Barth is a contemporary German-American photographer who’s work addresses themes such as perception, optical illusion and non-place, “inverting the notion of background and foreground”. Her work is as much about vision and perception as it is about the failure to see, the faith humans place in the mechanics of perception and the precarious nature of perceptual habits.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Meatyard is an American photographer known for his photographs in which family members and friends appear wearing grotesque masks. His photography reflected the connection between nature and humans. His Zen Twigs series, close-up detailed images of thin tree branches set against an out of focus background is the most obvious manifestation of his interest in Zen.
My photo shoot inspired by Meatyard
Final images
Certain images create a silhouette as the contrast between light and dark is so strong, what I like most about these photographs is the variety of black and white tones and the focus, high aperture is used to blur certain parts of the image to create a focus on the main part of the photo.
Saul Leiter’s photographs
My photos inspired by Leiter
Saul Leiter’s images can use vibrant and unique colours. The photographer uses a high aperture to blur certain parts of the image to create a focus on the main part of the photo. Abstract photography occurs when a photographer focuses in on a part of a scene, blurring out the background and focusing in on the colour, texture, shape, line, geometry, reflection or symmetry.
Leither captured contemplative moments in New York City in his warm and intimate photographs. He often shot in colour, a rarity for the era, often resembled abstract paintings, taken from unexpected angles and concerned primarily with the use of colour and geometric composition.
My photos inspired by Leiter
I like the vibrant, saturated colours in these photographs, the highlights and shadows contrast together creating depth, bringing out the brightness of the blue and pink tones.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972) was an American photographer and made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and mysterious body of photographs. Meatyard’s photographs explored many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits; often set in abandoned places, to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Meatyard has two series where he experiments with depth of field and focus, below is his work ‘No Focus’ where he has photographed figures without a specific focal point, creating a blurred effect.
‘No Focus’ Analysis
Meatyard’s series ‘No Focus’ is very abstract and ambiguous as you cannot tell what the blurred figures are. I really like this approach to photography as I believe it makes the observer think and be imaginative which their conception of the images. These photographs hold lots of dark, light and mid-tones which create a mysterious atmosphere and a sense of obscurity. The texture of these images is very soft and relaxed as the unfocused camera lens does not capture any sharp edges that may reside in the shot. Meatyard may have used a slower shutter speed, such as 1/2, to capture these unclear images so that more light could enter through the lens while it was open for a longer amount of time.
‘Zen Twigs’ Analysis
Meatyard also has a series called ‘Zen Twigs’ where has has experimented with the aperture settings on his camera. He has photographed twigs and tree branches in black and white, focusing clearly on specific points of the branch to create a shallow depth of field and a smaller focal point. For this series of photographs, Meatyard has most likely used a small aperture, such as F/2, to blur the background and areas surrounding the branch in order to create abstract images with depth. Meatyard’s work also consists of many harsh dark shadows which contrast with the bright highlights creating a range of tones and enhancing the silhouette-like outline of the branches. In these images we can see natural curved, jagged and straight lines in the foreground which form a rough texture, however the blurred shadowed branches in the background produce a softer texture as there are no defined lines drawing attention.
Contact Sheets
In my photo shoots I experimented with photographing natural forms such as leaves, twigs, flowers and trees. I was inspired by Meatyard’s ‘No Focus’ and ‘Zen Twigs’ series, therefore I used a range of aperture sizes and shutter speed lengths. I plan on editing my images to black and white in order to reflect Meatyard’s work, while also using my own experimentation with contrast and exposure.
Selected Edited Images
Final Images
I have chosen these 5 photos as my final images as I believe they explore the strong dynamics of depth of field and focus. In the first two images I was inspired by Meatyard’s ‘No Focus’ series. I experimented with a slower shutter speed, which allowed more light to enter my camera lens and created a blurred image. In the first image I used a low angle shot to capture a silhouette-like photograph. My highlights were in the background which enhanced the dramatic shadows of the subject in the foreground. I enjoy the ambiguity of this image as I believe the blurred black objects have no specific geometric shape, therefore it is up to the observer’s interpretation as to what the image is really of. Furthermore, I experimented with under exposing this image to add to its mysterious dark mood, I believe it created a more heavily shadowed image with harsh black tones contrasting greatly with the soft grey highlights in the background. I also really like how the second photo came out, I think the slow shutter speed produced an abstract image containing a motion blur and repetitive effect. In addition the image of a birdfeeder looks almost unrecognisable because of its echoed pattern overlapping the original subject which creates quick movement and rhythm in the photo.
In the last three photos I experimented with aperture, similar to Meatyard’s ‘Zen Twigs’ series. The first twig image has a clear focal point in the foreground as the twig is sharp and is the only focused element of the photograph. Additionally, I really like the strong highlights in the background of this image as I believe they enhance the focus on the twig by surrounding it with bright light and drawing the observer’s attention to its rough texture. In the second twig image the focal point is not central, but a little to the bottom right. This creates an abstract photo as moments of the foreground are unfocused which again draws focus to the clear branch. The image also contains many repeated natural shapes, such as leaves, which add to the busy texture and composition of the piece. Personally, I believe this benefits the photo as it shows the frequent power of nature and the natural world as it is untouched. The final image holds lots of natural repetition and has a strong central focal point. I enjoy its subtle highlights and shadows, which mixed with the soft texture created by the blur, creates a balanced calm image. Finally, I love the shallow depth of field created by the short aperture size in all of these final three images as it creates a dramatic focal point for the observer and reflects the abstract nature of Meatyard’s work.
These photographs were both taken by Albert Renger-Patzsch as part of his ‘The World is Beautiful’ collection.
The image on the left is of an industrial building and the photograph on the right is of a natural form. Both photos are in black and white with extensive contrast between the light and dark tones, the contrast emphasises a gradient from light to dark on parts of the metal.
The photo on the left is very geometric with the straight, hard, man-made metal, whereas the photo on the right is natural in its own way as the leaves have different patterns and details compared to another.
Both images use camera positioning, however the photo on the left is taken from below and has a lot of the object in the frame, whereas the one on the right is taken from a birds-eye view and has been cropped, it focuses on a small part of the object up close to admire minor details.
The photo on the left has sharp lines created by the building, these contrast with the background of the image, the sky, which is light toned and grey without any shadows. This photograph was taken in natural lighting as of the deep shadows on parts of the building such as the underneath.
Albert Renger-Patzsch was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity. The ‘New Objectivity’ emerged as a style in Germany in the 1920’s as a challenge to Expressionism. As it’s name suggests, it offered a return to unsentimental reality and a focus on the objective world, as opposed to the more abstract, romantic, or idealistic tendencies of Expressionism.
Image Analysis
This image taken by Albert Renger-Patzsch shows a plant of some sort. This shows off his macro photography. Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size. This image shows that he uses various styles of photography in his work. He also takes images of industrial type buildings and settings.
My Response
For this photoshoot inspired by Albert Renger-Patzch I went out and took images of industrial style buildings to try and mimic his work as best as I could. I then chose my favourite images from the shoot and converted them to black and white the same way Renger-Patzch has done.
