In St Malo i plan to take photos of a range of different things under the theme of street photography. These include: portraits of people, groups of people, buildings, places, objects (bikes, chairs,) and social areas. I’m keeping my subjects vast as i will be photographing as i go not knowing the outcomes of the images. By photographing lots of things, i have multiple things to edit and experiment in. Also, this will help me reflect on what does and doesn’t work when doing street photography.
The Decisive Moment is a term coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. It refers to the moment when all the elements in a photograph come together perfectly to create a meaningful image.
The exhibition details how the decisions made by the collaborators in this major project—including Cartier-Bresson, French art publisher Tériade, American publisher Simon & Schuster, and Henri Matisse, who designed the book’s cover—have shaped our understanding of Cartier-Bresson’s photographs. Through vintage gelatin silver prints, first-edition publications, periodicals, and correspondence, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment brings new insights to this iconic work.
Technology: Henri Cartier-Bresson used whats known as ‘The Leica’ to take his photos. The Leica was a handheld camera commercially available as of 1924, it was the ticket to allowing a photographer to be on the move, as well as to capturing movement. A 35-mm film camera, the Leica had a wide aperture that required a short exposure time, especially for pictures taken outdoors, and it could advance quickly, which allowed the photographer to take numerous pictures of a subject in quick succession.
The Decisive Moment was described by Robert Capa as “a Bible for photographers.” Originally titled Images à la Sauvette (“images on the run”) in the French, the book was published in English with a new title, The Decisive Moment, which unintentionally imposed the motto which would define Cartier-Bresson’s work. The exhibition details how the decisions made by the collaborators in this major project
What is meant by “the decisive moment”?
The camera freezes time and fixates on the exact moment when photographic magic happens. This fraction of a second is called the decisive moment.
“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.”
Street Photography:the impulse to take candid pictures in the stream of everyday life. Street photography is a form of documentary but it is decidedly not reportage and rarely simply tells a story. Sometimes a street photographer captures something truly unusual – an extraordinary face, an accident, or a crime in the making. But more often a good street photograph is remarkable because it makes something very ordinary seem extraordinary.
street photography, a genre of photography that records everyday life in a public place. The very publicness of the setting enables the photographer to take candid pictures of strangers, often without their knowledge. Street photographers do not necessarily have a social purpose in mind, but they prefer to isolate and capture moments which might otherwise go unnoticed.
Alfred Stieglitz photographed the streets of New York City and Paris at the turn of the 20th century during inclement weather, the effects of which were captured in his images.
Image analysis
This is a good example of street photography. The light reflecting off the wet floor contrasting with the dark shadows of the trees creates a dramatic setting. I think Steiglitz has captured the perfect night scene from the streets of New York. This image, visually, is split into three clear sections of foreground, mid ground and background; foreground being the highlighted floor, mid ground being the silhouette of the tree trunks and the back ground being the trees with the bright streetlights seeping through them with the grand buildings in the background. The focal point of this image, i would say are the trees. They look dead and twig like, however they are tall and old looking which suggests that it could be around winter time when the leaves have fallen off.
A FORT REGENT INSPIRED ART EXHIBITION RECREATING THE STRANGE HOLD CHILDHOOD SPACES HAVE ON ADULT MEMORIES
Lakeman is a photographer who has nurtured an obsessive interest in ‘the Fort’, and has spent his adult life revisiting weird dreams of this iconic building and its heyday in the early 1990s. With the works accompanied by a custom soundscape, smell and touch, Playtime encourages visitors to revisit their own dreams.
The exhibition ‘PLAYTIME’ presents images from Lakeman’s childhood memories from Fort Regent Leisure Centre. Will has dedicated the exhibition to his late brother Matthew, the brothers used to spend most of their time up at the Fort as Will states that “those were the best of times for us.” The exhibition displays a range of images of the fort made from artificial intelligence (A.I) which are an attempt to recreate Will’s childhood memories from his point of view.
Lakeman wanted to recreate his childhood memories of Fort Regent through a series of images. Will “didn’t care if the images he created weren’t correct/ didn’t fit other peoples memories of the Fort because he wanted to portray how he remembers the fort. The images link back to the theme of nostalgia as it will bring back many old memories from the ‘good ol’ days’ for older generations. It will also allow them to explore whether their memories of the fort were different to Wills as the A.I images may not match what they remember.
–Veruca Dip 2022- Will Lakeman
This image was created using AI (artificial intelligence), however it is based on a memory of fort regents swimming pool, as you had to walk in a foot bath before entering the pool and Will personally remembers it as a vivid purple colour, but it was far from that. Not every image that is put into AI comes out perfect which makes unique, for example, one of the feet above has seven toes.
Overall, I enjoyed this exhibition, i thought it was interesting and very different; nothing i’ve seen in an art exhibition before. I think it is clever that you can make art without having to use any physical mediums at all. All Wills work is created online using technology, apart from the initial photograph he takes to base his work off. I also think it is crazy how the AI works, how it generates images, or just parts of images, just by telling it a phrase or a few words of command.
Nostalgia is a sentimentallonging or wistful affection for a period in the past. It is cosy and comforting, Psychologists have defined nostalgia as a self-conscious, social emotion, bittersweet but predominantly positive. It develops out of happy memories mixed with a yearning for the past and the close relationships we had back then. Often, nostalgia involves sensory stimuli.
