Photography is a visual art form invented by Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot in 1839. The word photography originates from Greek; with “phot” meaning light and “graph” meaning writing. Since then photography has been adapted and advanced by different artists. There are so many genres of photography genres. My favourite is abstract.

“Photographs confuse as much fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators”

This quote by David Campany. I believe he is trying to say how photos are subjective. The photo may not connote the same thing, feelings or memories to other people, as everyone is different and individual. The photo may not be received how the photographer wanted it to be.

For example, this beautiful abstract image is ambiguous. It looks like veins or tree branches or roots of plant or waves. It allows your mind to explore the meanings, which I enjoy. This relates to Stuart Hall’s reception theory. His theory is about how the audience receive something. There is the dominant view which is the view that the photographer has attempted to create, then there is the negotiated view, in which the audience has partly received the view in which the photographer intended and the oppositional view which is completely different to which the photographer was trying to create. Some photos are ambiguous, which means that the audience of the image can make their own interpretation, as it can have many different meanings. This can be influenced by personal experiences or real world issues. This is very dominant in abstract photography.

For example, this is a photo by Yves Klien in 1960 is of him jumping off a building. It is called ‘leap in to the void’. It became very popular as it was very difficult to take photos with special effects in the 60s. This stunt launched his career. Klien jump off the building, while below him men stood with a tarp to catch him.

The two photos were very carefully cut and lined up together to give the effect that he was jumping off a building. This inventive and daring photograph creates an a scared and in awe affect of the audience. In photography, it is not clear what is happening in the image sometimes and it is up to the audience to think of the ending. For example, why is he jumping?

Overall, photography has evolved and it continues to evolve. The different genres allow you to be creative and express your feelings, opinions and more.

This is an photograph by Ron Mahew. The mise en scene presents a variety of sea related objects placed on top of a black table cloth. The colours of the image appear saturated and are a contrast to the dark background. The image has a high f stop of around f/16 this is because of the darker exposure and the wide depth of field. He has used a very quick shutter speed. The lighting appears to be unnatural studio lighting. Personally, I really like this image as the scattered objects all link together. The colours and positioning of everything is enticing. Ron Mahew states: “But “Shells” is more than just a collection of exoskeletons washed up upon a beach. It can also be thought of as an accumulation of the detritus of life. Those mundane objects: eyeglasses, a key, a pitcher, a few coins, a book, or two. All valued objects of a life well lived with miles of beaches still to explore.”

Photo-Montage

1. A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs.
2. Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2)
3. Artists such as Raoul Haussman , Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield employed cut-n-paste techniques as a form of propaganda…as did Soviet artists like Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitsky
4. Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism…which is closely related to Surrrealism

Raoul Haussman

John Heartfield

This is Mary Ellen Bartley.

Mary Ellen Bartley is well known for her photography featuring books. She displays them in a simple but unique way. Her genre of photography is still life. Her work celebrates books, which is particularly important now as many have turned away from books and use online technology. Her simplistic style entices the viewer as it is perfect and pleasing to the eye. Here are some examples that I like:

This is a photo of her setup when photographing her images:

She is using a tripod. This stops her images from blurring and allows her to adjust the camera angle until it is perfect. She is using natural lighting from the window, it is not harsh and goes great with this image. She is also using a plain white background.

This is an exhibition by Mary Ellen Bartley. Personally, I really like it. The colours and perfectly framed pictures is very pleasing and calming. This also shows the variety and beauty of books, some old, some new.

Photoshoot inspired by Mary Ellen Bartley

Edits

I have edited 3 images on photo shop and have merged them together.

This is photoshoot. I did it in the studio with artificial lighting. I attempted to get certain aspects of the photo in focus and others not. This took a while as I had to do it with manual focus.

Edits

Photos have formal and visual aspects. For example, lines, shapes, colour, repetition and colour. In addition, photos have their own form of grammar. For example, frame, time, focus and flatness.

How different elements of formalism work

Light– The brightest/darkest area of the photo, shadows, natural or artificial, harsh or soft, time of day.

Time of day appears to be golden hour. Natural soft light. Brightest area at the top of the image.

Line– Objects in photo that act as lines, straight, wobbly, thin, thick, direction, can outline the image (frame within a frame).

Straight thick lines creating direction to the background. The vertical lines on the edge of the photo create a frame within a frame effect.

Repetition– Repeated objects, shapes, lines, reflections.

Repetition of triangular shapes separating all the colours of thread from all being mixed together. Repetition of the same object.

Shapes– Rectangles, circles, more.

Repetition of rectangular shape, in the middle window and the wood. Either side of the rectangular window there are 2 diamond shaped window which creates contrast.

Space– The depth, empty or solid space, foreground, middle.

This photo has a lot of space in all areas. The person on the boat which breaks the space almost seems insignificant and is surrounded by the almost empty space.

Texture– texture of materials in photo, eg bricks, glass, sand

The texture of the image has deep layers. The rocks create a sharp texture and you immediately think of how it would feel to touch or stand on.

Tone– feeling, mood atmosphere of photo.

The tone in this image is sad and dark. The monochrome colours further accentuates the sadness of the image. Also the models stance reflects that he is sad.

Colour– Balanced, saturated, muted, primary and secondary, dominant colours, monochrome.

The selective colour of this image is saturated and primary. However, the background is muted and monochrome. It is unbalanced colour.

Composition– Arrangement, layering, balance, rule of thirds

The dog is mostly in the right third. The dog is arranged at the top of the cliff to show he is important. The background is shown in the other two thirds

Aperture is how wide the camera lens is. A very large aperture, means the photo is very bright, almost nothing is in focus and there is a very small depth of field. This is usually an F-stop of 1.4. A large aperture, means the photo is bright, little in focus and there is a very small depth of field. This is usually an F-stop of 2.8. A medium aperture, means the photos has medium light, some in focus and there is a medium depth of field. This is usually and F-stop of 5.6. A small aperture, means the photo is dark, much of the photo is in focus and there is a large depth of field. This is usually an F-stop of 11. A very small aperture, means the photo is very dark, there is almost everything in focus, and there is a very large depth of field. This is usually an F-stop of 22.

My photoshoot using different apertures

In the studio, I used the different apertures setting. This allowed different parts of the image to be in focus. I arranged some of the beach objects in different formations to give us different effects.

My edits of my aperture experiment photos

Adobe Lightroom Classic is what I will be using to edit my photos now and in the future. Here is what I learnt about how to use it: