Arnold Newman (1918-2006) was an American photographer, remembered for his environmental photography. Newman studied painting and drawing at The University Of Miami. Due to a high costing tuition, Newman had to leave the university and started working at a studio in Philadelphia.

Arnold Newman gained his love for photography through the empathy he felt for artists and their work. Newman is often credited with being the photographer who articulated and who consistently employed the genre of environmental portraiture, “The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.”

Newman’s Career in photography was very successful, he photographed icons such as Marlene Dietrich, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Mickey Mantle, and Audrey Hepburn. Most of his portraits were shot on large format view cameras however, some photographs were captured on a 35mm SLR camera, where the additional freedom is an advantage.

I have chosen to photograph Newman because i love the style of his images, they are minimalistic in black and white, but, paint a whole new picture through, objects, art and expression.

I have also chosen Newman as his photography links closely with the style I am hoping to create within my environmental portraits.

what is a corn riot holiday?

Its a celebration of our modern day democracy which started in 1769 when the Jersey corn riots took place.

History of the corn riots

in 1769 landowners where exporting wheat from Jersey to England where a bad harvest had increased the prices. Frustrated with the food shortages, increase in pricing, unfair taxation and the power structure in Jersey 500 islanders stormed the Royal Court with 13 demands on September 28th 1769.These demands included:

1. Lowering the price of wheat
2. Ejecting foreigners off the island
3. Sales tax should have a limit
4. The Customs’ House officers be ejected

About Tom and Annigna:

Portraits:

Contact sheets

While working with Tom Kennedy we also worked with one of the actors by asking them to adjust their positions, hold different objects and facial positions as well as using a light reflector to create new lighting.

Final Versions

Hamptonne Country Life Museum gives the visitor a unique insight into the rural life carried on in Jersey for centuries. Dating back to the 15th Century the house and farm are perfect for discovering the rural history of Jersey.  Explore the different houses which make up Hamptonne, find out more about Jersey’s history of cider making in the cider barn and wander through the cider apple orchard and meet the Hamptonne calves, lambs, chickens and piglets in the traditional farmstead. 

Discover Syvret House, a decorated and furnished farmhouse gives a unique window into 1940s rural life, including; agricultural traditions, day-to-day family life, language, religion and the experience of the German Occupation.

Tom kennedy and lighting

During our visit we spent an hour or so with Tom Kennedy, who is a freelance photographer who works with the Jersey Heritage to produce living portraits of the actors at the various heritage sights. He showed us how to co-operate with your subject and also how to use tools to adjust lighting and create more depth to your photo.

tom kennedy ^

My own ^

Camera Obscura-

A Camera Obscura translates from Latin as “Dark Chamber”, and was originally a small dark room or box with a single tiny hole which resulted in an inverted image of the outside scene being cast on the opposite wall, seemingly discovered as early as 400C by Chinese philosopher Mo-tzu. It had many uses, like safely viewing eclipses or, by the 1500’s, to help artists to draw. Portable and soon even pocket versions were produced, now with a black painted interior and an angled mirror to flip the image the right way around.

Nicephore Niepce-

Joseph Nicephore Niepce was a French Inventor, born in 1765, credited as the inventor of photography. He began experimenting with attempting to automatically produce an image, around 1813, by coating pewter in various light-sensitive substances to copy superimposed engravings in sunlight.

In April 1816, he began attempting Heliography, which translates to “sun drawing” using various light-sensitive materials but was unable to fully fix an image. Finally in 1826/27, he was able to create the first permanently fixed image using a camera

Louis Daguerre-

Louis Daguerre, born in 1787, was a French Artist and Photographer, known for his invention of Daguerreotype photography. Daguerre actually worked with
Nicephore Niepce on his heliographic process from 1829, to
Nicephore Niepce’s death in 1833. He then continued experimenting using a variety of chemical processes, leading to the invention of Daguerreotypes.

Daguerreotype-

They were discovered during the 1830’s and were produced by a long and tedious method. If a copper plate coated in silver iodine was exposed to light in a camera, then fumed with mercury vapour and fixed with a solution of salt, it would form a permanent image. A lot of Daguerreotypes were produced during the mid-19th century, most often for portraits. They are detailed and sharp however they are incredibly fragile, needing to be stored in incredibly safe environments.

