Over the course we have looked at many different artists and photographic techniques which helped me gain a greater understanding of the camera and my preferred style of photography.

These are some of my favourite projects I have done and work I created:

Environmental portraits:

For this project I got to explore people in their natural surroundings and delve into aspects such as their careers and hobbies whilst also photographing people in a casual setting.

This enabled me to capture people in a comfortable setting and using the image to tell a story about the subject.

Clare Rae inspired shoot:

This shoot enabled me to step outside of my comfort zone and experiment with a more quirky and unique aesthetic which in my opinion was worthwhile as I made many successful outcomes.

Girl pictures:

This project was inspired by Justine Kurland’s book ‘Girl Pictures’ and I used a similar style and concept to create my own images. I really enjoyed this project as i found it was quite nostalgic to take pictures of my friends and document their lives and what they get up to. I also think during this project I created lots of successful outcomes and allowed me to experiment in shooting documentary style images which I have now realised is one of my preferred styles of photography.

Anthropocene:

One of my favourite topics that I have shot during this course has been Anthropocene. I decided to focus my shoot on car light pollution. I thought this would fit the theme of Anthropocene well, as it focuses on how the world has been altered through human impact. Due to the vast amount of people who drive cars, toxic fumes are released into the air impacting on wild life and the environment. I decided to do this photo shoot during rush hour in the week in order to get images with the most amount of cars in. I also had to wait for the sun to set for around 5:30pm to gain the highest quality images for the lights. To create a light trail, i kept my IOS as low as possible, changed my shutter speed to around 60 seconds long, and finally, i changed my aperture to around F/16.

For this photoshoot I took inspiration from a British photographer MSH*. MSH* captures the hectic moments of rush hour in London by using slow shutter speeds/ long exposures which creates light trails. Although there is not a lot of information on this photographer I took inspiration from his images. The photos I have created are quite calm images however, the light trails create a sense of urgency and rush.

Below are some inspiration images that I based my project on:

Femininity:

Another theme that I thoroughly enjoyed the process to was Femininity. My main inspiration for this photoshoot was Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Pictures’ book. I believe that this book defines feminism very well due to every photo being very unique and capturing different types of people.

Justine Kurland’s Girl pictures bring a sense of nostalgia. Every girl in each photo have their own story however come together to live a similar lifestyle. They live without a care in the world, and are truly living their teenage years. Therefore many of the images in Girl Pictures were taken outside in locations that feel desolate or easy to overlook. They are often staged under bridges or beyond fences or on the sides of highways; places that feel synonymous with warnings. The privacy of the overpass is also potent with all the stories we’ve heard of women getting hurt in such places.

This was my mood board for the photo shoot:

Justine Kurland’s ‘the wall 2000’ was my reference image for this comparison as it has some similarities but also many differences. one of the similarities being how two subjects are looking into the camera and the other three subjects, further away from the camera aren’t looking towards it. However, a difference is the locations of the two images, although both images are clearly taken outdoors my interpretation has an open field behind it. Whereas in the reference photo, the wall creates a feeling that the girls are trapped and their expression and clothing suggest that they are lost.

Overall, I think this was my favourite photoshoot I have done as I believe it is empowering. It shows femininity in a beautiful way where women are helping and comforting other women. In some ways Kurland’s images break the stereotype of women, in the sense of girls wondering around in the ‘wild’ away from the hustle and bustle of a city or town. However in other ways, her images feed into stereotypes. For example the image in the bathroom is almost ‘proving’ that women ‘take too long getting ready’.

Environmental Portraits:

Another topic in which I am wanting to take inspiration on in my personal study is Environmental Portraiture. I thoroughly enjoyed this theme as I believe that this type of photography can show a lot about someone and their background.

An environmental portrait is a photographed portrait that captures subjects in their natural surroundings instead of in a studio or other artificial setup. Rather than focusing on what the subject looks like, environmental portrait photographers use the background to portray a truth or convey an idea about who the subject is. Shooting environmental portraits can be a great way to create visual interest while also revealing something about your subject’s life and personality. Environmental portraits provide context, something that studio portrait headshots often lack.

