The main purpose of photography is to communicate and document moments in time. When a photograph is taken and shared with others, you’re sharing a moment in time that cannot be relived again. However photos give people the closest thing to being able to relive these moments which is why they can have such an emotional impact on people.
‘photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators.’ – David Campany
This statement depicts the way in which every photograph effects everyone differently, we all interpret and view things in different ways. This can be dependent on emotions, upbringing and factors such as gender, ethnicity and race. He states opposites to show how drastically different each interpretation can be and how there is no right or wrong way of seeing an images meaning.
The first line of the quotation reads ‘photographs confuse as much as fascinate‘ referring to the viewers lack of information regarding the images, the photographer can do this intentionally to enable the images to be interpreted differently by each person and allows the picture to gain many different meanings. By being able to interpret images in your own way it can add a personal touch allowing the viewer to become more emotionally connected with the images. However, the context behind an image is also very important as it enlightens the viewer of the photographers intended meaning highlighting key details in the images.
David Campany also stated that photographs ‘conceal as much as reveal’ which also refers to an individuals interpretations of an image. Even when context and background information is included, images can leave lots of unanswered questions allowing the images to be seen as ambiguous and adding a sense of mystery to the photographs.
Reveal and conceal – Jessica Vogt
I found this image which to me represented David Campany’s quotation. The shadowing through fabric makes the viewer ask questions such as; ‘what is she looking at?’, ‘What is creating the shadow?’, ‘what emotions are she feeling?’. These questions again add to the idea of images being interpretive to the viewer allowing photographs to have an emotional impact to almost everyone as everyone has their own views of the meanings behind photographs.
Finally, the last line reads ‘they are unpredictable communicators’ further demonstrating the way in which the photographer can create unexpected images that, although don’t directly show something, also reveal so much. Overall I think David Campbell was trying to explain the beauty in the complexity of photography and all of its unknowns.
Le saut dans le vide
Yves KLEIN (1928-1962) Le saut dans le vide, 1960
This image collaborates with David Campany’s quotation as it leaves the viewer with a lot of unanswered questioned, such as; why is the man falling? Why is the cyclist not reacting? what happened after the image was taken?
Shutter speed is the speed at which the shutter of the camera closes. A fast shutter speed creates a shorter exposure with the amount of light the camera takes in and a slow shutter speed gives the photographer a longer exposure.
We tested this by throwing balls up in the air in a straight line and trying to capture them before they fall. We also tested this by one person pretending to fight the camera while the photographer tries their best following the person and trying to capture their movements.
these are the images I used to test the shutter speed -✔
in this image you can see that it was taken with a low shutter speed so that the image was less defined and the image is blurred
John Baldessaris work
For the ball photoshoot we where inspired by John Baldessari. Baldessari threw three balls at the same time, trying to line them up whilst in the air, while he got someone to take pictures of it. Although he attempted to make the photos identical, no two photographs are the same due to the differences in his technique and being unable to control the weather. Out of 36 attempts he only considered 12 of them successful. to create these images Baldessari used a high shutter speed to make sure that the images came out clear and unblurry.
The shutter is commonly at the front of a camera, and is used to capture specific timing exposures when taking a picture. It allows light to pass through the camera for a specific time.
What is shutter speed?
it is exactly what it sounds like. It is the speed at which the shutter closes and opens after you press the button to take a picture. The higher the shutter speed, the shorter exposure time it has to light. And a slower shutter speed the longer exposure the camera has to light.
It is best described that you capture the slice of what is going on during this period where the shutter opens then closes.
Photo Games
During one of my lessons with Mr Coal, the class was told to go outside with 3 balls and a camera. We where told to throw the balls up into the air and take a picture mid air, attempting to capture the balls in a clean line. This was to help us understand how the shutter speed works, and to experiment with different levels of shutter speeds.
Another Activity we did that day was to act like a boxer trying to dodge the camera while the person behind the camera would attempt to take a picture of you.
This was attempted at different shutter speeds, as you can see a slight blur.
John Baldessari
He is a conceptual artist, known for his photography in his canvas’ during the 1960’s. His work was famous during this period for the blends of photographs and the use of text on his work, for his time he was very smart with what he produced and even how he done it.
The use of layering and how he rearranged his art work, made his pieces stand out compared to others. Not only that but in this picture here it shows the simplicity of his work, and how weirdly cool it is.
Throughout his life he has experimented with many things, such as film making, sculpture creating, and a lot more to do with his right side of this brain.
Apeture
This is the adjustable lens opening that controls the amount of light allowed into the camera. It allows you basically adjust the depth of field and the sharpness of the picture.
Basically what aperture does is make your photos darker for more of an effect, more depth of field, and allows you to adjust the blur of your picture. Thus is a crucial ingredient within your camera and is necessary.
Shutter Speed controls how fast the shutter closes which determines the amount of light the camera takes in. So the faster the shutter, the clearer the picture.
Slow Shutter Speed:
It closes for longer and then opens, which will include more light, therefore it will take in the streams from car lights.
Fast Shutter Speed:
It closes faster and then opens, which will take in less light, so it will take exactly that frame right there.
Simply think of it as how clear the photo will be, and that the faster the shutter the clearer and the slower the more blurry.
Put it simply:
How it works?
Inside the camera is the shutter, it’s what closes when you press the button to take a photo and your camera window goes black for a moment.
They look like this:
When is closes, and if you set the shutter speed to slow, it will stay closed for a little longer than normal, that is the lens capturing all the light and will keep capturing the light until it opens again.
The resulting picture, if you took a picture of something moving, will cause a stream of movements the object made during that time and will be all put into one picture.