Henry Fox Talbot-

William Henry Fox Talbot, born 1800, was an English Chemist, and pioneer Photographer. He is responsible for the development of Calotypes, the successor to Daguerreotypes. Henry Fox Talbot’s Calotypes used photographic negatives allowing multiple prints to be made. He spent many years experimenting increasing the quality and decreasing the time needed to make photograph things. The technique consists of exposing a sheet of paper coated in silver chloride to light in a camera obscura, areas hit by the light would become dark in tone, making a negative image.

Richard Maddox-

Richard Leach Maddox, born 1816, was a British Physician and Photographer, responsible for suggesting to suspend silver bromide in a gelatine emulsion, in 1871. In 1878, this idea was used for factory-produced dry plates, coated with gelatine containing silver salts. Many credit this as the beginning of the modern era of photography.

George Eastman-

George Eastman, born 1854, was an American Entrepreneur, responsible for inventing and distributing the Kodak camera, helping open photography up to everyday people. He released the first Kodak model in 1888, a simple handheld box camera containing 100-exposure roll film that used paper negatives. After all of the film was used, it would be sent back to the manufacturers to be developed, printed and reloaded.

Kodak (Brownie)-

In 1900, he released the Kodak Brownie, a handheld box camera which did not need to be sent back to the manufacturer to print the film, unlike previous models. They were sold as a dollar, allowing even children a chance to try photography.

Film/Print Photography-

Film continued to be used in photography, and the process to use it became safer and easier as time progressed . It was even used to create moving pictures, and later allowed editors to cut, paste and assemble footage. Colour film was introduced in 1935, introduced by the Kodak company.

Print photography had entered mass production around the 1920s, allowing people all across the world to seen printed images, through the use of halftones. An idea introduced by William Fox Talbot, halftones were a way to convey tone through print by using hundreds of dots of various sizes. How big the dots are implies how dark an area is.

Digital Photography-

The first digital cameras were introduced during the 1980s, with various companies releasing different versions. Each with their own pros and cons. The version of Adobe Photoshop’s editing software was released in 1990, and greatly increased photographer’s editing experience.

Hampton is a 15th century house and farm which has been maintained and restored to give a realistic experience and insight into life in Jersey in the 15th century.

Hamptonne also presents Jersey’s history of cider making with the original cider barn and cider apple orchard which is surrounded by fields containing calves, lambs, chickens and piglets in the traditional farmstead.

There is also a traditionally decorated and furnished farmhouse which gives a unique window into 1940s rural life, including; agricultural traditions, day-to-day family life, language, religion and the experience of the German Occupation.

Tom Kennedy and Natural Lighting

During our visit we spent an hour or so with Tom Kennedy, who is a freelance photographer who works with the Jersey Heritage to produce living portraits of the actors at the various heritage sights. He showed us how to co-operate with your subject and also how to use tools to adjust lighting and create more depth to your photo.

Environmental Portraits: A portrait that depicts someone in their usual working environment or environments they’re associated with such as their work or bedroom and portrays their life and surroundings. These portraits can be either posed or taken as the model is moving/doing their job.

For example:

Environmental portraits are often used in order to show how different people’s lives are from one another and how no-one spends their days in the same way whether it be due to a job, a hobby or more. Each portrait explores the nature of the subject and depicts the models day-to-day life, creating a story with by using their natural environment.

A photographer that successfully creates environmental portraits is Mary Ellen Mark who created a project called ‘Ward 81’ where she spent 36 days photographing and interviewing women in a mental intuition who were considered a danger to others and themselves.

Mark made the choice to keep the photos un-posed throughout most of the photoshoot which kept a sense of realism which is also contrasted by the black and white images. The lack of colours takes away some of the models’ humanity which allows the viewer to empathise with the women photographed as they’re treated like wild animals – locked away from society and have no control over what will happen in their lives. Mark’s photos successfully show how these women live and how their surroundings affect them in their everyday life therefore making them admirable environmental portraits.

Plan:

1st Photoshoot [Outside]: I’ll find a jazz band that usually plays in town and photograph them as they play together [if they allow me to]. I’d have a lot of natural lighting which would allow me to use a variety of angles as there would be light around the whole subject. I’d have to check the shutter speed or else I could end up with very blurry photos as I will most likely photograph them as they’re playing and I’d need to be careful about getting close as I don’t want to disrupt their performance.