Here was my mood board for my first shoot:

Outcome:

Shoot 2 mood board:

Outcome:

Home:

Overall, I don’t think this project was my best work, as I wasn’t very happy with the images that I produced as they didn’t demonstrate what I am capable of. Taking still life images was new to me which is why I think my images didn’t come out very strong. I did enjoy recreating the work of Mary Ellen Bartley which was later on in the project where I had a better understanding of how to arrange the objects to make them look appealing and draw the viewer in.

Romanticism:

I feel my romanticism project had a one strong photoshoot that linked well to the theme of romanticism, on the other hand I had one weaker photoshoot which only had a few images linking back to romanticism. I enjoyed exploring the beauty in rural landscapes.

Anthropocene:

This is one of my favourite projects that I have completed. I took inspiration from David Maisel project ‘The Mining Project’ as I felt they best related to the theme of Anthropocene. I took my images of Ronez Quarry as it shows that the landscape has and still is being drastically changed. The images I took at Ronez are stronger than the ones I took at Sorel Point as you get a birds eye view of the quarry. However, it was quite frustrating that I wasn’t able to get the view of the quarry I wanted due to restrictions. If I had a drone, I would of been

able to get better shots of the quarry.

Femininity:

For my femininity shoot, I used Justine Kurland’s ‘Girl Book’ project as inspiration. I was happy with how my images came out as they linked strongly to Kurland’s project and the theme of femininity. However my final outcomes could of been better if I had more than one model in my images.

Environmental Portraits

I mostly enjoyed creating the images of Environmental Portraits whilst learning photography because of the techniques that I had to use in order to create good images. Environmental portraits are images of someone in their environment, specifically a portrait of them with the context of what they are doing or where they work behind them. You can learn from doing a project like this because of how you have to frame your image for a better effective image, which will allow you to convey more of the environment’s context. The backgrounds used in environmental portraits are more to show the symbol of someone’s working environment, for example:

A mechanic in his environment of a workshop having a break which can show a lot about a person. Their lifestyle is put on display and depending on what is in the image and what the persons expressions are, it could symbolise a stressful lifestyle/environment or any context the image is trying to show.

A couple images iv taken in this area I enjoyed creating because what is nice about this subject area is that it is all situational in where and when you take the image, you could be anywhere and be in a perfect position to take an environmental image for example one of my images:

Which I had taken with no intention to even use but turned out to be one of my best images in this area. It relates to nostalgia to me because of the times and situation the image was taken at and where the setting is, which to me was a time that I remember in a positive, enjoyable way.

Urban Photography

Urban photography can be created in different ways in photography, sometimes landscapes, close up any many other different ways, its very fluid to how you create your urban images.

Urban images are created in areas like cities or a village or places where there is a compacted and commercial area where people live or come visit. This could be for example New York, London, Jersey in town etc. Unlike Environmental portrait images which are mostly fond of the use of black and white images, Urban images like to be taken with a lot of vibrant colours with unique settings, and uses a lot of different shapes and lighting.

Urban photography is in its best element when there is a lot of movement going on and a people with a quick paste of life because it captures a scene and the context of what goes on in people lives living in urban areas in the cities. Whilst editing these images it is best when using a lot of contrast and vibrancy in the images. This area of photography is closely resembled to street photography because of its looks and methods of how it is made, it creates its own aesthetic. Although some of the images are created to look good and have a good feeling to them, some of the images in Urban photography are created to symbolise something, for example a run down abandoned building that sits in the area that no one uses but people know it is there.

It is close to nostalgia because of the feel that the images create which is very vibrant and the aesthetic makes you think about your “childhood” as a kid or even a teenager, which is how you might of been, running in the streets finding things to do and having fun with the resources of the urban area you live in.

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