique.
In addition, I think that my second photoshoot produced more interesting images than my first, however my first photoshoot included a wider variety of images and shapes.
In order to make my photos better, next time I would aim to take pictures of a larger number of people wearing dark clothing for better quality images and more variety. Also, for the twig photoshoot I would try and go to a more wooded area to allow for variety of shapes and patterns.
Keld Helmer-Petersen is one of the most influential Danish photographers in the 20th Century. He was an international pioneer in colour photography and was a central figure in not only Danish but also European modernist photography. His career spanned 70 years and he had strong interest in modern architecture, industrial areas and structures. He was very prolific and continuously experimented and challenged the many possibilities of the photographic image.
He experimented intensely with various photographic techniques, such as camera-less images or photograms which were created in the darkroom. He created pure abstract image creations ongoingly from 1949, but especially in the 1970s and 1980s.
Process– I chose four of my images that I liked the most and edited them on Photoshop in the same style as him. I went onto Image> Adjustments>Threshold. I then adjusted the threshold as to how I wanted it. I wanted the a mix of completely dark tones and white tones without any mid tones to get the same contrast as Keld gets in his images.
Evaluation- personally I like how how the top two images turned out because by turning the photo completely black and white you can see all the small details on the trees and branches that you couldn’t in colour and it really defines the shape of the trees as it contrasts from the white .
I like how the bottom two turned out but not as much as the first because there’s still some uneven mid tones around the photos and it doesn’t create that sharp effect of black and white next to each other.
– Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who gained international recognition in the 1940’s and 1950’s for his abstract colour photographs. – His career lasted 70 years and he had strong interest in modern architecture, industrial areas and structures, which he would edit to be quite heavily contrasted, using strong black and white tones. – He was very prolific and continuously experimented with different angles and perspectives.
All Keld Helmer-Petersen’s photos.
– As you can see he takes harsh black and white tonal images and increase the contrast in Photoshop.
Process
– First i chose 4 images i liked and opened them in Photoshop. – Then, go to Image>Adjustments>Threshold. – Adjust the threshold level slider, to how you want it. – Crop the images to whatever size you want or 1000px x 1000px. And you can also rotate it in needed. – Then you save the finished image.
Original Photos – (Before)
Edited Photos – (After)
My edited photos.
Evaluation
– I like the outcome, as they look simplistic but include every detail needed. – The images are very geometric and include lots of parallel lines, which creates leading lines pointing to the sky. – The top 2 images have curves, where as the bottom 2 are heavily consistent of straight lines. – However, i don’t like how some of the black isn’t filled all the way, which creates a “patchy” look. As you can see in the bottom left photo, and the top right.
Original Photo
Evaluation
– I edited the image in Photoshop to create this effect. I like it as it makes you focus on the interesting parts, and subtracts the boring pieces. – First, I made a plain black layer. Then I created 6 circles, and 6 of the same images and made the image a mask for the circle, and I did that 6 times. then positioned the circles where I want to see the image through the black layer.