Nostaligia is often triggered by encountering a familiar smell, sound, or keepsake, by engaging in conversations, or by feeling lonely.
he word nostalgia is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “sorrow” or “despair”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home.
I created an account on art steps and designed my own virtual gallery using these steps:
I displayed some of my strongest images from my portrait studio project, these are my final mock images from portraiture. These images work well in the gallery as they are in black and white, as oppose to my images from the femininity project which are in colour.
WHY CHOOSE THE SUBJECT OF FEMININITY FOR THE IDENTITY PROJECT:
I chose the theme of femininity for my project as I straight away had lots of ideas in mind for photoshoots. I was inspired originally by Justine Kurland, and specifically her ‘girl pictures’ book. In this book she displays images of girls in different places but majority of her images are taken in nature, rural and countryside areas. Some of her images are staged, but some of them aren’t and the idea of this interested me to try and do the same thing, capture images of girls naturally in those kinds of settings. Kurland’s work can be analysed in different ways, however, I like the fact she represents women as being independent and free. Women don’t need men in their life to thrive and opposed to the stereotypical view of women being emotional, submissive, quiet, graceful, passive, weak, sensitive, nurturing and soft, they can also be dominant, strong and independant. Justine displays this really well through some of her images like, for example, ‘double headed spit monster’ where you can see two girls pinning a boy down, spitting on him.
HOW DID I PLAN THIS PROJECT:
Using my photoshoot plan, me and my friends completed this shoot together, we visited different places on the island, including the north coast, Rozel woodland area and different fields, to fit the theme of Justine Kurlands images. We planned to dress in basic coloured outfits, nothing too extreme. I think we successfully planned this shoot and followed through with it.
WHAT WENT WRONG IN THIS PROJECT:
I think I could of planned and carried out another photoshoot from a different perspective of femininity. I feel I could of explored the theme more with different settings and aspects of femininity. I believe my photoshoot was very successful, however, I think I would of benefitted from more of a range of images.
OVERALL:
overall, I am really happy with the outcome of my images, I feel the process of the completing the photoshoot was successful. Everything went to plan. I personally feel that this has been my strongest project so far, I think this is because I liked the theme of femininity and I enjoyed going out taking images and experimenting with them. It was also more motivating that the outcomes were good to work with.
This is my first final outcome. I used the black board to display my final images from the femininity project. First I mounted all the images onto white foam board. Then I tried different ways of laying them out until I found the positions I liked, I then used tape to stick them down to the black board. I referred back to my mock up plan to base my layout from.
This is my second final outcome. These three images, I feel, are my strongest images from my portrait project. All three images are from different photoshoots and experiments. the left image is demonstrating Chiaroscuro lighting ( the contrasting shadows with the highlight on each half of the face). The middle image is from my double exposure shoot, where we experimented with the multi- exposure setting on the camera to create quirky images. The image on the right shows rim lighting. I enjoyed this photoshoot as it was interesting to try different compositions, my final outcomes were successful as well. These three images on a whole work well together as a final display. The monochromatic theme of black and white works well against the black board background.
This is my third final outcome. This image is my favourite image from my femininity project, so i decided it was strong enough to be displayed on its own. I mounted the image onto white foam board, then used tape to stick it onto the black board. The setting is perfect with the flowers and grass to match the countryside, nature theme. I like the composition of the image, there’s an obvious centre of interest, which is Anna; she is contrasted with her surroundings of nature. Her black jumper emphasises this idea.
I think this image represents femininity very well, from a stereotypical feminine point of view. Stereotypically, women are seen as emotional, submissive, quiet, graceful, passive, weak, sensitive, nurturing, and dainty. This is displayed through anna sitting amongst the flowers.
I wanted my image to have a light effect on it, in some of my images this happened naturally, however, I wanted it on this specific image as I feel it will work well.
I got this image off google :
I opened two pages , one with my image on, one with the effect on.
Then I dragged the effect layer onto my image.
I experimented with the opacity of the effect layer, so it appeared more natural to the image.
I tried different angles on the picture until I found a way I liked.
This is the final outcome. I like the outcome as it has a warm tone and gives the effect that it was shot on a film camera.
My photoshoot was inspired by Justine Kurland and Sian Davey, we tried to base some of our photos off of their work. The composition and settings of our images were aimed to look like the artists.
Sian daveys – My image
I liked the idea of the social setting in this image of Daveys’ work. It looks natural, people casually socialising, I used my friends to recreate this idea.
Justine Kurland- My image
Justine Kurland likes to demonstrate the strong relationship in womanhood. This particular image shows it perfectly, with the two girls huddled together. I had the idea to do something similar, with two of my friends platting each others hair.
Justine Kurland- My image
We successfully planned the photoshoot and carried it out late afternoon, this created the natural lighting that Kurland and Daveys have in their images.
Sian Davey- My image
Sian Davey shoots in film, so she gets this quality in her images, with a warm tone over them. I was unable to do this as I was shooting on a digital camera, however I experimented with editing my images to make them look more cloudy and dainty.
Justine Kurland- My image
My image on the right was not staged however it naturally resembled Kurland’s image on the left. The setting of the image and the layout of me and my friends reflects it a lot
