For this I experimented with folding paper in different ways and tearing paper to create different shapes and patterns. I then experimented with different lighting by using the flashlight on my phone to create different shadows. The shadows add more depth to the photo , it also creates contrast with the tonal difference between the light and dark.
All the photos of the paper was taken up close to the paper so that u can see all the lines and shapes created from folding the paper in interesting ways. Taking the image up close also enhanced the shadows and depth in the paper. Also it created a sense of mystery as it was not so obvious that what I was photographing was paper as it looked more intriguing.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925–1972) lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating a wide variety of photos. Meatyard’s creative circle included mystics and poets, such as Thomas Merton and Guy Davenport, as well as the photographers Cranston Ritchie and Van Deren Coke, who were mentors and fellow members of the Lexington Camera Club. Meatyard’s work spanned 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.

Frederick Sommer

Frederick Sommer (September 7, 1905 – January 23, 1999), was an artist born in Angri (Italy) but raised in Brazil. He earned a Masters of Arts degree in Landscape Architecture (1927) from Cornell University where he met his future wife Frances Elizabeth Watson (September 20, 1904 – April 10, 1999). They got married in 1928 and they had no children. The Sommers moved to Tuscon Arizona in 1931 and then Prescott, Arizona in 1935. Sommer became a citizen of the United States on November 18, 1939. In the 1950’s, Sommer began to experiment with camera less negatives. He drew with soot, dirt and grease on pieces of glass. Below you can see two images of Sommer’s, one of a very deep and vast landscape of Arizona which includes rocks, hills, small and large shrubs and many cacti. The image is focuses close but gets less detail as it goes further back in the photo. The second image is that of his experiments in the early 1950’s with camera less negatives on a piece of glass. It includes a very random but human touch as the light comes through the drawing he made on the glass.

My Ideas

My Finalised Images

My Favorite

I like this image the most because the vibrant colours of the paperclips go well with the plain wood background. I also like how the image turned out after editing it on photoshop. I edited the brightness down and the contrast up to bring out the colours. I also adjusted the levels, curves and exposure to give a glow and contrast with the neon paperclips. I finally edited the vibrance so that the background had a richer and warmer tone.

Ernst Haas

Ernst Haas was an Austrian-American photojournalist and colour photographer. During his 40-year career, he bridged the gap between photojournalism and using photography for expression and creativity. He was a photographer for many big companies such as Vogue, Life and Look. Haas received the Hasselblad award in 1986, the year of his death. Haas has continued to be the subject of museum exhibitions and publications such as Ernst Haas, Color Photography(1989), Ernst Haas in Black and White (1992), and Color Correction (2011).

The photos above are abstract but vibrant and have a strong reference to the human world compared to natural photography. Some of his photos contain a very strong theme of reflections showing the real subject of the image. Also he takes photographs with a low shutter speed letting in more light and visualizes motion. In my interpretation of Haas’s method of taking photos i will include colour paired with low shutter speed and reflection to show subjects of the image.

Contact Sheet

My Finalised Images

My Finalised Image Edits

For the image above, I slightly increased the brightness and contrast to give the image an extra warm glow. Finally I adjusted the curves slightly make the background slightly darker.

For the image above, I cropped the image so that the plate and candle in the middle of the frame (rule of threes). I decreased the brightness and increased the contrast so that the image is in contrast with the theme of darkness and light. It also gives the candle a starlike visual and a warm glow. I also increased the exposure and gamma correction slightly to make the subject of the image clearer and decreased the offset.

Fo the image above, I cropped it to be in line with the rule of thirds in the centre of the frame. I also increased the brightness and contrast to warm the light from the candle.

For the image above, I increased the contrast between dark and bright and increased exposure and gamma to make the line of light and the different colours distinguishable.

I cropped the image above to the rule of threes so that the lit up logo on the glass bottle was in the centre of the frame. I increased the brightness and contrast to bring out the outline of the logo and writing with a white light and a warm tone either side of the bottle.

I cropped the image above to the rule of threes so the plate and candle were visible and centred in the frame. I decreased brightness and increased contrast to bring out a very bright and warm set of colours that bring out the pattern on the edge of the plate. I increased the exposure and gamma to brighten and make the colours and light warmer.

For the image above I did not have to crop the image as I took it originally as a close up in the middle of the frame on my camera. I turned the curves down which made the tone and shadows decrease. I lastly turned the vibrance and saturation up to bring out the neon like colours.

For the image above, I didn’t have to crop the image as I believe it looks better from a medium shot distance. I turned the brightness and contrast up to bring out the bright colours. I also increased the exposure which really brings out the contrast between the neon blue and pink.

I cropped the image above using the idea of the rule of three to centre the subject. I increased the saturation and vibrance to bring out the glowing colours and make them contrast each other and the pitch black background.

Finally, I cropped the crystal to the rule of three and increased the vibrance and saturation to make the colours really ‘pop’. This is effective because the background is blurred and the camera when taking the image focused on the reflection of the canon logo on the camera.

Alvin Langdon Coburn – 1917

Harry Callahan – 1950

Similarities:

Both photographers work in black and white. Both images were taken in the early 19’s. Harry uses repetition of lines and symmetry in his image , similarly Harry uses the repetition of the trees to create his effective image using objects.

Differences:

Harry would use commonplace objects and scenery for his focus in his photographs whereas Alvin was known for taking nonobjective photographs meaning he created the symmetry and lines himself. Another difference between the 2 photographers is Callahan chose a subject for his photos , photographed it for a while , left the subject and moved onto a different subject. Wheres Coburn focused on abstract photography and creating abstract lines and flattening the perspective to emphasise abstraction.