2nd Photoshoot [Inside]: I’ll ask a friend if I’m able to take photos of them in their room and I’ll mostly use full body shots of them lounging around their room as they would do naturally. I’m mostly going to switch between low and high angles in order to get a more casual look instead of a professional looking portrait as it’ll match the mood of the images, making them look more natural. I’ll potentially get them to do something they enjoy, such as watching a film or playing a video game, in order to get a variety of different shots and use any devices to try get their reflection in the image.

or

I’ll go into a charity shop, and possibly a tattoo parlour, and photograph people working from the waist up, with their consent, and make sure to get their shop/work in the shots. I’ll use a variety of different angles in order to get professional looking images with different parts of their workplace in each shot along with a variety of images that I can look through and edit later on. I think there could be a lot of different objects in the shop that could make an interesting photo.

3rd Photoshoot [2 or more people]: I’ll go to a youth club and set up a day where I’m able to photograph some of the workers as they help out the people there. I’ll need to check who I’m allowed to photograph as some people may not want to be involved in the project and I’ll need to be wary that it may be busy which could make it difficult to take natural looking images. This means I may have to take some posed images – potentially after hours – as there would be less distractions. I’m mostly going to use mid-shots as I think they’ll focus on the people who want to be involved in the project along with a mixture of angles in order to control the exposure as I won’t be able to manipulate the lighting throughout the photoshoot.

Introduction

The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography. By photographing a person in their natural surroundings, it is thought that you will be able to better illuminate their character, and therefore portray the essence of their personality, rather than merely a likeness of their physical features.

I have created a range of images to show my understanding of what an environmental portrait is, and my favourite ones. Here I selected a range from different professions to demonstrate that anyone can be apart of an environmental portrait and they’re not subject to more interesting jobs such as being a boxer.

Annie Leibovitz

Anna-Lou Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Her most famous work is Demi Moore, 1991. When Leibovitz photographed the movie star for the cover of Vanity Fair in August, 1991, editors at the magazine were concerned about how to hide the actress’ seven-month-pregnant figure. Accordingly, they asked that Leibovitz shoot a tightly cropped portrait of Moore’s face.

Leibovitz’s work consists of images such as the one below of Conny Dufgran, being photographed in his natural environment which looks like an office. I like how her work uses some well known people, making her work more well known. In addition, I think that the models have very neutral expressions is a smart idea as the image will age better and people can still focus on the surroundings of the image rather than just the person.

Below I have chosen one of my favourite example of Leibovitz’s work, the neutral expression mixed with the monochromatic edit makes for a classy image that portrays minimum emotions. In addition, we can appreciate how elegant ballerinas are through how simplistic this image is.

Photoshoot Plans

1st photoshoot (outside): I’ll ask my dad if I could take a photograph of him painting the outside of his house, around the time of late afternoon

2nd photoshoot (inside): I will take photographs of a family friend as he works in a bar in town. These images will be taken after school one day

3rd photoshoot (2 or more people): I have asked if I can photograph my aunt and her colleague as she works in an office in town. I hope to take these photos in the early afternoon to get the most use out of the natural lighting coming from the big windows in her office

Task

Below I have showed some of my contact sheets from my three photoshoots, the first outside with my dad, second inside with Noel and third with my aunt in her workplace. These are to demonstrate the variety and volume of photographs I have taken and how they were taken in a variety of lightings.

1st Photoshoot

For my first photoshoot, I have selected to photograph my dad outside his house in St Clement. I decided to photograph him on/ riding his bike, I have chosen to do this as my dad rides his bike to work every morning, as also enjoys taking my brother on longer bike rides around Jersey, especially the countryside, for some exercise and fresh air. Above I have selected some of my best photographs to create a mini gallery to illustrate my work. Furthermore, I photographed him during the mid afternoon to attempt to get the best lighting despite it being a gloomy day. I think the top right and the first 2 photos on the bottom row have the potential to be the best after being edited in Lightroom Classic as i like the angles at which they were taken.