Focused Artists & Reference Photographs

Harry Callahan – natural forms

Ernst Haas – water and reflections

Alfred Stieglitz – patterns in the sky

Photo Shoot Plan

• Who – No subject needed for photo shoot
• What – Clouds, reservoir water and plant and trees around the area
• Where – Les Grands Vaux reservoir and the surrounding area
• When – Sunday mid day
• How – On foot walking around the edge of the reservoir
• Why – In response to Harry Callahan, Ernst Haas and Alfred Stieglitz

Selected/Edited Images Contact Sheet

Favorite Harry Callahan Response

I think that this is my best response to Harry Callahan because similarly to his photographs, the natural forms and plants are pointing vertically in the frame, along with a large gray scale tonal range.

Favorite Ernst Haas Response

I think that this is my best Ernst Haas response because the colour scheme, angle of the shot and directional lines in the water are very similar to Ernst Haas’s images.

Favorite Alfred Stieglitz Response

This is my favorite Alfred Stieglitz response because it closely resembles his photographs because of the fragmented clouds, not zoomed in and a large gray scale tonal range.

COMPARISON

As you can see Both of these photographs lack colour as they have been adapted to black and white which highlights the tones and shadows. Additionally they both have unique pattern that are different as well as reposition of the same objects in the photos. For example in Alfred Stieglitz you can clearly see the repetition of clouds in the sky as well as in Alvin Langdon Coburn’s photo you can see the symmetry of the glass/mirror object which appears to be the main focus of this photograph.

However there are also multiple differences in these photos which can be seen through Coburn’s use of vertical and horizontal harsh lines throughout his image. Whereas Alfred Stieglitz did not use lines in his photography as he chose to picture a realistic object such as clouds which have a relaxed contrast to them as they are not in strictly straight lines.

At first glace, its difficult to distinguish the object used in Alberson’s piece, this is due to his framing techniques. In his photos, Albertson zooms and crops his photos to give them a frame, the example piece above shows strips of masking tape. The fact that it’s a unnoticeable object, makes the photo more interesting and opens up a topic of interpretation. However, at first glance as Callahan’s work, it is easily noticeable that he has photographed a group of bare trees with a snowy ground.

These two photos also differentiate in a less noticeable way. As these photos were taken 60 years apart, it is safe to assume that the development and editing processes are very different. Callahan’s process most likely consisted of developing the photo in a dark room, this is because this process was the most popular way of developing in the time era. Whereas, Albertson’s piece was most likely taken with a modernised digital camera, with editing facilities to crop and enhance the photo.

Artist Reference – Mark Boyle

SURFACE

Mark Boyle was a Scottish artist how mainly photograph road paintings, rocks and walls. His work shows an array of different textures and colours. As we can see in the photos below, Boyle favored capturing close ups of multi – textured areas found in the most simple places like the end of pavements and slipways.

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Image Analysis

Photo Shoot Action Plan

For my first photo shoot, i will walk down my estate with the aim of looking for drains, road paint and pavements in close proximity. As I’m photographing objects, no model will be needed for the shoot, This is beneficial as I can do my photoshoot when the wether is ideal for working in.

Artist Reference – Julian Schulze

COLOUR

Julian Schulze is a German photographer with an appeal to block and bright colours that is clearly shown through his work. his work consists of minimalistic compositions and geometric structures.

Photo Shoot Action Plan

For my first photo shoot, i will walk down my estate looking at the contrast of the different colours of the houses. As I’m photographing houses, no model will be needed for the shoot, This is beneficial as I can do my photo shoot when the weather is ideal for working in.

In my contact sheet, it is shown over IMG 598 to 602 and IMG 583 to 587 are photographs on the same location, but different exposure. I achieved this by changing the white balance. White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the “color temperature” of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. On the contrary, i used white balance to give different layovers on my photos. For my photo shoot, i experimented with : – Auto, – Cloudy, – Shade, – Fluorescent, – Direct Sunlight.

Final Photos

This photo was inspired by Schulze. When taking the photo I angled the camera to capture the White House over the grey house in large blocks to give the photo a more minimalistic feel. I changed the white balance to fluorescent, I did this because the blue layover would compliment the white and grey areas, this gave the photo a cooler toned made the photo more appealing.

in this photo, I aimed to capture multiple different textures. when I uploaded my photo into photoshop, I adjusted the saturation and exposure to emphasise and enhance the roughness of the road, making the texture of the road and pavement more ridged and defined.

ARTIST REFERENCES:

Luigi Ghirri was an Italian photographer who gained a reputation for his contemporary photography which varied from fiction and reality. The photograph above has some neutral tones which is due to the natural light coming from all angles. Additionally you can also see the main focus as it the center of the of photo which is the bench whereas the non-focus is he background. Finally there are also multiple leading lines in this photograph which can attract ones attention to view the photo.

Ernest Haas was a photojournalist and a colour photographer who enjoyed taking photos of different types of genres. The photograph above shows reflection and repetition of the pattern of flowing water. The tones of the water are very darkening as I feel that this photo has no artificial lighting so therefor it is not brightening the image up in anyway. Additionally the texture of the photograph looks very smooth and soothing this is because we already know that water is not a rough or an uneven surface.

The Boyle Family photography is very basic to other artists work as they take pictures of objects which we rarely notice as its a surface which we walk on typically everyday. They are a group of artists based in London who generally take pictures of everyday objects like the one above. As a group they decided to go against the stereotypical type of photographers which are usually being solo while taking photos and that they wanted to take photos as a group.