Editing

Above I have illustrated how I edited just one of my final images of my dad on his bike, I have adjusted the contrast and the exposure of the image to make it look like the original images were taken in the middle of the day rather than the afternoon. I like how the clarity of the image is mow higher and how the colour in the surroundings is now more apparent. Furthermore, the composition of the image above is aesthetic as my dad is in the middle of the image making it symmetrical.

Final Images

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I have selected these for my final edited images as in my opinion the have the best compositions, as my dad is in the middle of the largest one above. I think that the image I made monochromatic looks more washed out and the image didn’t really turn out aesthetic. My favourite is the largest image above as the editing on this image makes the background colours more saturated, whilst the black tones in the foreground make my dad appear as if he very close to the camera compared to where he was actually positioned when this photograph was taken.

2nd Photoshoot

Artist Reference

Here I have included a comparison of Noel and one of Annie Leibovitz’s work to show how I used her work for inspiration for my photoshoot, I like how her environmental portrait against mine look oddly similar and how the layout looks aesthetically pleasing. I like how the main focus of the images is the main person in the photo, and how the focus is mainly one thing (the person) whilst the background is still prominent and an important aspect of the images.

Images

For my second photoshoot, me and my friend went to take photographs of Noel Flood whilst he was working in the Troubadour, a pub near the Royal Yacht that he owns. I decided to photograph Noel for this environmental portraits homework as i thought a bar would be a good option as it represents an average job on the island, and I could also get some nice backgrounds. Furthermore, I took photos of Noel around later afternoon, but the natural light didn’t really affect my images as the bar was lit with lots of unnatural lighting which turned out good for this photoshoot.

I have firstly edited all of my images that I took of Noel in Lightroom as when I took my images I was unaware that the shutter speed and was far too high and IOS was too low. This is just a starting point so I can easily see my images of Noel before adjusting other settings such as vibrancy and light balance.

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Here I chosen the best of my images to edit, as most are too dark I have firstly increased the exposure to now make the images legible. I am going to edit the top and bottom right images as they originally have the most clarity and range of colours. My favourite part of these images are the background, as the ranges of tones and colours in the bottled behind make for aesthetic photographs. In addition, as I adjusted the saturation, the background becomes more vibrant as contrasts against Noel making for interesting final images.

Final Images

I have selected these as my final editing images as the middle of the image is the lightest, where Noel is standing, which gives the photograph a large focus point. Furthermore, Noel is looking straight into the camera and this image is one of my most symmetrical and I like the dim lighting as it’s not harsh and overpowering. the exposure in the third image in the four above is perfect and this is my best portrait photograph. I like how my final images turned out and overall taking photographs for this homework was enjoyable.

3rd Photoshoot

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Here I have created a gallery of images to show how I took photos of my aunt and her co-worker. I like how the photos are all bright even before being edited, and how the red in the furniture matched with the Troys sign in the background and the red road lines on the map of Jersey, unintentionally making the image more cohesive. In addition, they look very happy to be photographed whilst they are looking at construction plans.

Final Images

I have selected these as my final images as I believe the composition, lighting and general effect of these images are the best. As you can see the monochromatic effect doesn’t help the image at all, making it dull and i think this image isn’t aesthetic. In my opinion, the first image of these 4 is the best.

Contact Sheets

Here I have added some contact sheets of the interiors and exteriors of Hamptonne, this is to show that I took a variety of photographs whilst on the Hamptonne visit. I enjoyed walking around and exploring the landscape and layout of the old buildings, especially the apple orchard and cider house. Furthermore, it was a good opportunity for me to develop my camera skills and learn how the adjusting the shutter speed to make images clearer.

Editing and Final Images

Below I have selected and edited some of my favourite images from the interiors of Hamptonne. As you can see the lighting in the barnhouse was already good, the large amount of natural light throughout most of this barnhouse helped create nicely saturated images even without editing. So when i edited the image below i decided to try and attempt to create a washed out image with high clarity. My second final image is one of my favourites from the whole Hamptonne trip as i like the angle of this image and how well it came out considering the lack of lighting in that area of the barn.

Taking images of the room where they take cider was challenging as the lighting was constantly changing and I was just getting used to using the camera. However, my images of these interiors came out well in my opinion as the natural light helped the image become saturated, and the rust and browns on the objects match well with the yellow tones of the images. In my opinion the image below was a bit boring so I decided to edit it to be monochromatic in order to bring out the texture of the brickwork and shadows.